ITPro II: Collaboration and Cooperation

Professional IT Skills for the Workplace

Dr Robert Batzinger

Payap University

2023-09-13

Agenda for today

  • Recap of Session 1
  • Lessons learned from the exercise
  • Some tips and tricks
  • A word about Professional documents
  • Explanation of the Challenge

1 Challenge 1 Recap

1.1 Scenario 1

Write a 5 page whitepaper to warn small business owners in Thailand about the impact of new Thai law for digital privacy on the design, maintenance and operation of customer databases. Your paper needs to answer the following questions:

  • What customer information is permitted and what information requires special handling?
  • What are the consequences if sensitive personal information is leaked either through the actions of an outside hacker or by mistake of an employee?
  • Does this law pertain to surveys, warranty registration, signup for events, customer sales history, and mailing lists?
  • Can employees be held personally responsible for data leaks of the contents of databases held by their company databases they use?
  • What is the best way to secure customer data?
  • If the data analysis is analyzed and processed, what permissions are required from the customer?
  • If a marketing firm is hired to process the data, what steps are needed to protect the company from litigation concerning data privacy?

1.2 Scenario 2

An elderly couple runs a 5-room bed and breakfast establishment that normally only caters to tourists from a nearby city. Their current operation requires cash on check and reservations must be made by mail or by fax on a machine kept in town. There is no web page and no internet, mobile phone, or telephone service at the bed and breakfast location. Write a 5-page proposal describing a cost-effective strategy for attracting more customers. Identify all special training and changes required by the workers at the homestay. You need to estimate the approximate total cost of all the changes you propose.

1.3 Scenario 3.

Ten German students who speak no Thai are planning to visit Chiang Mai in April. They are working on a project to identify and describe inexpensive tourist destinations that are also interesting and friendly towards German-speaking tourists. You need to create a 3-day itinerary that would appeal to German tourists in their 20’s and would cost less than 1,200 baht per tourist (including food, accommodations, entrance fees, and transportation within Chiang Mai). The itinerary must accommodate even the 4 students who have asthma and are very sensitive to air pollution. Write a 5-page description of the itinerary that identifies sights to be visited, accommodations, suggested vendors for food, snacks and drinks. The time, cost and location of each item on the 3-day tour needs to be identified.

1.4 Grading rubric

Criteria Group
A		 Group
B		 Group
C		 Group
D		 Group
E
Formatted with a professional look and feel + + +++ + +++
Clearly addresses the issues raised in logical order + + + ++ ++
Written to communicate effectively in an appropriate language + ++ ++ ++ +++

2 Lessons learned from the exercise

2.1 Format

  • Proper use of font faces: normal, Bold, italic
  • Proper use of font sizes: 10pt, 12pt; 14pt, 17pt,20pt
  • Spacing around headers: 1.5 linespace, 0.5 linespace * Nested identation: paragraphs, bullets, lists
  • Tabular / structured data
  • Footnote /citations
  • Abstract or Executive Summary

2.2 Structure of an Academic paper

  • Title: descriptive title of the paper
  • Abstract: a brief summary of the main purpose, methods, results and conclusions of the paper
  • Introduction: explains the context behind the research question
  • Literature review: explains the current state of knowledge and the significance of this paper.
  • Methods: description of methods used to conduct the research, collect and analyze the data
  • Results: presents the findings within the data collected using tables, charts, graphs, or other graphic images
  • Discussion: interpret and explain the results or findings, and relates them to the research question
  • Conclusion: summarize the main points and findings of the paper, and provide suggestions for future research or action
  • References: list of the sources that were cited in the paper

2.3 Structure of Business documents

  • Title page: title of the report, the author’s name and the date of submission.
  • Executive summary: overview of the main points and findings of the report, 1 pg or less highlighting the purpose, scope, methods, results, conclusions and recommendations.
  • Table of contents: list of the headings and subheadings, along with corresponding page numbers
  • Introduction: background and context of the report as well as the focus, objectives and scope
  • Methods and findings: describes the methods used to collect and analyze the data. Includes a presentation of the results and findings of the research
  • Conclusions and recommendations: summarize the main findings and implications of the report, and provide suggestions for future actions based on the evidence and analysis.
  • References: list of the sources that were cited in the report
  • Appendices: supplementary information that supports the report, such as raw data, calculations, questionnaires, etc.

3 Some tips and tricks

4 A word about Professional documents

5 Explanation of the Challenge

6 Challenge 2:

  • Propose a 3hr workshop by developing 2 documents:

    • a flyer or poster to advertise the workshop to potential participants, and a
    • 4 page proposal to describe the project

  • The goal of the workshop to strengthen ties with local enterprises, the university and the community

6.1 Choose one of the following scenarios

  1. Teach a group of adults tourists
    how to cook some popular Thai dishes in a microwave
  2. Introduce a group of middle schoolers
    to rope safety and rock wall climbing
  3. Introduce a group of hill tribe entrepreneurs
    to the design and silk screening of printed tee shirts

6.2 The proposal must cover:

  • the venue, instructor and equipment to be used
  • the topics to be covered and the schedule of activities
  • the budget of all costs: honorariums, rentals, materials used, etc.
  • the proposed course fees for participants to cover costs at a level the students can afford.
  • safety considerations and limitations to be addressed

ITPro II: Session 1