14 Jan Prepare an outline of

BIAM500 Applications of Business Analytics I

Week Course Project

Course Project

Objectives

Research an emerging trend in data analytics and business intelligence, and create a fully annotated, multimedia piece (for example, video, poster, PowerPoint, narrated PowerPoint) suitable for briefing senior management of a company on your findings and recommendations.

Some examples of emerging trends are discussed in Chapter 14 of the course textbook, including location-based analytics, recommendation engines, data-as-a-service, and analytics-as-a-service. You can also find topics through your own research online and in the DeVry University Library. Published reports by research and consulting firms, such as Gartner and Accenture, are good sources of ideas, as well as articles on trends in major publications that cover business and IT, such as Forbes, InformationWeek, and CIO.

Your presentation should address the following points regarding your chosen topic.

Describe the emerging trend in a way that would be understandable to a nontechnical business manager.

Provide at least two examples of how the trend is being applied in organizations currently.

Predict how the trend is likely to develop over the next 5 years.

Analyze how the trend may impact business organizations in the coming years, including both positive and negative impacts.

Recommend what you think an interested business organization should do with regard to this trend.

Guidelines

Your presentation must be 10-15 minutes in length and should consist of approximately 7-12 PowerPoint slides including a title slide at the beginning and a references slide at the end.

Slides should be clear, professionally formatted, and easily readable. Avoid using large blocks of text on slides; short bullet points are preferred (3-7 bullet points per slide, 3-7 words per bullet point). Use of images and other graphics is encouraged, but be sure to use only images that are appropriately licensed for use, and cite the source for all images.

References are very important. At least five authoritative references are required. Anonymous authors are not acceptable. Web sources, if used, must be authored by recognized experts in the field. At least three references must be peer-reviewed, scholarly papers from the DeVry University Library. All should be listed on the last slide, titled references. APA reference style should be used, except that hanging indent format (difficult to do on a slide) is not required.

Appropriate citations are required. Use an APA-style in-text citation (Author, Year) on the slide where you use information from a source, and be sure a corresponding complete reference entry appears on your references slide.

You must provide audio narration in your own voice accompanying your slides, as if you were delivering the presentation to an audience of senior management at your organization. Vocal delivery should be clear, easy to listen to and understand, professionally worded, and free from mispronunciations and overlong pauses or verbal fillers such as “um,” “ah,” and the like. You may speak from notes if you can do so fluently, or you may wish to write out your narration in full. However, if you write it out, avoid reading in a monotone; vary your rate and tone to keep the audience engaged.

All DeVry University policies are in effect, including the Academic Integrity policy. All text on slides, and all narration, should be primarily your own original wording. If you use any word-for-word quotations from a source on a slide, these must be placed in quotation marks (” . . . “) and the source must be cited. If a word-for-word quotation from a source is used in the narration, but does not appear on a slide, this must be clearly indicated in the narration AND the quoted passage and a source citation must be placed in the Notes section of the corresponding slide.

Interim deliverables for this project are your topic selection in Week 1, preliminary reference list in Week 3, draft of PowerPoint slides in Week 5, and peer reviews of classmates’ drafts in Week 6. Final Presentations are due during Week 7.

Any questions about this paper may be discussed in the Course Q & A Forum.

Item

Description

Deadline

Topic Selection

Write a one-paragraph description of the topic you have selected for your paper. The topic should be an emerging trend in data analytics. It may be one of those discussed in Chapter 14 of the textbook or one you discovered through your own research. The professor may require that you change or refine your proposed topic. Submit your one-paragraph topic description as a Word document.

Week 1

Preliminary References

Provide a preliminary reference list including at least five authoritative references suitable for use in your presentation. Requirements for references given in the Guidelines section must be followed. References should be in APA format. For any web page used as a reference, include the author’s expert qualifications. Submit your preliminary reference list as a Word document or PowerPoint slide.

Week 3

Draft Slides

Submit a PowerPoint file with a rough draft of your slides. Voice narration is not required, but include notes on what you plan to say about each slide in the Notes section in PowerPoint. The more complete you can make your draft, the better the feedback you will receive from the professor and your classmates to improve your final presentation.

Week 5

Peer Review

Provide professional, constructive comments to two of your classmates to help them improve their draft slides. You will use the Canvas peer review feature to provide your feedback. You will receive notifications from the Canvas system of which drafts you have been assigned to review. At a minimum, you must provide substantive, helpful feedback in the Comments box (a minimum of at least one full paragraph of 100-200 words) for each assigned classmate. You will not be eligible to submit peer reviews until after you have submitted your own draft.

Week 6

Final Presentation

Submit a final copy of your slides as a PowerPoint file. Your narration may be recorded in the PowerPoint file itself, or you may submit a link to a multimedia object that incorporates your slides and narration. The Final Presentation must fully address all points listed in the Objectives section, including examples and supporting details, conform to all requirements in the Guidelines section, and be free of typographical, grammar, spelling, and formatting errors.

Week 7

Best Practices

The following are the best practices in preparing this paper.

Title slide—Include a descriptive title; who you prepared the presentation for, your name, and the date.

Agenda slide—List the main topics or sections of your presentation.

Body of your presentation—After the agenda, proceed to break out the main ideas. State the main ideas, state major points in each idea, and provide evidence. There should be at least one slide (perhaps more) that addresses each main point listed in the Objectives section.

Summary and conclusion—Summarizing is similar to paraphrasing but presents the gist of the material in fewer words than the original. An effective summary reminds the audience of your main points and recommendations. Summarize the benefits of the ideas and how they affect the field or industry.

References—List all references on the last slide. Use the APA reference format (except that hanging indent is not required). Include in-text citations in the slides in the body of the presentation in the form (author, year), and full references in the reference list slide at the end.

Additional hints on preparing the best possible project are as follows.

Apply a three-step process of writing: plan, write, and complete.

Prepare an outline of your presentation before you go forward.

Complete a first draft and then go back to edit, evaluate, and make any changes required.

Use visual communication to further clarify and support the written part of your report. You could use example graphs, diagrams, photographs, flowcharts, maps, drawings, animation, video clips, pictograms, tables, and Gantt charts. If you use an image or other media from a source, be sure to cite the source where used in the presentation, and include the source in the reference list at the end.

For information on how to create a narrated PowerPoint presentation and how to use APA citations and references, go to Modules > Information & Resources > Course Resources > Access Student Resource Center. The following sections in the Student Resource Center will be helpful for this assignment:

Writing Resources (APA)

Narrated PowerPoint