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Data analytics curriculum for the classroom

University of Illinois Deloitte Foundation Center for Business Emerging Technologies

The University of Illinois Deloitte Foundation Center for Business Emerging Technologies provides free online data analytics curriculum to help advance business education.

University of Illinois Deloitte Foundation Center for Business Emerging Technologies

The University of Illinois Deloitte Foundation Center for Business Emerging Technologies (the “Center”) was launched through a grant from the Deloitte Foundation to advance business analytics education by helping provide students with the data knowledge, skills, and abilities as they aspire to become highly trained business leaders. With curriculum designed by faculty at University of Illinois’ Gies College of Business, the Center brings together representatives from all of Deloitte’s businesses to provide guidance through a practice lens and to help strengthen the connection between academia and the profession.

Data analytics content

The Center offers a variety of data analytics content, including courses, cases, and mini-cases.

Courses

The Center has released four full courses. The first two courses explore the python programming language as well as working with and analyzing data. The later courses explore advanced topics such as machine learning, text analytics, and time series data.

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First course in Foundations of Data Analytics

The first course in Foundations of Data Analytics, released in April 2019, is free, online and accessible to anyone who wants to leverage it for their educational mission.

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Second course in Foundations of Data Analytics

The eight modules in the second course in Foundations of Data Analytics, released in December 2019, will build a practical foundation for machine learning. 

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Data Analytics Foundations for Accountancy I

This course, released in June 2020, introduces basic concepts needed to complete common data analytics tasks in accountancy and business.

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Data Analytics Foundations for Accountancy II

Data Analytics Foundations of Accountancy II, builds on concepts introduced in the first course to enable students to obtain, explore, and analyze richer, more complete data sets.

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Case studies

The Center offers 24 case studies that provide applications of data analytics in today’s business environment. Topics include customer segmentation, introduction to databases for accountants, data analysis, web scraping using robot process automation, data wrangling, customer revenue analysis, machine learning algorithms, and ethics. Tools range from Microsoft Excel to programming languages such as Python and R.

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Chicago ridesharing during COVID visualizations

Four Transportation Network Providers (TNPs), often called rideshare companies, have been licensed to operate in Chicago.

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Customer Revenue Analysis

In this case, students learn how to extract insights about customer behavior from transaction-level data.

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Database for Accountants

This case introduces accounting students to databases, which are essential for storing transaction-level data in accounting systems.

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Mini-case studies

The Center has also released eleven mini-case studies, which are designed to build up students’ understanding of a management control system (MCS) and their data analytics skills in investigating MCS-related issues.

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Symposia, workshops, presentations, and conferences

The Center offers a variety of events that bring together scholars, practitioners, and regulators who present and provide feedback on timely topics.

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Additional resources
Accounting and Audit Case Studies

The Deloitte Foundation also offers case studies covering accounting and auditing topics. Learn more about the Trueblood Case Studies.

Fraud-related case studies

The Deloitte Foundation also offers case studies covering fraud-related topics. Learn more about the Deloitte Foundation Forensic Accounting Case Studies.

Auditor risk assessment: Hands-on webinar teaching orientation

This eight-module case study can be used in audit, analytics, or risk courses to offer students simulated real-life audit experiences in the classroom. The case study reflects both the technical and soft skills future auditors will likely need and captures the many different aspects of the audit, from receiving a report from the client, to analyzing data, asking questions of the client, evaluating support, and documenting a risk assessment. The exercises relate to day-to-day activities that auditors perform to complete an audit, such as the creation of data visualizations, analyzing those visualizations, documenting a risk assessment, following up with the client, and more.

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Content and materials were designed by faculty at University of Illinois, Gies College of Business. To access these courses, please visit the Courses in Foundations of Data Analytics page on The Center's website. For more information on the Center, contact Kristy Chernick.