DATA ANALYTICS FOR PROBLEM

SOLVING IN ORGANIZATIONS
Unit Guide

Trimester 2 2024/2025
 DATA ANALYTICS
TRIMESTER 2 2024-2025

About Data Analytics

UNIT OVERVIEW

CONTACTS
Ph.D. Tung Nguyen

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 0939352005

Unit Instructor

ISB BBUS Program

17 Pham Ngoc Thach Street, District 3, HCM City
Student Advisor Phone: (028) 3920 9999 Email:
Ext: 305 (Ms. An) [email protected]

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Data Analytics is a critical driver for informed decision-making within the dynamic landscape
of modern business. In an era marked by uncertainties and risks, organizations face the
imperative to make strategic decisions that ensure not only survival but sustained success in
the market. As the primary goal of any business is to enhance profitability and secure long-
term viability, Data Analytics becomes a vital aspect of business development.

This unit takes a comprehensive approach to developing both technical skills for data
analytics and fundamental aspects of methodology essential for efficiently transforming real-
world datasets into actionable insights for business. Students will solidify their foundation by
engaging with various types of data, exploring diverse data analysis techniques, and
mastering data visualization to extract market insights. This course empowers students to
recommend data-driven solutions that foster business growth.

In addition, this course adopts a management-oriented approach to the presented material.

It is designed to capture the interest of students in general management who are keen on
understanding the role of data analytics in business decision-making. Through hands-on
experience with widely utilized case studies, students will gain practical insights into the
application of Data Analytics in real-world scenarios.

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Assessment Information

UNIT LEARNING OUTCOMES

The table below outlines the unit learning outcomes (ULOs) for this unit. Upon completion
of this unit, students will be able to:

Have solid understanding of the fundamental concepts of data analytics, including the
1.
needs and applications in business.
Apply data collection, cleaning, and visualization techniques to transform raw data into
2.
meaningful insights.
Able to extract insights and give recommendations and solutions with data for
3.
business improvement
Design and create reports and dashboards, utilising reporting types and adhering to
4.
principles of good report design.
5. Craft compelling narratives using data storytelling techniques

PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES

In line with its focus on ensuring students’ skills in unit learning outcomes above, this unit is
also responsible for introducing/developing/assuring the following program-level learning
outcomes (PLOs):

Analytical thinking
1. Solid understanding and competency of applying data analytical approaches in dealing
with data in businesses
Data mindset
2.
A data mindset embraces analytics and values evidence-based decisions
Communication and Teamwork
3. Effective communication encompasses professional written and oral skills adaptable to
collaborative contexts
Critical thinking
4.
Critical thinking through appropriate observing, analysing and reasoning
Problem solving
5.
Effective and constructive problem solving.
Ethics
6. An ethical perspective, including an understanding of the ethical responsibilities of
organizations.

7. Cultural Diversity

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A global mindset, including an understanding of the different business settings, the
ability to identify foreign market potentials, to diagnose cross-cultural communication
problems and propose appropriate solutions.

ASSESSMENT SUMMARY
No. Assessment task Weight (%) Type of Task Due date
1 Participation 20% Individual
1 Midterm Exam 30% Individual Session 8
2 Final Exam 50% Group Session 15
TOTAL 100%

Final marks and grades are subject to confirmation by the School Assessment Committees
which may scale, modify or otherwise amend the marks and grades for the unit, as may be
required by University policies.

 Note: To successfully complete this unit, students must:

• Attendance must be at 80% of classes and tutorials.
• Students must attain at least 50% in total of ALL ASSESSMENTS.
• Students must pass at least 50% of final exam.

Assessment 1: Midterm (Individual) (50%)

1. In-class participation (20%)

Class attendance and participation includes coming to class prepared and on time, taking
part in class discussions (this involves listening/reading as well as writing/speaking and
completing all in-class activities) and debates, asking questions, contributing your knowledge
and insights in whatever form is appropriate, and striving to make all your contributions
excellent. It also includes doing the required reading and writing for each class.
The latter will be assessed by asking students, at the beginning of each class, a summary of
the assigned reading for the day.
2. Mid-term Exam (30%)
90 minutes comprehensive and closed book.
The midterm exam will cover all materials taught during the course and include multiple-
choice questions and case-study based questions.
The students are to demonstrate their comprehensive understanding of the subject and
ability to provide practical solutions within the time limit.

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Note:
The midterm exam duration is 90 minutes. Overall, to pass this course, students must gain
an overall mark of 50%.

Assessment 2: Data Analysis Report (50%)

Team projects: Working in groups of 5-6.
The students will study a specific business case of Data Analysis. The group assignment is
about understanding, working with data, visualizing, building data dashboard for analysing
and proposing recommendations for tackling a business problem addressed in given dataset.
Each group will work on a specific real problem proposed and draw recommendations and
solutions from a chosen business case.
Submission Requirements:
• Presentation slides
• Data dashboard (in Excel, Looker Studio, or PowerBI)
• Report with word limit: 4,000 words +/- 10%

Teaching Activities
LEARNING RESOURCES
Textbook A Beginner’s Guide to Data & Analytics (Harvard Business School)

Reference Problem solving in organizations. Van Aken, J. E., & Berends, H. (2018).
books Cambridge university press.
Modern Analytics in Excel. George Mount (2023). O’Reilly.
Storytelling with data: A data visualization guide for business professionals.
Knaflic, C. N. (2015). John Wiley & Sons.

ONLINE LEARNING RESOURCES

E-library http://search.proquest.com/login

E-learning http://elearning.isb.edu.vn/

SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES

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Session Lecture Preparation Activity

1. The needs of data analytics in business

Lecture files,
reference
2. Business applications of data analytics across
Introduction to books, data
industries
1 Data Analytics terminologies
for Business for students to
3. Career portraits of a Business Analyst (BA)
prepare and
read at home
4. Tool introduction for different roles

1. Understanding different types of data

2. Importance of data quality and integrity

Students
Foundations of
download 3. Core concepts:
2 Data and
Excel, dataset a. Basics of data collection and storage
Information
to practice b. Data collection, cleaning, manipulation,
analysis, and visualization

4. Data visualization introduction

1. Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) techniques

Data a. Visualization tools and their roles in
Exploration and understanding data
3 b. Introduction to data discovery and
Descriptive
transformation
Analytics
2. Case study: Demo by lecturer

1. EDA techniques (cont.)

a. Calculation practice: Understanding some
important calculation
Data b. Using Excel Solver to do Descriptive
Exploration and Analysis
4
Descriptive c. Using Pivot tables
Analytics (cont.)
2. Case study: Practice for students. Students
are given a cleaned (tidy) dataset to work on
it
1. Case study: using the same dataset in the
prior lesson
a. Identifying and defining business
problems
b. Highlighting common challenges in
Introduction to
business management
5 Business
Problems
2. Connecting business problems to data
analytics solutions

3. Application and Practice

1. Secondary data collection: Data scraping

techniques
6 Data Collection
2. Primary data collection
3. How to guide data team to collect data in
business

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Session Lecture Preparation Activity

Data 1. Data cleaning and transformation for analysis

Preprocessing
7
and 2. Creating effective data visualizations for
Transformation insights

1. Project work
a. Collecting data. Choose options:
i. Scraping data from website
Midterm ii. Collecting data from secondary
Exam
sources
8 Assessment Preparation
iii. Conducting survey
and Review for students
b. Doing EDA

2. Mid-term Exam: Doing exam in class as

individuals

1. Introduction to segmentation methods

Segmentation 2. Segmentation strategies for targeted business

Techniques for solutions
9
Business
Improvement 3. Applications in businesses
a. Product segmentation
b. Customer segmentation

1. Introduction to predictive modelling

Students
Predictive download 2. Case study introduction
10
Analytics PowerBI /
Tableau 3. Tools and methods used for advanced
analysis (e.g. forecasting)
1. Reporting: Creating dashboard in Excel,
Data Reporting
Power BI, or Tableau (choosing one among
11 and
these three tools)
Dashboards
1. Case study:
a. Students practice building dashboards in
one of the tools
b. Discussion and review
Data Reporting Preparation
2. Final report requirements
12 and Dashboards for Final
a. Doing EDA with dataset given by lecturer
(cont.) Project
b. Reporting and dashboards (can be slides
including charts, dashboard in Excel,
Power BI, or Tableau)
c. Written report

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Session Lecture Preparation Activity
1. Effective communication of data analysis
Presenting results to stakeholders
Data-Driven
2. Storytelling with data: crafting compelling
13 Insights and
narratives
Recommendatio
ns 3. Building data-driven presentations and
reports

Presenting
1. Good examples of insightful dashboard from
Data-Driven consulting firms
Insights and
14
Recommendatio 2. Self-study (group work)
ns (cont.) / Final
Project 3. Discussion and review
Presentation

1. Presentation of findings and insights

Final Project
15
Presentation 2. Review of key concepts and skills learned
throughout the course

General Information & Policy

Referencing
Plagiarism
Student assignments are to contain original content created by the students. Assignments
will be rejected if they include plagiarised content or contain excessive amounts of
quoted/cited material and minimal original content. Students will receive a grade of ZERO
(0%) for any assignments rejected for this reason. Written assignments WILL BE checked
by the lecturer with Turnitin.com, an online plagiarism-checking tool.
Sources
Furthermore, your reference to support your statements must be from a reliable source, such
as textbooks, additional reading materials, and reference books. However, many websites
are not reliable sources. Examples are Wikipedia.org, about.com, and ask.com. If you are
not sure if a reference is acceptable or not, please contact the lecturer.
Referencing & Citation
The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) 6th ed., will
serve as the primary reference materials for all students. Therefore, all papers must be
submitted in APA format. The mechanics of student papers and work will be evaluated, as
well as the content.

Submission

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Assignment cover sheet
▪ All assignments are required to be submitted with an Assignment Cover Sheet.
▪ Group assignments are to be submitted with a Group Assignment Cover Sheet as well
as a Peer Evaluation Form depending on the request of unit instructor.
Non-contributing team members can sometimes be an issue with group-work structured
assessment. Individual student group work scores may be adjusted as a result of peer
dissatisfaction with a particular student’s contribution to group work assignments, as reflected
in submissions of the evaluation form.
Note:
▪ Assignment cover sheets and the evaluation form can be located on MyISB system
▪ Students are advised to keep a copy of all assignments submitted for marking.

Submission style
Assignments are expected to achieve a professional standard:
▪ Be typed, one and a half spaced, on A4 paper
▪ Use a simple clear format, suitable for a report to senior management in a commercial
organization.

Submission method
Soft copy: submitted electronically via E-learning system by 11:55 PM on the due date
(Suggested title: Student name_Unitname_Name of Assignment).

Hard copy: submitted to ISB Submission Box at the Reception Area (17 Pham Ngoc Thach)
by the due date.

Late assignment and make-up policy

No late assignments will be accepted unless prior authorization granted by the Academic
Department based on a Special Consideration Application for assessment task extension.
Students must complete all assessments on the assigned dates including quizzes, mid-term
test, and final exam. If there are extenuating or unforeseen circumstances, students must
follow the school’s policies and procedures accordingly.

Attendance
Students are required to attend a minimum of 80% of all classes (which normally 12/15
sessions).
Other cases equating to an absence:
▪ Arriving to class late by 15 minutes at the beginning,
▪ Arriving late by 5 minutes after the break
▪ Leaving prior to the scheduled end time without the permission of the lecturer

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If you are unable to attend any session, please let your lecturer know AND submit a request
for absence form to program administrator prior to the session.

 IMPORTANT: Students will not be allowed to sit in the final examination if violating the
above absence rule.

Electronic device use

▪ Cell phones will be turned off or switched to vibrate mode before class starts.
▪ No phone calls or text messaging are allowed inside classroom during class time.
▪ Portable listening and/or music devices may not be operated in the classroom.
▪ Headphones and/or ear buds of any type may not be worn while in the classroom
whether operating or not.
▪ Laptop and other electronic devices are not permitted unless specifically
authorized by the lecturer exclusively for note taking and doing class work.

 IMPORTANT: If you are in violation of these policies, you will be excused from class and
an absence will be assessed.

Email etiquette
Your lecturers receive many emails each day. In order to enable them to respond to your
emails appropriately and in a timely fashion, students are asked to follow basic requirements
of professional communication.
Your emails should:
▪ Have a concise and descriptive title, including the class and name of the unit you are
enquiring about
▪ Be clear about the intention of their emails
▪ Use appropriate tone and language, proof-read what is written in the email before
sending it.

Students should also allow 3-4 working days for a response before following up. If the matter
is legitimately urgent, you may indicate “URGENT” in the email subject header.
Make an appointment: If your email request is complex and requires a lengthy response it
may be probably best to make an appointment with your lecturer/instructor to meet in person.

Student behavior guidelines

Everyone must behave professionally. Students are expected to demonstrate respect for
teacher and fellow students at all times. Behavior that is disruptive to a positive learning
environment reported to the teacher will result in a warning on the first instance; the second
instance might result in a failing grade along with expulsion from the school.
Unacceptable behaviors can be:
▪ Cheating on an exam

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▪ Collaborating with others on work to be presented, if contrary to the stated rules of
the course
▪ Submitting, if contrary to the rules of the course, work previously submitted in another
course
▪ Knowingly and intentionally assisting another student in any of the above actions,
including assistance in an arrangement whereby work, classroom performance,
examination, or other activity is submitted or performed by a person other than the
student under whose name the work is submitted or performed
▪ Plagiarizing

 IMPORTANT:
▪ First violation will result in a grade ZERO (0%) for that assignment.
▪ Second violation will result in a failing course grade.

Disability support services

Students with disabilities are advised that accommodations and services are available at
UEH-ISB. It is the student's responsibility to contact UEH-ISB office and submit appropriate
documentation prior to receiving such services.

Additional information
This unit guide may be revised at the discretion of the Academic Department with approval
from Program Academic Director and School Academic Committee where appropriate.

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