Alteryx SparkED Faculty Advisory Committee

Course(s) with Alteryx:

Our curriculum includes 6 dedicated data science courses that incorporate applied learning labs.

The students start with a 3-course foundational sequence (DS 1, 2, 3) that introduces the data lifecycle phases, as well as a variety of data formats and tools used by professionals. The second course focuses on the Data Preparation phase – we use the educational materials provided by Alteryx extensively in this course, and our students are required to achieve their Micro Designer Cert and encouraged to complete the Core Certification (which all have done who completed the course to date). The third course is focused on data analysis.

Additionally, our students complete course work in Data Ethics (first semester), Machine Learning, Data Visualization and Presentation and a Capstone project course.

View Professor Anita Wright’s Alteryx Community Profile here.

Course(s) with Alteryx:

Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics – part of our MSc in Business Analytics program.

This is how I use Alteryx on this course:

• Cover core aspects of Alteryx aiming to assist students gain their Alteryx core certificate: Data blending, data parsing, data preparation and so on. For this I use the excellent materials provided by SparkED team.
• Explore regression and classification problems getting students familiar with approaches to data investigation, predictive model (algorithms) evaluation and forecasting from datasets.
• Text mining covering in-depth sentiment analyses, exploring word clouds at extremes of sentiment scores, conducting topic modeling and forecasting topic themes for future text data.
• Exploring unsupervised learning through customer segmentation, using K-centroids diagnostics to determine optimal number of clusters (Rand index and Calinski-Harabasz index) and applying K-Means/Median cluster analysis to data.

View Professor Ashok Jashapara’s Alteryx Community Profile here.

Course(s) with Alteryx:

Data Analytics Fundamentals; Data Analytics & Design; Data Analytics & Visualization.

This is a three-course, nine-units pathway that maps to a certificate and/or degree in data analytics at the two-year level of higher education.

View Faculty Carolina Kussoy’s Alteryx Community Profile here.

Course(s) with Alteryx:

Business Analytics I and Business Analytics II.

Business Analytics I is focused on foundational components of Alteryx through pursuit of Core Certification. Business Analytics II is centered on predictive analytic capabilities of Alteryx.

I have also created two certificates incorporating Alteryx.

New Program Spotlight: Business Analytics

New Data Analytics Certificate

Creating courses and certificates using Alteryx has been transformational for my teaching. Students develop in-demand, hands-on, practical skills which are certified at no cost by Alteryx. Serving on the inaugural FAC has been a great experience with each member of the committee bringing an area of expertise to the team.

View Faculty Don Cassidy’s Alteryx Community Profile here.

Course(s) with Alteryx:

This course is intended to provide students with practical literacy on robotic process automation through real-world, relevant data preparation use cases. It will help identify potential uses and the benefits and considerations for robotic process automation. The students will learn the elements of a business process and the basics of developing a BPM application, implementing triggers to automate processes, defining and measuring KPIs. Students will use elements of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities to handle high-volume, repeatable tasks that previously required humans to perform. These tasks can include queries, calculations, and maintenance of records and transactions. Students will be able to apply analytics to the generated data for a systematic computational analysis of data for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data that will be used towards effective decision-making

Alteryx is used to demonstrate how disjointed systems can be tied together to a myriad of data sources. I use Alteryx to tidy up the process before I use a bot to automate the process flows.

View Dr. Gaurav Shekhar’s Alteryx Community Profile here.

Course(s) with Alteryx:

Data Analytics and Machine Learning

Alteryx Designer is incorporated in the practical sessions of the module.
The SparkED Program has been instrumental in enriching the educational and professional experience in my classroom. By incorporating Alteryx Designer, a low-code data analytics tool, I’ve been able to cater to students who may not have coding skills and do not require coding in their future careers. This tool allows them to grasp the fundamentals of data analytics, including machine learning, without the need to learn programming.

My involvement with Alteryx extends beyond the classroom; I have introduced this powerful technology to undergraduates and professionals alike (i.e. working adult classes, industrial attachment and faculty through Alteryx Educator training platform), emphasizing its role in enhancing work productivity. Furthermore, my commitment to this program has led me to develop teaching cases that have been recognized at an international conference. These efforts reflect my belief that both students and the workforce should be equipped with technological tools that streamline their tasks and foster a more efficient work environment. Sharing these resources and experiences with other educators through the Community, underscores the value I find in Alteryx and the SparkED Program. It’s not just about teaching a tool; it’s about fostering a mindset of innovation and efficiency that students can carry into their future endeavors.

View Ms. Janet Tan’s Alteryx Community Profile here.

Course(s) with Alteryx:

Information Technology Audit – This course is designed to examine the practice of information technology (IT) auditing, including professional standards, application of IT and internal control frameworks, and recognition of current and emerging technology related risks. Class sessions cover topics such as IT general controls, systems development and implementation, the auditor’s role related to information security, and data extraction and transformation activities.  Alteryx Designer Desktop is used in this course to explore large datasets and identify data quality issues, then to transform the data, and finally to execute audit queries against the dataset.

Data Analytics for Accountants – This course is intended to provide students with an understanding of data analytic thinking and terminology as well as hands-on experience with data analytics tools and techniques. At the end of this course, students will obtain the skills necessary to translate accounting and business problems into actionable proposals that they can comprehensively present to managers, data scientists, and other users of accounting information. Alteryx Designer Desktop with Intelligence Suite is used in this course to teach how to analyze regression analysis, how to build regression models, and how machine learning provides assistance in these tasks. Students also learn how to connect to SQL-server databases and extract data using Alteryx and SQL.

View Professor Joy Gray’s Alteryx Community Profile here.

Course(s) with Alteryx:

Business Intelligence

This course focuses on business intelligence to support various management tasks in the industry. Students learn to create business intelligence solutions, utilizing data mining methods, and applying intelligence techniques for industrial decision support. Students will be involved in projects to learn the start-of-art techniques for business advantages.

View Dr. Nor Azizah Ali’s Alteryx Community Profile here.

Course Description:

MISY675 – A dashboard design and storytelling course. Students learn how to transform data and prepare data-driven stories. In my course, we extensively cover the Alteryx Core Certification curriculum and students take the Core Certification as part of their grade. We achieve over a 90% success rate.

View Faculty Anatoliy Anguelov’s Alteryx Community Profile here.

Course Description:

I teach both graduate (Alteryx for Engineering Managers) and undergraduate (Data Analytics with Alteryx) level Alteryx courses. The graduate level course deals with predictive analytics while the undergraduate course covers the fundamentals of the Alteryx platform.

View Dr. Serkan Varol’s Alteryx Community Profile here.

Course Description:

I teach a required data analytics course in our Master of Accounting Science degree program called Data Analytics and Decision-Making in Accounting. This course examines the role accounting professionals play in judgment and decision making in organizations. Students draw upon both economic and behavioral theories to develop critical thinking and decision-making skills. The course examines the use of data and data analytics in accounting decision making and the development of statistical models to predict and evaluate accounting information. The course challenges students to operate effectively with ambiguity and communicate complex accounting concepts to non-accounting managers.

We use Alteryx extensively in the class to clean and prepare data for analysis.  The students work on cases during the semester and complete a large group project using data from the City of Chicago data portal.  The data is large and sloppy.  Students use their Alteryx skills learned during the semester to extract, transform, and then analyze the data.  Students are also required to take all four Alteryx Designer core micro credentials during the semester.

View Ann Dzuranin’s Alteryx Community Profile here.

Course Description:

Acct 404 – Emerging Technologies in Accounting:  This course provides students with hands on experience using technologies including Python, UiPath, Alteryx, Tableau, PowerQuery and PowerBI.  The course covers the practical application of these technologies across many business sectors.

View Faculty April Morris’s Alteryx Community Profile here.

Course Description:

I teach Accounting Data Analytics at the Master’s level.  In that course I teach analytics in the different accounting disciplines (like Tax, Audit, Financial accounting, managerial accounting) utilizing Excel, Power Query, Power BI, Tableau and Alteryx.  We spend about 3-4 weeks of the course learning Alteryx.  In the past 2 semesters I have had only one student (of about 55) fail the Alteryx Core Certification.  I also teach an undergraduate required course called Accounting Information Systems.  In this undergraduate class, students simply complete some of the Alteryx on-line training.  Even with just that little bit of exposure, I had a student go to a large banking firm for an internship and end up building a solution in Alteryx that saved them a ton of time.  She was offered an early start to her internship and moved into a group where she could serve as more of a lead in an Alteryx role.  I started teaching IT Audit and controls in the Spring of ‘24 and integrated Alteryx through a case from EY.  Many of those students were core certified, so I did not do any more teaching of the tool and we simply used it to do substantive testing of a payroll file we generated with AI.

View Dr. Ashley Davis’s Alteryx Community Profile here.

Course Description:

The Industry Tools for Data Science course that I teach has been developed for both on-campus and online students.

In the on-campus course, I spend three weeks showing some key functional products in Alteryx Designer.  I then have students replicate the SQL queries that were previously covered using Alteryx to show how much easier it is to complete these queries in Alteryx workflows.  They also complete one of the Alteryx use cases as a graded assignment.

While the content for the online course is the same, I had to record six videos to show them how to use Alteryx.  Students complete the same Alteryx use case as a graded assignment.

View Assistant Teaching Professor Larry Schneider’s Alteryx Community Profile here.

Course Description:

BUAD (Business Administration) 342 – Introduction to Information Management

This course is taken by all students in our College of Business as a core requirement.  It places an emphasis on the concepts, structure, and components (input, processes, output, feedback, and control) of information systems, and database design and management. The course also includes concepts about the role, function, and integration of information systems and technology into business activities.  This course discusses the importance of business data, how data is captured, and how that data becomes information through the ETL cycle.  The course has a heavy technology component featuring Alteryx, Tableau, and generative AI.

Accounting 504 – Analytics and Disruptive Technologies I

This course is taken by all students in our Master of Accountancy Program and focuses on foundational data analysis methodologies and disruptive information technologies relevant to business processes and financial and organizational decision-making. Cases, hands-on projects, and real-world activities are applied to enhance learning.  Cases in this course use real world problems and data to find complex solutions using software such as Alteryx, R, PowerBI, and UiPath.

Accounting 518 – Advanced Audit and Assurance Services

This course is taken in our Master of Accountancy Program with an audit concentration and focuses on professional standards and contemporary issues relevant to assurance providers. Actual practice cases are used to illustrate the application of advanced auditing concepts.  Alteryx features in this class as a way to get teams emersed into the flows and testing procedures of an audit case.  Other technologies used in this course include Tableau and other visualization software.

View Ashley King’s Alteryx Community Profile here.