Bachelor of Science in Business Analytics

The Bachelor of Science in Business Analytics major will cover the essential business concepts and skills to allow students to understand business strategies, objectives, and operations. It will provide students with in-depth knowledge and technical skills on how to collect, process, analyze, visualize, and ultimately make sense of large amounts of business data for better decision-making for a wide variety of organizations and industries. In addition to these skills, students will be able to formulate important insights from data analysis and visualization to communicate and support business insights and findings.

The Bachelor of Science in Business Analytics major will provide students with in-depth knowledge and technical skills on how to collect, process, analyze, visualize, and ultimately make sense of large amounts of business data for better decision-making for a wide variety of organizations and industries.

The business analytics major will cover the essential business concepts and skills to allow students to understand business strategies, objectives, and operations. In addition to these skills, the major will include the necessary skills for students to be able to technically prepare, explore, and analyze data. Students will formulate important insights from data analysis and visualize data to communicate and support business insights and findings. Additionally, all students will complete a certificate offered by the W. A. Franke College of Business. The completion of this certificate will provide flexibility in the major and the opportunity for students to pursue their passions and strengths.

Graduates of the business analytics major will obtain skills and experience in tools and applications such as Microsoft Excel, Tableau, RapidMiner, and Power BI. These tools allow for the preparation, analysis, and visualization of data. Additionally, they will learn to use Python programming to technically handle business analytics and decision-making. Depending on the certificate completed, students can use and learn additional analysis tools. They will also learn how to work with and query databases and data warehouses and how to mine and acquire data. Additionally, students will learn experimental A/B tests and apply appropriate statistical concepts and techniques to perform valid and valuable analyses. Students will also learn how to interpret findings and results and how to professionally communicate their findings to their intended audiences.

Within the business analytics major, students will learn by completing projects and applying concepts and skills to business problems. They will work with a variety of data and datasets to practice and apply their learning. They will have opportunities to make decisions in simulation tools, as well as work with real business problems and organizations. They will experience organizing and presenting findings and conclusions. Students will have learning experiences using data and results to support and justify their decisions and conclusions.

This degree could prepare students for one of the following jobs:

• Business Analyst
• Business Operations Analyst
• Data Scientist
• Financial Analyst
• Market Research Analyst

Student Learning Outcomes
 Using the fundamentals of Python programming and applying Python tools, packages, and processes to conduct business analytics.

• Develop basic business applications in Python.
• Apply Python tools, libraries, and packages.
• Apply Python programming to prepare, structure, and analyze data for business analytics.
• Visualize data using Python and visualization packages and make decisions and conclusions from the analyses.

Describe the purpose of databases and data warehousing and construct custom applications and programs to generate ad hoc reports that will enhance business decision-making.

• Utilize SQL to query databases.
• Apply SQL techniques to business analytics.
• Work effectively with database systems that are embedded in and serve as the back end for enterprise systems software.
• Describe, plan, and implement a business data warehouse using dimensional modeling techniques.

Model decision problems and perform sensitivity analysis using modeling best practices.

• Apply descriptive statistics to summarize a data set.
• Use data visualization to communicate associations, relationships, and outliers based on visualization best practices.
• Use predictive analytics to analyze decision problems.

Solve real-world business problems using data mining and machine learning methods.

• Explain when to use and how to apply different types of data mining techniques and algorithms, such as Association Analysis, Classification, Clustering, and Regress in business analytics applications.
• Apply key concepts in text mining to conduct textual data analysis.

Conduct marketing analytics.

• Conduct marketing data collection, analysis, and visualization.
• Develop and analyze the A/B test in an experimental setting for making marketing decisions.
• Explain and apply marketing mix models for optimization and attribution in marketing analysis.

Communicate analytics results and findings to support data-driven decision-making.

• Explain how data is used for business decision-making.
• Describe the value of and the need for business analytics.
• Tell an effective data story.

https://catalog.nau.edu/Catalog/details?plan=BANBS&catalogYear=2324