Tools and Technologies for Analytics

Purpose: to help other instructors teaching the same course

Common Course ID:  OM 620
CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait

Abstract: This free textbook is being utilized in a Business Analytics course for graduate students by Majid Karimi at California State University San Marcos. The textbook provides students with an excellent reference for various data analytics applications of the programming language Python. The main motivation to adopt a free library ebook was its superior quality and the supplementary programming materials provided by the author. Most students access ebook from the O'Riley ebooks library reserve collections.

Tools and Technologies for Analytics OM 620
Brief Description of course highlights:  Introduction to tools and technologies used in various data analysis and business analytics applications. Utilizes state-of-the-art analytical software for data analysis as a means to guide the implementation of a complete analytics life cycle, from data acquisition to creating insights from data. Also focuses on modern fundamental tools and technologies of data analysis, including collaboration tools to expedite and facilitate business analysis projects. Includes the essentials of business analytics development, introduces open-source analytical software for data analysis, data transformation, and data acquisition. Catalog Link. Catalog Link

Student population: Graduate Supply Chain Management and Business Analytics Students

Learning or student outcomes: 
- Apply analytical software to data acquisition problems.
- Employ analytical tools and technologies to acquire data from different sources.
- Use analytical open-source software to transform raw data into consumable information.
- Summarize and aggregate data from various databases to enhance data-driven decision- making.
- Identify efficient tools and technologies for analytics project management.

Textbook or OER/Low cost Title: Python for data analysis: Data wrangling with pandas, numpy, and jupyter. (3rd Edition) Wes McKinney, O’Reilly Media; September 2022 (ISBN-13: 978-1098104030).

Brief Description:  Written by Wes McKinney, the creator of the Python pandas project (one of the most popular Python packages), this book is an applied introduction to analytical tools in Python. In the spirit of open-source development, all data files and related material are available freely on a GitHub repository, which students can easily access.

Please provide a link to the resource:  https://csu-csusm.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CALS_USM/f06ejt/alma991075037981702901

Authors:  Wes McKinney

Student access:   Students have free access to the ebooks from our O'Riley subscription, which they can access by simply using their credentials on the library webpage.

Supplemental resources: https://github.com/wesm/pydata-book
Provide the cost savings from that of a traditional textbook.  The print version of this book retails for $59.99

License: The content from this website may not be copied or reproduced. The code examples are MIT licensed and can be found on GitHub or Gitee.

OER/Low Cost Adoption Process

Provide an explanation or what motivated you to use this textbook or OER/Low Cost option.  This textbook, similar to many other analytical O'Riley books, is a modern textbook with an emphasis on interactive computational modules. Additionally, our students can access the electronic version of this resource for no cost through our O'Riley subscription.

How did you find and select the open textbook for this course?
The author is the creator of the Python pandas project (one of the most popular Python packages), and the textbook is an essential read familiar to many scholars and practitioners in the field.

Sharing Best Practices:  This is a new course, and thus far, I have not come across any particular practices to share.

Describe any key challenges you experienced, how they were resolved  and lessons learned.  This is a new course, and thus far, I have not come across any particular challenges to share. 

Instructor Name - Majid Karimi 
I am a Business Analytics professor at the Department of Operations, Supply Chain, and Business Analytics in the College of Business Administration at California State University, San Marcos.  My University page
Please describe the courses/course numbers that you teach.  My main research interest is in the applied decision and data sciences. I collaborated with several companies through research work and consulting to solve business problems in operations management using tools from the fields of predictive analytics, machine learning, the wisdom of crowds, and mathematical optimization. My research has been published in academic journals such as Decision Analysis, Decision Support Systems, Information Systems Frontier, the European Journal of Operational Research, Transportation Science, Computers and Operations Research, and Supply Chain and Operations Management.
- BUS 324 Introduction to Business Analytics
- OM 422 Visual Analytics
- OM 424 Advanced Business Analytics
- OM 502 Foundations of Operations Management
- OM 613 Descriptive Analytics
- OM 615 Advanced Predictive Analytics
- OM 620 Tools and Technologies for Analytics
- OM 621 Advanced Visual Analytics-
- OM 637 Advanced Project Management
- OM 653 Analytics for Good
- BUS 322 Introduction to Data Analytics

Describe your teaching philosophy and any research interests related to your discipline or teaching.  I believe learning is a process of forming connections between the new knowledge and what is already understood. For learning to occur, theories, concepts, and constructs must be connected to established facts and ideas. Knowing the main ideas and how they relate to each other conceptually helps learners make sense of new information and use it more efficiently. I also believe learning occurs in a social atmosphere. The understanding developed by students is influenced by what is valued and experienced in their social and cultural environment. I view an educator’s role as an organizer of the learning environment and a facilitator of the learning process. As a business professor and an educator, my goal is to facilitate the process that equips every student with the practical and theoretical tools they need to think and act critically in the business world.