syllabus

Course Syllabus

QRB 501Quantitative Reasoning for Business

Course Start Date: 05/08/12Course End Date: 06/18/12

Please print a copy of this syllabus for handy reference.

Whenever there is a question about what assignments are due, please remember this syllabus is considered the ruling document.

Copyright

Copyright ©2011, 2010, 2008 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved.

University of Phoenix© is a registered trademark of Apollo Group, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

Microsoft©, Windows©, and Windows NT© are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Use of these marks is not intended to imply endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation.

Edited in accordance with University of Phoenix© editorial standards and practices.

Course Description

This course applies quantitative reasoning skills to business problems. Students learn to analyze data using a variety of analytical tools and techniques. Other topics include formulas, visual representation of quantities, the time value of money, and measures of uncertainty.

Course Topics & Objectives

Week One: Working With Numbers and Formulas

Write mathematical expressions and equations for word problems. Apply the rules for order of operations, including exponents, in solving problems. Identify dependent and independent variables and their relationships.

Week Two: Business Applications I

Solve simultaneous equations algebraically. Use time series data to forecast. Convert data to indexes.

Week Three: Visual Representation of Quantities

Construct histograms and bivariate plots. Determine the value of a slope by using the slope-intercept formula. Conduct a linear regression analysis.

Week Four: Time Value of Money

Calculate the time value of money.

Week Five: Decision Making With Uncertainty

Construct a frequency distribution. Compare and contrast measures of central tendency (mean, median, and mode) and measures

of dispersion (range and standard deviation). Construct a normal distribution.

Week Six: Business Applications II

Apply quantitative reasoning to business problems.

Course Materials

Lial, M., Hestwood, D., Hornsby, J., and McGinnis, T. (2010). Quantitative reasoning for business (custome e-text). Boston, MA: Pearson/Addison-Wesley

Sevilla, A. and Somers, K. (2007). Quantitative reasoning: Tools for today’s informed citizen (1st ed.). Emeryville, CA: Key College Publishing

All electronic materials are available on your student Web site.

Point Values for Course Assignments

ASSIGNMENTS Points

Individual (70%)

Week 1: Participation & Discussion Questions 4

Week 1: Week One Practice Problems 2

Week 1: Week One Quiz 1


Week 2: Week Two Practice Problems 4

Week 2: Week Two Quiz 3


Week 3: Week Three Practice Problems 4

Week 3: Week Three Quiz 3

Week 3: Forecasting with indices 4


Week 4: Week Four Practice Problems 4

Week 4: Week Four Quiz 3


Week 5: Week Five Practice Problems 4

Week 5: Week Five Quiz 3

Week 6: Final Examination 15

Learning Team (30%)

Week 2: Inventory System Summary 4

Week 3: APA Style 1

Week 4: Week Summary 1

Week 5: Inventory Proposal 10

Week 6: Executive Management Presentation 14

Total 100

Week One

Working With Numbers and Formulas

Write mathematical expressions and equations for word problems. Apply the rules for order of operations, including exponents, in solving problems. Identify dependent and independent variables and their relationships.

Course Assignments

Readings

Read Ch. 1–3 of Quantitative Reasoning for Business.

Due Day 1 (Tuesday): Respond to the Check-In thread in the Main forum and the Welcome message in your Individual forum. This does not count towards your participation.

Due Day 2 (Wednesday): Post your Bio to the Chat Room forum. This does not count towards your participation.

Discussion Questions (4 points). Discussion question responses will count towards the class participation requirement. Only posts in the Main classroom forum will count towards your class participation score.

Due Day 6 (Sunday): Individual Assignment – Week 1 Practice Problems (2 points). Complete the Week One Practice Problems in MyMathLab®.

Due Day 6 (Sunday): Individual Assignment – Week 1 Quiz (1 point). Complete the Week One Quiz in MyMathLab®.

Due Day 6 (Sunday): Learning Team Charter. Post your final Learning Team Charter to your Learning Team Forum.

Weekly Reminders

Discussion Questions

Discussion question responses will count towards the class participation requirement.

Only posts in the Main classroom forum will count towards your class participation score.

Participation

All Week: Remember to participate in the class discussions 4 out of 7 days during the week.

Summary of Week 1 Deliverables

Assignment Individual or Learning Team

Location Due

Participation Individual Main On-going 4 days per week

Check-in Individual Main Tuesday

Bio Individual Chat Room Wednesday

LT Charter Learning Team Learning Team Sunday

Practice Problems Individual MyMathLab Sunday

Quiz Individual MyMathLab Sunday

Week Two

Business Applications I

Solve simultaneous equations algebraically. Use time series data to forecast. Convert data to indices.

Course Assignments

Readings Read Ch. 12 of Quantitative Reasoning for Business. Read Topics 5 & 8 of Quantitative Reasoning.


Due Day 6 (Sunday): Individual Assignment – Week 2 Practice Problems (4 points). Complete the Week Two Practice Problems in MyMathLab®.

Due Day 6 (Sunday): Individual Assignment – Week 2 Quiz (3 points). Complete the Week Two Quiz in MyMathLab®.

Due Day 7 (Monday): Learning Team Assignment (4 points). Inventory Systems Summary. The purpose of this assignment is to prepare for subsequent assignments in this course. Post your final answer in an Assignment Page of the team. Learning Team Evaluations are due Day 7 in your Individual forum. Please note that posts made to the Learning Team forum do not count toward participation.

Research one inventory system per team member used in an organization with which you are familiar.

Collect four years of inventory data from each organization.

Collaborate as a team to compare the inventory systems.

Write a summary which includes:

o 250- to 350-word description of each inventory system.o 350- to 700-word comparison describing the advantages and disadvantages of each

system.

Format your summary consistent with APA guidelines.

Weekly Reminders




Participation




Location Due

Participation Individual Main Ongoing – 4 days per week

Practice Problems

Individual MyMathLab Sunday


LT Evaluation Individual Individual Monday

LT Assignment Learning Team Assignment Page Monday

Week Three

Visual Representation of Quantities

Construct histograms and bivariate plots. Determine the value of a slope by using the slope-intercept formula. Conduct a linear regression analysis.

Course Assignments

Readings

Read Ch. 6 & 9 of Quantitative Reasoning for Business. Read Topics 2–3 & 5 of Quantitative Reasoning.


Due Day 6 (Sunday): Individual Assignment – Week 3 Practice Problems (4 points). Complete the Week Three Practice Problems in MyMathLab®.

Due Day 6 (Sunday): Individual Assignment – Week 3 Quiz (3 points). Complete the Week Three Quiz in MyMathLab®.

Due Day 7 (Monday): Individual Assignment. (4 points). Forecasting with Indices. Post your answers in your Assignment page.

Resources: Week Two assignment, and University of Phoenix Material: Summer Historical Inventory Data

Select University of Phoenix Material: Summer Historical Inventory Data to complete this assignment.

Convert the data into an index.

Use the time series data from your index to forecast inventory for next year.

Format your assignment consistent with APA guidelines.

Due Day 7 (Monday): Learning Team Assignment. (1 point). APA Style. Post your final answer in an Assignment Page of the team. Learning Team Evaluations are due Day 7 in your Individual forum. Please note that posts made to the Learning Team forum do not count toward participation.

Resources: Go to http://www.apastyle.org . Click the Learning APA Style tab. Click The Basics of APA Style. Click View the tutorial.

OR

Go to the Center for Writing Excellence and reference the MS Word Formatting Tutorial or use Riverpoint Writer. Click on the Library tab. Select Center for Writing Excellence.

http://www.apastyle.org/

Click on Tutorials & Guides on the left side of the page. For Riverpoint Writer, scroll down to APA Information. For the MS Word Formatting Tutorial, scroll down to Software Tutorials and Guides.

Cut and Paste the following sentences in MS Word. Fill up the space in each of the following sentences:

1. The title page includes a page number in the -----------. The header on each page should include a shortened form of the title on the -------------- side and the page number on the ----------- side.

2. To properly cite a quotation, you must provide the ------------.3. The preferred font is ------------ point Times New Roman, Arial, or Courier.4. The margins should be --------- inch on all sides.5. All text within the paper is ------------spaced

Weekly Reminders




Participation




Location Due




Individual Assignment Individual Assignment Monday

LT Evaluation Individual Individual Monday

Learning Team Assignment

Learning TeamAssignment Page

Monday

Week Four

Time Value of Money

Calculate the time value of money.

Course Assignments

Readings

Read Topic 9 of Quantitative Reasoning. Review the Time Value of Money multimedia on your student website.


Due Day 6 (Sunday): Individual Assignment – Week 4 Practice Problems (4 points). Complete the Week Four Practice Problems in MyMathLab®.

Due Day 6 (Sunday): Individual Assignment – Week 4 Quiz (3 points). Complete the Week Four Quiz in MyMathLab®.

Due Day 7 (Monday): Learning Team Assignment (1 point). Summary. Post your final answer in an Assignment Page of the team. Learning Team Evaluations are due Day 7 in your Individual forum. Please note that posts made to the Learning Team forum do not count toward participation.

Discuss at least 3 lessons that you learned this wee. You should address the topics in the reading, assignments, and class discussions that were especially meaningful to your.

Explain why these lessons are important to you. You should discuss how you would apply these lessons to your learning process or your workplace.

List one area of difficulty. How did you overcome it.

Summary should be at least 300 words in length.

Weekly Reminders




Participation




Location Due




LT Evaluation Individual Individual Forum Monday


Learning Team Assignment Page Monday

Week Five

Decision Making With Uncertainty

Construct a frequency distribution. Compare and contrast measures of central tendency (mean, median, and mode) and measures

of dispersion (range and standard deviation). Construct a normal distribution.

Course Assignments

Readings

Read Topics 11, 16, 17, & 21 of Quantitative Reasoning. Review Topic 2 of Quantitative Reasoning.


Due Day 6 (Sunday): Individual Assignment – Week 5 Practice Problems (4 points). Complete the Week Five Practice Problems in MyMathLab®.

Due Day 6 (Sunday): Individual Assignment – Week 5 Quiz (3 points). Complete the Week Five Quiz in MyMathLab®.

Due Day 7 (Monday): Learning Team Assignment (10 points). Inventory Proposal. Post your final answer in an Assignment Page of the team. Learning Team Evaluations are due Day 7 in your Individual forum. Please note that posts made to the Learning Team forum do not count toward participation.

Resources: Week Two Assignment, and University of Phoenix Material: Summer Historical Inventory Data

Select an inventory management problem that applies to your work or personal life.

Prepare a project proposal in which you:

o Describe the organization, the inventory problem it faces, and the expected benefits that are motivating the organization to implement a solution.

o Convert time series data from the University of Phoenix Material: Summer Historical Inventory Data to seasonal indices.

o Use seasonal indices to analyze the inventory data.

1. Use the slope-intercept formula to determine the annual increase in inventory. Provide monthly seasonal indices for the given data. Identify the busy months of year.2. Identify the slow months of year.

o Construct a histogram of the inventory data using Microsoft® Excel®.

o Forecast the future inventory costs using time value of money concepts.

Format your proposal consistent with APA guidelines.

Weekly Reminders




Participation




Location Due




Learning Team Evaluation

Individual Individual Monday


Learning TeamAssignment Page

Monday

Week Six

Business Applications II

Apply quantitative reasoning to business problems.

Course Assignments

Readings Review Topics 11 & 21 of Quantitative Reasoning.

Due Day 7 (Monday): Individual Assignment – Final Examination (15 points).

Resources: MyMathLab® and Quantitative Reasoning for Business Click the link to the Final Examination on your student website available from the end of

Week Five through the end of Week Six. Complete the Final Examination. You are allowed one attempt to complete the exam, which

is timed and must be completed in 3 hours. Results are auto graded and sent to your instructor.

Note. Final Examination questions are adapted from MyMathLab® and Prealgebra & Introductory Algebra.

Due Day 7 (Monday): Learning Team Assignment (14 points). Executive Management Presentation. Post your final answer in an Assignment Page of the team. Learning Team Evaluations are due Day 7 in your Individual forum. Please note that posts made to the Learning Team forum do not count toward participation.

Resources: z-table, Week Five Learning Team assignment, and University of Phoenix Material: Summer Historical Inventory Data

Calculate the mode, median, and mean in Microsoft® Excel® using the data from your Week Five assignment.

Compute the standard deviation in Microsoft® Excel® using the data from your Week Five assignment.

Prepare a 10- to 12-slide presentation for the Executive Management Team of your company in which you:

o Include a description of the current inventory system.o Include the raw data used.o Generate a frequency distribution of the data using Microsoft® Excel®.o Generate a normal distribution of the data using Microsoft® Excel®.o Compare the mode, median, and mean of the data. o Compare the range with the standard deviation of the data.

Include speaker notes in which you explain:

o How the frequency distribution might be used to better understand and improve the inventory system

o How the normal distribution might be used to better understand and improve the inventory system

o Which measure of central tendency most accurately depicts the inventory datao Which measure of dispersion most accurately depicts the inventory data

Format your presentation consistent with APA guidelines.

Weekly Reminders

Final Week Requirements

Discussion question responses and participation will not be required during the final week of the course. The final week will be dedicated to completing the final assignments listed below.


Participation




Location Due

Final Exam Individual MyMathLab Monday

Learning Team Evaluation Individual Individual Monday


Learning Team Assignment Page Monday

syllabus

Documents

linear regression analysis

main classroom forum

learning team evaluations

yourclass participation score

learning team forum

discussion question responses

class participation score

class participation requirement