CS131 (12734)

When: Tuesdays, Thursdays from 9:30AM to 10:45AM

Where: Sennott Square, Room 5505
210 South Bouquet Street
Pittsburgh, PA

My office hours are on my contact page.

Please feel free to ask me for help if you feel lost. I really wouldn't want you to fall behind and I'm more than willing to put in the extra time to help you catch up. If you feel like the class is moving too fast, let me know. I'll take that into consideration and adjust the class accordingly.

I'll fill the schedule up as the semester progresses.

• Week 1 (Jan 6): Microsoft Word Shortcuts
  • Introduction, computer terminology/basics
  • Windows shortcuts, Explorer, moving around Windows
• Week 2 (Jan 13):
  • Document views, side by side view, splitting view, non-breaking spacing, symbols, lists
  • In class lab
• Week 3 (Jan 20):
  • Images (types, formats [including pros and cons of each], inserting into your document, manipulating them in your document), typesetting units
    • JPEG Compression Example
    • Raster Versus Vector Example
  • Styles
• Week 4 (Jan 27):
  • Citations
  • Page Borders
  • Tabs
  • Columns
  • Homework 1 released (due Feb 3)
• Week 5 (Feb 3): Microsoft Excel Shortcuts
  • Feb 3: Homework 1 due
  • Feb 5: In class lab
• Week 6 (Feb 10):
  • Feb 10: IF statements, plus other assorted general functions (average, sum, count, min, max, standard deviation, square root, logarithms)
  • Feb 12: In class lab
• Week 7 (Feb 17):
  • Feb 17: Cell formatting (autofit height/width, rotating columns, borders, styles, adding a header/footer), print layout + margins, VLOOKUP, "advanced" copy and paste, conditional formatting
  • Feb 19: Graphs & charts (plus FREQUENCY function)! Also, HW2 released.
• Week 8 (Feb 24):
  • Feb 24: Lab 4
  • Feb 26: Homework #2 due
• Week 9 (Mar 3):
  • Mar 3: Test (covers Word and Excel)
  • Mar 5: No class today! Enjoy spring break!
• Week 10 (Mar 10):
  • Spring Break!
• Week 11 (Mar 17): Microsoft PowerPoint Shortcuts
  • Mar 17: PowerPoint introduction - making slides, changing slide layout, customizing slide look, basic animations
  • Mar 19: Lab 5
  • Supplemental material: Stand Up Comedy: How NOT to use PowerPoint - basically G-rated
• Week 12 (Mar 24):
  • Mar 24: Smart Art + charts + advanced animation
  • Mar 26: Lab 6
• Week 13 (Mar 31): Microsoft Access
  • Mar 31: Database terminology, tables (designing and entering data), the very basics of Access | Office hours today are canceled
  • Apr 2: Homework #3 due | Lab 7
• Week 14 (Apr 7):
  • Apr 7: Queries, Lookup Values
  • Apr 9: Lab 8
• Week 15 (Apr 14):
  • Apr 14: Forms/Reports
  • Apr 16: Lab 9
• Week 16 (Apr 21):
  • Apr 21: Optional¹⁾ Review Session Final Review Session @ normal class time | Homework #4 due
  • Apr 23: Final Exam (Access + PowerPoint) from 12:00PM - 1:50PM

From the CS Department Website:

This course provides an introduction to computer applications for students majoring in areas other than computer science. Objectives of this course include : (a) A non-technical study of the Windows NT operating systems. (b) Development of applications using software selected from the principal areas of applications for personal computing. These include word processing (Microsoft Word), spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel), and relational databases( Microsoft Access).

Course Syllabus (.pdf)

Because of how the course worked out (the amount of material, the rate at which we were able to progress, etc.) the grading will be done differently than found originally in the syllabus. The new grading will be:

The new grading scale puts a huge emphasis on the scores from the midterms and final and I realize that might worry some of you. Also, you'll note that labs are not included in the grading criteria. Labs are not required, as mentioned in class, but participating in labs amounts in some ways to bonus points at my discretion. In other words, consistently doing labs will push you from a a lower grade (e.g., C+) to a higher grade (e.g., B-). It is therefore in your best interest to always do labs, just in case.