Introduction to Spreadsheets and Databases (Online)

Welcome to COM S 1130

COMS 1130 online section: Spreadsheets and Databases Entirely Online Course (3-credit, no pre-requisite needed).

Students do not need to attend any face to face classes or labs during the semester. We will provide instructors’ synchronous virtual office hours and many synchronous TA help desks each week to discuss course materials and facilitate help sessions, etc. However, this is an entirely online course, so students are not required to attend any synchronous meetings.

The COMS 1130 online course uses the Office EXCEL and ACCESS software. We cover the same materials that the COMS 1130 face-to-face class does. The online format allows students to work on their own time and at their own pace to learn the subject contents anytime and anywhere.

The high-quality streaming lectures will be posted within Canvas each week for students to learn the course materials. In addition, we produced detailed sample step-by-step videos to show students how to do the real-world, hands-on projects for each week’s homework. Students can view these lectures and videos online 24 hours a day, 7 days per week in the comfort of their home. It can save students' time and increase their learning effectiveness.

The synchronous virtual office hours and help desks each week will be provided to answer any questions and solve any problems students may have. We care about our students' learning very much and strive to provide the best services to all students in the class. We respond to all student emails within 24 hours. We hope you enjoy this course and benefit from the modern pedagogy that advocates collaborative and just-in-time learning. We look forward to your active participation in the course.

In the past several years, students commented that they liked the online course, and the way they could work at their own pace. They enjoyed the class very much and learned a lot from it. The in-depth spreadsheets and databases knowledge and skills they learned from this class will help students in their future classes and jobs.

Dr. Shu-Hui (Susan) Chang
Associate Teaching Professor
Director of Distance Education
Computer Science
E-mail: shchang@iastate.edu

Last Updated: Fall 2024

Offered during Fall and Spring Semesters each year.

1. Credits: 3 credit hours
2. Instructor's or course coordinator's name: Shu-Hui (Susan) Chang
3. Textbook, title, author, and year: Available through Immediate Access
4. Other supplemental materials: Excel 2019, Access 2019

Course Information

1. Brief description of the content of the course: When students finish this course, they will have a thorough understanding of Microsoft spreadsheets and database software and in-depth hands-on experience with EXCEL and ACCESS projects. 3 As a student in this course, you will embark on a comprehensive study of Microsoft Office EXCEL and ACCESS hands-on skills. Credit in Com S 113 may not be applied toward graduation in the COM S, S E, and CPR E majors.
2. Prerequisites or co-requisites: None

Specific goals for the course

Specific outcomes of instruction:

• Students will understand the most up-to-date Microsoft EXCEL and ACCESS database technologies frequently available on personal and corporate computers after completing this course.
• Students will also be able to deploy their understanding to store and query data and to model and analyze business and industrial problems.

Brief list of topics to be covered

• Use and create basic spreadsheets;
• Format a spreadsheet to augment the appearance and emphasize results;
• Use mathematical, statistical, logical, and lookup functions to perform quantitative analysis in a spreadsheet;
• Build applicable charts to depict data visually;
• Properly manage large spreadsheets;
• Execute What-If Analysis to examine how data variation affects outcomes in a spreadsheet;
• Summarize and analyze data utilizing subtotals and pivot tables;
• Import and export spreadsheet data;
• Design database tables, including creating proper table relationships;
• Find, sort, and filter database records;
• Perform queries to extract and update data in a database;
• Build and use professional database forms and reports;
• Implement proper data validation in a database.