6 ECTS credits
157 h study time
Offer 2 with catalog number 1016850ANR for all students in the 1st semester
at
a (A) Bachelor - preliminary level.
- Semester
- 1st semester
- Enrollment based on exam contract
- Impossible
- Grading method
- Grading (scale from 0 to 20)
- Can retake in second session
- Yes
- Taught in
- Dutch
- Faculty
- Faculty of Social Sciences & SolvayBusinessSchool
- Department
- Business Technology and Operations
- Educational team
- Alexandre Thys
(course titular)
Mathias Hanson
- Activities and contact hours
- 24 contact hours Lecture
25 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
108 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study
- Course Content
In the lectures, various aspects of computer science and business information systems are studied and discussed. The operation and general management of information systems, including the challenges and difficulties involved, are discussed from different perspectives.
The following is an indicative description of what is being taught in the lectures:
- Introduction: origins of the computer, basic concepts, major issues in the field
- Data storage: from bits to movies, types of memory and compression
- Hardware: computer architecture and its internal working
- Algorithms: pseudo code, algorithmic thinking, iteration and recursion, efficiency
- Programming languages: historical evolution, paradigms, programming concepts
- Networks and internet: architecture and its internal working, cloud computing
- Artificial intelligence: intelligent agents, research domains, impact
- Foundations business information systems: What are they, components and management challenges
- Strategic IT: strategic goals and competition strategies with IT
- Ethics, privacy and social challenges of IT
- Guest lecture from a leading IT company
In the practical sessions, the basis of algorithmic thinking and programming is learned step by step, making use of the Python programming language.
An indicative list of the main components in the sessions:
- Introduction to programming concepts through the visual programming language Blockly
- Programming concepts:
- Sequences: Performing subsequent instructions in Python.
- Variables: Saving information in data types (integers, floats, strings, boolean)
- Control structures: Checking single and multiple conditions via the if statement.
- Iteration and recursion: The use of repetitions to perform calculations.
- Data Structures: Saving and processing of information in Lists and Dictionaries.
- Algorithmic thinking: completing practical exercises through learned programming concepts, setting up of functions to solve several problem scenarios.
- Data processing: reading of files and processing of its content.
- Basics of data analysis: Using functions to analyze data by calculating descriptive statistics
- Course material
- Digital course material (Required) : Presentaties, artikels, oefeningen, Het online leerplatform
Handbook (Recommended) : Computer Science, An Overview, J. Glenn Brookshear and Dennis Brylow, 13de, Pearson, 9781292263427, 2018
- Additional info
Additional course material (articles, webpages, etc.) will be made available through the online learning platform.
Presence during guest lectures is mandatory, presentations by guest lecturers are an integral part of the course material.
- Learning Outcomes
-
General Competencies
- Recognizing business information systems and naming their parts
- Understanding the interaction between hardware, software and networking (from bits to cloud)
- Being able to distinguish the historical context and trends in IT, as well as common abbreviations and terminology
- Summarizing ethical, societal and security aspects of IT
- Creating simple data analysis algorithms
- Grading
-
The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 100% of the final mark.
Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:
- Written Exam
with a relative weight of 100
which comprises 100% of the final mark.
Note: Closed book
- Additional info regarding evaluation
The written exam covers the material discussed during the lectures, the exercise sessions and in self-study. The exam may consist of multiple choice questions, open questions, exercises, etc. Marks on multiple choice questions may be corrected for guessing.
During the semester, intermediate tests can be organized on the practical part. Those tests are intended to ensure that the students sufficiently master the basic concepts of programming with python. A good result on this test can result in a bonus (max. 2 points) for the final exam.
The theoretical and practical part of the exam are each on 10 points. The two parts each make up 50% of the total mark, but only if the student obtains at least 3.5/10 on each part. If not, the lowest partial grade is counted for both parts. For example, if you have a 4/10 and a 7/10 then your total mark is 11/20. Should you have a 3/10 and a 7/10 then the final score will be 6/20. This is to avoid too much of an imbalance in the learned knowledge.
The intermediate test cannot be retaken in the second exam session. Partial results can be transferred to a subsequent exam period only within the same academic year.
- Allowed unsatisfactory mark
- The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.
Academic context
This offer is part of the following study plans:
Bachelor of Psychology: Profile Profile Work and Organisational Psychology (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Psychology: Profile Profile Clinical psychology (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Philosophy and Moral Sciences: default (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Business Engineering: Default track (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Business Economics: Default track (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Business Economics: Minor Political Science (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Business Economics: Minor Law (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Business Economics: Minor Sociology (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Business Economics: Minor Philosophy and Moral Sciences (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Business Economics: Minor Management and Policy in Health Care (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Business Economics: Minor Minor Education (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Photonics Engineering: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Physics and Astronomy: Minor Economy and Business