Summary

Task Description

This assignment requires you to create a professional business application using Microsoft Office 365 Excel 2019. The assignment is worth 40% of your grade in this course. This is an individual assignment – group work or any collaboration on the assignment is not permitted. This assignment consists of several tasks to be completed in Excel.

Please be aware of the University's Statute regarding academic integrity, plagiarism and the submission of your own work.

Please note you can resubmit your assignment as many times as you like prior to the deadline. We will only mark the latest version of the assignment submitted up until the due date.

Requirements

The purpose of this assignment is to test the student’s ability to operate, manage, and interpret business data in spreadsheets.

The assignment is worth 40 marks that equal to 40% of the overall grade achievable in this course.  A foundational Excel Spreadsheet is provided for students to modify and update to meet the                    ‘challenges’ presented in the Case Specification document that is separate to this Assessment

Guideline.

The assignment MUST be done individually.

The assignment may also include self-learning components that cover content/knowledge not present in the tutorials. It is expected that the student will undertake their own research to master this component.

The assignment requires no prior technical background. Moreover, it is designed for business students in general to appreciate basic IS applications. Prior familiarity with the software tool (Excel) could be beneficial, but will not guarantee a significant advantage or higher marks.

Through tutorials, students are exposed to practical exercises like those in the assignment, develop   the skills to manage business data in Excel, and the skills to complete this assignment. It is essential

that students carry out the required readings and preparation for each tutorial before attending/attempting each tutorial and subsequently this assignment.

Students are to modify and further develop an Excel template that is provided with the Case Specification (provided by Week 4 of the semester).  Students are to format, complete, and further develop the spreadsheet according to these assessment guidelines and the Case Specification.

This is a difficult assignment worth 40% of your course grade, and you should start working on the assignment early in the semester.

Guidelines

Expectations

This assignment requires you to complete an Excel workbook file using Microsoft Office 365 Excel 2019 based on the specification provided in Blackboard. This document is a companion to a template Excel workbook that contains several sheets you are to develop as part of this assessment. The case has four main requirements for you to develop:

•    Complete the development of the template spreadsheet with basic and advanced formulas, functions, and formatting to a professional standard.

•     Undertake a relatively simple ‘What If’ Scenario Analysis of a business proposal.

•     Undertake a relatively complex solver analysis to optimise a key performance indicator.

•     Interpret these results to provide a business recommendation (with a rationale) and to assess

the developed model for its weaknesses and implications, and reflect on the skills learned. More details on the specific requirements of the case are contained in the Case Specification. The Excel template of the expected worksheets will be made available on the BISM7202 Blackboard  site with the Case Specification. The Excel template provided MUST be used as the basis for the        assignment. You may change the visual formatting (typographical errors, colour, fonts, data format presentation, column widths, etc) of the Excel template to provide a professional finished product, but make no other changes unless explicitly required in the Case Specification.  For example, do    not change the structure of the template spreadsheet (except when you are asked to do so.

Implementation Guidance

You must use Microsoft Office 365 Excel 2019 for this assignment. Any of the previous Microsoft   Excel versions (e.g. Microsoft Excel 2016) might cause some unnecessary problems.  The spreadsheet can be developed using the latest OSX version of Microsoft Office, but Windows 10 is the preferred platform and tutorials will be undertaken using Windows 10.

Please note that earlier versions of Windows are now out of mainstream support with Microsoft (XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1).

As a UQ student, you can download and install Microsoft Office 365 (which includes MS Excel) on  your personal devices free of charge. Please seehttps://my.uq.edu.au/information-and-services/information-technology/software-and-web-apps/software-uq/microsoft-software/office-365- personal-use

Please develop your solution based on the provided files. In general, you are not allowed to insert any other columns or tables.

It is highly recommended that, prior to assignment submission, you check that your solution works on the university’s computers in the Labs (although note their limited availability) if you have developed it on your own machine – particularly if you have used a non-standard version of Excel (e.g. the MacOS version or a non-Office 365 version of Excel).

When you develop your solution, you should aim to use the functions and features you were taught in the tutorials as appropriate. However, if you need functions or techniques that are not addressed explicitly in tutorial exercises, you should explore your pre-tutorial reading materials and preparation  exercises or refer to the help component of Excel or other online resources. Aspects of the assignment have purposefully been designed to train and test a student’s self-learning ability with a   software application, and thus these have not been included directly in a tutorial exercise.

Formatting and professionalism

Under the case scenario, it is expected that your Excel workbook will be used by other people who will maintain it in the future.  This of course means that English must be used throughout the spreadsheet.  Keep in mind, however, that your work will be judged primarily on the quality of your solution rather than upon its appearance.

Therefore, you would be well advised to make your work of the highest quality (e.g. apply screen freezing to long pages, use name references where appropriate, use lookup functions instead of  nested ifs where a data table exists, do not hardcode changeable data, use appropriate fonts and colours, graph axes and titles, etc).

In particular, you should use meaningful Named Ranges whenever referring to a Cell on a separate worksheet.

Submission

To be done through Blackboard Assignment Submission (NOT TurnItIn) in the Assessments area of

Blackboard.

Your Excel Workbook file MUST be named in the format of BISM7202_StudentLastName_StudentID.xlsx. If your ID is 41724943 and your surname is Zhang, the name of your files would be BISM7202_Zhang_41724943.xlsx.

Plagiarism

It is understandable that students talk with each other regularly, and discuss problems and potential solutions. However, it is expected that the submitted assignment is a unique document – all parts of the assignment are to be completed solely by the individual student.

The best practice to avoid misconduct is to not look at another student’s file and not show your solution to another student.

In cases where an assignment is perceived to not be a unique work, a loss of marks and other implications can result. For further information about academic integrity, plagiarism and consequences, please visithttp://ppl.app.uq.edu.au/content/3.60.04-student-integrity-and-misconduct.

Administrative Requirements

Consultation Sessions

To ensure that an equal and sufficient amount of time is allocated for every student who attends        consultation sessions regarding the practical aspects of BISM7202, the average consultation time     (during busy consultation times) will be limited to 5 minutes per student. The main aim of this restriction during busy periods is to ensure equality for students and minimise waiting time. However, in circumstances where no other students are waiting, longer consultation times will be provided.       Tutors have advised you of their consultation times during tutorials – these details are also available on the BISM7202 Blackboard site under “Contacts” .

Please note that course staff are not allowed to look at your assignment files to provide feedback or answer questions.

Questions regarding your assignment can be answered if they are related to the understanding of the concepts and/or techniques of Excel.

For convenience, you may email the tutors with questions. Tutor email addresses have been advised in tutorials and are available on the BISM7202 Blackboard site under “Contacts” . Tutors will endeavour to respond to all questions within 2 business days.

Submission Date

2:00 pm 19th  May 2023

For each calendar day (i.e. including Saturdays and Sundays) or part thereof after the submission deadline, a penalty of 10% of the total possible assignment marks will be deducted until the   assignment is submitted.

Deadline extensions

Students must fill in an Application for Extension of Assessment Due Date and provide supporting documentation to Assessment, Examinations & Misconducts Coordinator

https://my.uq.edu.au/information-and-services/manage-my-program/exams-and-

assessment/applying-extensionat least 24 hours prior to the submission date.

Your application must be submitted at the location and by the due date specified in Section 5.3 of the relevant Electronic Course Profile (ECP).

• Supporting documentation such as a medical certificate, funeral notice etc. must be             provided. Scanned or photographed copies should be attached to your email. However, with COVID-19 temporary changes to assessment extension procedures, a request for an extension based on medical grounds can use a statement of circumstances signed by the student as its supporting documentation.

•     For an application on medical grounds, the medical practitioner must not be a near relative or close associate. Examples of near relatives are partner, child, brother, sister, parent.              Examples of close associates are close friends, neighbours and partners or children of           colleagues.

•     Extension criteria are applied consistently for equity reasons.

•    You may discuss your situation with your course coordinator, but you still need to make a formal extension request using this form.

•    Applications on medical grounds will be approved for the number of calendar days the          medical certificate indicates you were unfit for study. You are expected to act in a timely       manner and must make an appointment as soon as your condition impacts on your ability to study.

•     If you have a continuing condition you should contact Student Services to arrange a Student Access Plan (Disability) [SAPD]. You must still submit the application form

Non-permissible circumstances: Extensions will not be granted where the School is not satisfied you took reasonable measures to avoid the circumstances that contributed to you not submitting by the due date. The following are not grounds for an extension:

•    holiday arrangements (including overseas travel);

•    misreading a due date;

•    social and leisure events;

•    moving house;

•    pressure of work/competing deadlines;

•    computer issues.

The due dates for assignments must be adhered to and you are reminded to keep a copy of your work, in case of lost assignments or disputes over grading.

You will incur penalties if your work is submitted late (i.e. after the due date and without an approved extension).

Items (for which no extension has been granted) submitted after the due date and time, incur a late    submission penalty. The penalty is at the rate of 10% of the total available marks for that particular     piece of assessment, for each calendar day or part thereof that the item is overdue. The penalty once calculated is deducted from the marks awarded for the assessment.

Assessment submitted more than 10 days after the due date will receive zero marks.

MARKING RUBRIC – COMPUTER-BASED ASSESSMENT – MS OFFICE ASSIGNMENT – OFFICE 365 EXCEL 2019

This assignment is worth 40 marks. The marking rubric below is designed to reflect a marking scheme of 100 non-divisible points that are then scaled back to 40 marks to the nearest decimal place. If you received 79 marks out of 100 marks on the below rubric, your final mark out of 30 is calculated as       follows:  79 / 100 x 40 = 31.6. Therefore, the final mark would be 31.6 out of 40.

Note that the rubric is intentionally scaled as ‘Good’ . The overall assessment is based on how well the student meets the challenges presented by the Case Scenario as a whole. That is, the submitted solution does not need to be ‘perfect’ to be assessed as ‘good’ . It is however a difficult assignment that should be started early in the semester.