CS10510

Module Identifier	CS10510
Module Title	COMPUTER PACKAGES FOR ANALYSING AND PRESENTING DATA
Academic Year	2000/2001
Co-ordinator	Dr Mark Ratcliffe
Semester	Semester 2
Pre-Requisite	C grade or better is GCSE Mathematics (or equivalent).
Co-Requisite	Successful completion of an approved course on simple computer use and local facilities.
Mutually Exclusive	Not available to students who have taken A-level Computing (or equivalent) or those registered for single/joint honours in the Computer Science Dept.
Course delivery	Lecture	22 lectures
	Practical	11 x 2 hours.
Assessment	Exam	1.5 Hours	50%
	Continuous assessment	To pass the module both components must be passed. There will be 3 practical assignments (one on each package). The best 2 of these 3 pieces of work will provide the coursework assessment. The resit assessment will, at the examining board's discretion, consist of an assignment to be carried out during the long vacation and/or a 1.5 hr exam.	50%
	Supplementary examination	Will take the same form, under the terms of the Department's policy.

Brief description
This module is designed primarily for students in the Faculty of Science, but is also suitable for students studying Accounting or Economics.

Throughout, the emphasis is on the use of the computer system as a tool to facilitate the presentation and analyses of data gained, perhaps, by experiment or field-work.

On successful completion of the module students will be able to use a spreadsheet, a simple statistical package, and a graphics package.

Aims
This module provides an introduction to three very different packages:

a microcomputer spreadsheet package
a statistics package
a mainframe graphics suite

The packages offer contrasting user interfaces.

The philosophy of the course will be to provide students with tools that they can use elsewhere in their studies.

Learning outcomes
On successful completion of this module, students should:

be familiar with the way a variety of packages and their online help systems work, which should enable them to come to terms with a different package more easily;
be aware of the capabilities of each of the packages taught.

With their own material, students should be able to:

set up (or modify) a spreadsheet to do totalling and other calculations; produce summaries and charts from the figures involved;
explore a data set and use simple methods to analyse and present the information it contains using the statistics package;
use the graphics package to produce and manipulate maps and graphs from data.

Syllabus
1. Co-requisite Course - 2 Practicals

2. Spreadsheet - 7 Lectures, 3 Practicals
Overview of spreadsheets; entering and formatting information; formulae and functions; copying cell contents; manipulating a (large) spreadsheet; why spreadsheets?

3. Statistics package - 7 Lectures, 3 Practicals
Overview of the package; some commands; use of the help facility; input of data files; data manipulation and correction; exploratory data analysis.

4.Graphics system - 7 Lectures, 3 Practicals
Introduction to the system; archiving and printing; data organisation and input; data operators graphs and groups; interpolation; types of map; viewpoint.

5. Debriefing - 1 Lecture
Some lecture time each week will be devoted to a debriefing on the previous practical.

Reading Lists
Books
Not appropriate.