Instructor’s Manual MIS Cases: Decision Making With Application Software, Fourth Edition Page 5-1

Case 5
Klein Technology Seminars
Spreadsheet Case Difficulty Rating: ★★

Case Overview
Klein Technology Seminars offers information technology seminars to local corporations. Dr.
Klein, the founder and president, uses customer satisfaction surveys to help him evaluate the
company’s course offerings. Currently, Dr. Klein just reviews the surveys and does not analyze
them in any detail. Dr. Klein wants to perform a more in-depth analysis on the survey results
and has asked your students to prepare a Survey Results workbook. The workbook will allow
Dr. Klein to more effectively and efficiently evaluate the company’s course offerings and
instructor performance. Dr. Klein will make heavy use of PivotTables and PivotCharts to
analyze the workbook’s data.

To satisfactorily complete this case, students use several skills. These skills include basic
formatting skills; COUNTIF, AVERAGE, MEDIAN, and MODE functions; multiple worksheets;
and PivotTables and PivotCharts.

The KleinSurvey4 file contains the initial data for this case. The KleinSolution4 file contains
the solutions for this case.

Teaching Tips
This is a very flexible case to use in class. You can relax the requirements for this case and
encourage your students to be flexible with their workbook design. Ask your students to
investigate how macros can prove beneficial to Dr. Klein. Also, your students should investigate
how a data entry form can facilitate the entry of survey data into the worksheet.

If you have the class time, you can briefly introduce the concept of an Excel table and the Filter
command. Then, you can ask your students to identify situations where the Excel table and the
Filter command would be of benefit for Dr. Klein.

Depending on your students’ backgrounds, you may want your students to investigate means,
medians, and modes. You might ask them to discuss why these values are important to Dr.
Klein. You can ask them to discuss when it is appropriate to determine the mean, mode, and
median for a set of values.

To make this case unique, ask students to add survey data for additional courses. For instance,
you can give the students additional data to add or you can ask them to add 10 new surveys to
the workbook. Alternatively, you can ask them to create workbooks for November, December
and January. Ask students to identify ways that the survey results from different workbooks can
be merged or integrated for a more in-depth analysis by Dr. Klein. You can also ask students to
identify other Microsoft Excel functions that might prove useful when analyzing the survey data.

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Instructor’s Manual Klein Technology Seminars Page 4-2

Information Specifications Solutions

In the Design section, students are asked to create two column charts and a bar chart. The
column charts compare user satisfaction ratings for each course and satisfaction ratings by
instructor. The bar chart shows the number of respondents who strongly agreed that the
courses were useful. Figures 1 – 3 provide suggested answers for these charts. The following
charts are also available in the solutions file.

Figure 1: Satisfaction Ratings for Each Course

Figure 2: Satisfaction Ratings By Instructor

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Instructor’s Manual Klein Technology Seminars Page 4-3

Figure 3: Course Usefulness

(Strongly Agreed)

1. For each course, what is its average class size?

Figure 4 provides a suggested answer. The ISQ1AverageClassSize worksheet also

provides the answer.

Figure 4: Average Class Size

Average of Class Size
Course No. Total
RTS1 18.59
RTS2 11.68
RTS3 16.47
RTS4 15.86
RTS5 17.93
Grand Total 16.54

2. What percentage of respondents has attended a seminar before? Use a pie chart to
summarize the results.

Figure 5 shows a suggested pie chart. The chart shows that 24 percent of the students
have not attended a seminar, and 76 percent of the students have attended a seminar. The
solutions file’s ISQ2 Sem Att Chart also provides the answer.

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Instructor’s Manual Klein Technology Seminars Page 4-4

Figure 5: Seminar Attendance

3. How many respondents who have taken a seminar course with another company
agreed or strongly agreed that they would take another course with Klein Technology
Seminars?

According to the PivotTable shown in Figure 6, 114 students agreed or strongly agreed that
they would take another course with Klein Technology Seminars. The solutions file’s ISQ3
Take Another worksheet also provides the answer.

Figure 6: Students Agreeing They Would Take Another Course

Count of Question 4: Another Course Question 2:Attended Another

Question 4: Another Course 2 Grand Total
4 51 51
5 63 63
Grand Total 114 114

4. How many students strongly agreed that their instructor was knowledgeable about
the subject matter? Display this information on a separate page for each course.

Figure 7 provides a suggested answer for the RTS1 course. The PivotTable is available in
the solutions file’s ISQ4 PT Knowledgeable worksheet. Ten students strongly agreed that
Instructor 8 is knowledgeable about the subject matter. However, for Instructor 2, only one
of his/her students strongly agreed that he/she was knowledgeable about the subject matter.

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Figure 7: Students Strongly Agreeing Their Instructors Are

Knowledgeable About Their Courses

Course No. RTS1

Count of Question 6: Knowledgeable Question 6: Knowledgeable

Instructor ID 5 Grand Total
2 1 1
3 3 3
8 10 10
10 7 7
Grand Total 21 21

5. How did the students rate their instructor on the instructor’s ability to meet course
objectives? For each instructor, provide a count for each response. If possible, Dr.
Klein wants this information summarized in a chart. (You select the chart.)

Figure 8 shows a PivotTable that summarizes student responses. This answer is also
provided in the solutions file’s ISQ5 PT Met Objectives worksheet. Figure 9 provides a
suggested chart for this question.

Figure 8: Student Ratings for Instructor’s Ability to Meet Course Objectives

Count of Question 8: Course Objectives Question 8: Course Objectives
Instructor ID 1 2 3 4 5
1 1 2 9 12
2 5 3
3 1 3 2 10 11
4 3 5 1 9 4
5 1 2 4 3
6 1 7 1 13 20
7 2 1 2 18 5
8 2 5 3 15 17
9 3 3 5
10 8 1 17 11

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Figure 9: Instructor Met Objectives

6. Which instructor had the highest percent of strongly agreed responses for Question
6?

Figure 10 provides a suggested answer. The ISQ6 Highest Percent worksheet in the
solutions file also provides the suggested answer. According to the PivotTable, Instructor 6
has the highest percent of strongly agreed responses for Question 6.

Figure 10: Instructor with Highest Percent of

Strongly Agreed Responses
Count of Question 6: Column Labels
Row Labels 5 Grand Total
6 22.78% 22.78%
8 18.99% 18.99%
10 17.72% 17.72%
3 10.13% 10.13%
1 10.13% 10.13%
7 7.59% 7.59%
4 3.80% 3.80%
9 3.80% 3.80%
2 2.53% 2.53%
5 2.53% 2.53%
Grand Total 100.00% 100.00%

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Instructor’s Manual Klein Technology Seminars Page 4-7

Test Your Design Solutions

The Test Your Design section requires students to add data for weeks 3 and 4; code and enter
survey results; and prepare PivotTables and charts. Suggested answers are provided below.

1. Copy the survey results from the TYD Data worksheet located in the Klein Survey
workbook and then paste these results immediately below the row containing the last
October 13, 2008 entry.

The changes have been made to the TYDResponse worksheet. This worksheet is available
in the solutions file. The TYD Summary worksheet also reflects the changes.

2. Figures 6, 7, and 8 provide the results for three surveys. Enter the results for each
survey into the Response worksheet. (You will need to code the response data.) For
the survey results shown in Figure 6, the course was offered during the week of
October 13th; the course number is RTS4; the location is 3; the Instructor ID is 2, and
the course was conducted with 15 students. For the survey results shown in Figure
7, the course was offered during the week of October 20th; the course number is
RTS4; the location is 2; the Instructor ID is 3, and the course was conducted with 23
students. For the survey results shown in Figure 8, the course was offered during the
week of October 27th; the course number is RTS2; the location is 1; the Instructor ID
is 4, and the course was conducted with 10 students.

The changes have been made to the TYDResponse worksheet and are also reflected in the
TYD Summary worksheet. The updated worksheets are available in the solutions file.

3. Provide counts of the satisfaction ratings by class size for each instructor.
Summarize this information in a PivotTable.

Figure 11 provides a suggested answer. The following PivotTable provides the satisfaction
rating counts by class size for each instructor. The solutions file’s TYD3 PT Sat By Class
Size worksheet also provides the answer.

Figure 11: Satisfaction Ratings by Class Size

Count of Question 3:
Question 3: Satisfaction Total
1 40
2 78
3 16
4 211
5 162
Grand Total 507

4. Which instructor had the highest percent of strongly disagree responses for
Question 8?

Figure 12 provides a suggested answer. Based on Figure 12’s PivotTable, it appears that
Instructor 4 has the highest percent of strongly disagree responses. The TYD4 Highest
Percent Disagree worksheet also provides the answer.

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Figure 12: Instructor with Highest Percent of Strongly Disagree

Responses for Question 8
Count of Question 8: Column Labels
Row Labels 1 Grand Total
4 6 6
7 4 4
8 4 4
3 3 3
5 3 3
6 2 2
1 2 2
Grand Total 24 24

5. Of those students who attended a seminar provided by another company, how did
they rate Klein Technology Seminars? How do these results compare to students
who have not attended a seminar offered by another company? Use a PivotTable to
summarize this information. Also, prepare a chart that summarizes this information.
(You select the chart.)

Figure 13 provides a suggested PivotTable, and Figure 14 provides a suggested chart. The
solutions file’s TYD5 PT Seminar Comp and TYD5 PC Seminar Comp worksheets also
provide the following answers.

Figure 13: Klein Technology Seminars Attendance

Satisfaction Rating Comparison
Count of Question 3: Satisfaction Question 3: Satisfaction
Question 2:Attended Another 1 2 3 4 5 Grand Total
1 24 32 8 94 86 244
2 16 46 8 117 76 263
Grand Total 40 78 16 211 162 507

Figure 14: Klein Technology Seminars Attendance Satisfaction

Rating Comparison Chart

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Instructor’s Manual Klein Technology Seminars Page 4-9

6. By class, how many students strongly agreed that the class provided useful
information for their jobs? Summarize your results in a bar chart.

Figures 15 and 16 provide suggested answers for this question. The solutions file’s TYD6
PT Usefulness and TYD6 PC Usefulness worksheets also provide the answers.

Figure 15: Strongly Agree Class Is Useful

Count of Question 5: Course Usefulness Question 5: Course Usefulness
Course No. 5 Grand Total
RTS1 17 17
RTS2 12 12
RTS3 16 16
RTS4 20 20
RTS5 22 22
RTS10 16 16
RTS8 16 16
RTS6 22 22
RTS9 9 9
RTS7 17 17
Grand Total 167 167

Figure 16: Strongly Agree Class Is Useful Chart

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