BANA 6H15 Section 070: Python Programming Concepts

Thursday 6:30-10PM; SB Hall 307

Fall 2018

Syllabus

CONTACT INFORMATION

Professor: Dr. Dwayne Paschall

Office: remote (please email to schedule in-person appt)
E-Mail: dpaschall@udallas.edu (Please put “BANA 6H15 – Section 070” in the subject line.)
Phone: 806-445-6559
Office Hours: By appointment
WiFi Support (Gorman G/H): 972-721-5030; support@udallas.edu
COB Business Resource Center (SB Hall 131): 972-721-5277; cobfacsupport@udallas.edu.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

BANA 6H15 Introduces the student to programming in Python. Upon completion of this class, the student
will be able to write non-trivial programs using Python for data processing and model deployment. Topics
include language components, control flow constructs, strings, input/output, classes, packages, matrix
expressions, and regular expressions. The course includes hands-on labs requiring students to bring a PC
to class.

Prerequisite: None. Please refer to the UD Bulletin for course descriptions.

(1.5 credit hour course. Note: There is no specific requirement of a specific operating system for the PC.
Apple/Mac, Windows and Linux are all acceptable tools.)

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

There is an expectation that students have a working knowledge of personal computers and an ability to
learn new software.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

Install Python onto your personal computer & use conda virtual environments
Understand the basic Python variables, methods, functions, and syntax
Import data into Python from a variety of sources
Use Python for data visualization, preprocessing, and cleaning
How to reshape available data so it is amenable to analysis and analytics
Use Python to scrape data from the web
Use Python to create a program to prepare data for machine learning analytics
Use Python for exploratory data analysis
Use Python to evaluate data using basic statistical tests
How to frame any analytic challenge in terms of a quantifiable process

1
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

The faculty members of the Gupta College of Business are committed to providing experiential learning
opportunities in their courses. We believe it is the most effective means for enhancing adult learning.
This course incorporates experiential learning in the following way: Hands-on application of concepts
within Python and participating in class group presentations to relate course concepts to real-world
business applications.

ETHICS AND PRINCIPLED LEADERSHIP

The Mission Statement of the University of Dallas Gupta College of Business reads, in part, “The Gupta
College of Business is a professional school whose primary purpose is to prepare its students to become
competent and responsible managers who are principled and moral leaders.”

The faculty members of the Gupta College of Business are committed to preparing principled and moral
leaders by integrating discussions of ethics throughout our curriculum. We approach this task with the
assumption that any decision that impacts another person is by definition a moral decision.

In this course we will be addressing the ethics involved in Business Analytics in the following ways: By
examining issues related to securing confidential and sensitive information and by focusing on using data
to create information that is accurate and reliable. The focus will be on analyzing data using the proper
tools and techniques and portraying information in and understandable, interpretable manner.

Suggested Texts/Resources

No textbook required to purchase.

Python Data Science Handbook, 2nd Edition

By Jake VanderPlas

Freely available from:

http://jakevdp.github.io/PythonDataScienceHandbook

Python 3.6.x documentation

https://docs.python.org/3/

Pandas documentation
http://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/

Please review the Gupta COB Minimal Technology Requirements & Resources on Syllabus Part 2.

2
ASSIGNMENTS AND EVALUATION

Participation: Students are expected attend each class, complete the assigned Data Camp
courses during the week they are assigned, and participate in the discussions and hands-on
practice during each class meeting.

Assignments: Assignments will be, primarily, Data Camp courses and assigned homework
exercises. The instructor will cover the material for both Data Camp courses and the assigned
homework exercises in class. Then the student will take the Data Camp course during the week it is
assigned. A quiz will be given covering that material at the beginning of following-week class.
Given that this course extends over only 6 weeks, it is extremely important to take the Data Camp
courses during the week in which they are assigned.

Quizzes: Students will be given 4 quizzes covering the programming concepts of the prior week.
The exams will consist of a mixture of T/F, M/C, Fill-in-the-Blank, and Short Answer (i.e., writing
programming code to achieve a desired outcome). Quizzes will be taken in class, using
Brightspace, and be timed.

Quizzes ((100 Points Per Quiz) X 4 = 400 points): A quiz will be given at the beginning of
weeks 2, 3, 4, and 5. The quizzes will cover the material presented and discussed the prior week.

Class Project (100 Points): A data set will be provided at the end of week 5. The project will
entail writing Python code to import the data, prepare the data for regression analysis, running a
regression, using the regression to predict, and plotting predicted values.

Attendance Policy

Gupta COB Graduate Attendance Policy: If a student does not attend the first week of classes,
without prior approval, the instructor will notify the Office of the Gupta COB Graduate Enrollment
who will then contact the student. While we realize that graduate students are working
professionals, they should contact their instructor when missing a class.

Instructor Feedback
For the first two weeks of the course, I will check my emails from you and respond to these
messages at least once every day (remember that the subject line of your email should begin with
BANA 6H15 – Section 070). Although I am online most every day there are some days when I must
work offline to fulfill other commitments. I may not get back to you on the very same day you
email, but I will respond as soon as I see your message and this will normally be no more than 24
hours after it hits my inbox.
For each of the quizzes and the final class project, it is my intent to grade and post the grades to
the grade book within 72 hours of the due date of the assignments.

COURSE SCHEDULE *

Wee
Topic e-Learning Date
k
Anaconda, Spyder, Notebooks
Datacamp Course:
Variables, variable types, lists
Introduction to Python for
Indexing, slicing, sub-setting
1 Data Science; 08 23
Functions, methods
Overview analysis
Importing packages
(instructor)
numpy arrays, numpy functions
2 Quiz 1 Datacamp Course: 08 30
3
 Plots (scatter, histogram, line) Intermediate Python for Data
Dictionaries & strings Science
DataFrames
Importing CSV files
Subsetting and column selection
Comparison & Boolean operators
If statements, while and for loops
Quiz 2
Importing flat files
Importing data from Excel, HDF5
Datacamp Course:
3 Relational databases and 09 06
Importing Data in Python I
importing SQL files
Importing data from the Web
Accessing data from APIs
Quiz 3
Reshaping data Datacamp Course:
4 09 13
Long vs Wide format Importing Data in Python II
Data structures for analytics
Quiz 4 Datacamp Course:
Using pandas pandas Foundations (chapter
5 Exploratory Data Analysis 1) 09 20
Run simple regression in scikit- Supervised Learning with
learn scikit-learn (chapter 2)

Class Project : EDA

(importing and cleaning data,
6 09 27
running regression, printing
results)

* Course schedule subject to change.

GRADING SCALE
Course Grade:

Grading Criteria
Points
Item Percentage
Possible
Quizzes 400 pts 80%
Class Project 100 pts 20%
Total 500 pts 100%

Gupta COB Standardized Grading Scale:

Grade
Grade 100-Point Scale*
Points
A 4.0 93-100
A- 3.7 90-92
B+ 3.3 87-89
B 3.0 83-86

4
 B- 2.7 80-82

C+ 2.3 77-79
C 2.0 73-76
C- 1.7 70-72
D+ 1.3 67-69
D 1.0 63-66
D- 0.7 60-62
F 0.0 <=59
Failure because of excessive
FA 0.0 absences or failure to withdraw
from the course.
*As a percentage of total points possible for the course.

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION:

Policy On The Americans With Disabilities Act – Additional Course Resources

Please review the UD and Brightspace ADA policy and resources on Syllabus Part 2.

The tools below are used to present course-specific materials. Learn how each tool is making technology
accessible:
YouTube
Adobe PDF reader
Microsoft Office & Additional Products
R
Additional websites/resources: text equivalent information is available for all non-text items. If you
need additional assistance with any of these resources, please contact your instructor.

Part 2 of your Syllabus contains additional info regarding Gupta COB/University-specific

policies. You can find Syllabus Part 2 in your Brightspace/D2L course.