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SCHEME OF WORK
WEEK
|
TOPIC
|
1
|
Writing of scheme of work
|
2-3
|
OPERATING SYSTEM
·
Definition of Operating
system
·
Types of operating system
·
Examples of operating system
·
Functions of operating system
·
Operating system interfaces
|
4-5
|
WORD PROCESSING
·
Meaning of Word processing
and word processor
·
Examples of word processor
·
Features of word processor
·
Working with Microsoft Word
|
6-7
|
SPREADSHEET
·
Definition of Spreadsheet and
Spreadsheet package
·
Examples of Spreadsheet
·
Uses of Spreadsheet
·
Features/Components of a
spreadsheet
·
Working with Microsoft Excel
|
8-9
|
DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
·
Definition of Database and
Database Management System (DBMS)
·
Examples of DBMS
·
Functions of DBMS
·
Database Objects and Elements
·
Working with Microsoft Access
|
Topic 1:
OPERATING SYSTEM (OS)
Operating
system (OS) is the system software that controls, manages, coordinates,
supervises computer hardware resources and provides common services for
computer programs.
It
is a collection of programs that coordinates all the functions and activities
of the computer hardware components as well as act as an interface between the
computer user and the computer hardware.
Types of operating system
- Batch processing OS: a program takes a set of data files (in batches) as input, processes the data and produces a set of output data files. Each batch is processed as a unit, hence the name ‘batch processing’.
- Multi-programming
OS: this operating
system allows end-user(s) to run more than one program at a time. The central
processing unit of the computer switches between two or more running tasks
(jobs) held in a partitioned memory.
- 3Time
sharing (or multi-tasking) OS:
the OS allocates the CPU to several users (at various terminals) in a time
slots. For example, a Mainframe computer that has many users logged on to it
and switching the CPU among multiple users.
- Multi-processing
OS: refers to the
use of two or more CPUs within a computer system. The multiple CPUs are in a
close communication sharing the computer bus, memory and other peripherals.
- Network
OS: this OS runs on
servers and provides the server the capability to manage data, users, groups,
security, applications and other networking functions.
- Real
time OS: the OS is used
on data processing systems in which the time interval required to process and
respond to inputs is so small that it controls the environment. This OS is used
in scientific experiments, medical imaging systems, air traffic control system
etc.
- Distributed OS: this is an OS over a collection of independent, networked, communicating and physically separate computational nodes. Each individual node holds a specific software subset of the global aggregate OS.
- Embedded OS: is a specialized OS for use in the computers built into larger systems. So an embedded is a computer that is part of a different kind of machine. An embedded system can also refer to the use of software and electronics with a dedicated purpose within a larger system. Examples of embedded systems are MP3 Player, iPods, Calculator, Remote control, Dishwasher, Microwave oven, smart watch, video game console, Digital alarm clock, Fax machine, Robotic vacuum cleaner etc.
Operating
systems can also be seen as a:
1. Single-user,
single task OS: this type
of OS is designed to manage the computer so that the user can effectively do
one thing at a time. The Palm OS for Palm handheld computer and Microsoft Disk
Operating System (MS-DOS) are good examples of single-user, single task OS.
2. Single-user,
multi-tasking OS: this OS
allows a single-user to run several programs at the same time. They are common
on desktops, laptops and even latest mobile phones. For example, it’s entirely
possible for a Windows user to be typing in a word processor, while downloading
a file from the internet and printing the text of an email message. Microsoft
Windows, Mac OS, and Linux are three well-known examples of this type of
system.
3. Multi-user OS:
this OS allows many users to take advantage of the computer’s resources
simultaneously. UNIX, Xenix, Virtual Memory System (VMS) are examples of
multi-user operating systems.
Examples of operating systems
1.
UNIX 4. Linux
2.
Microsoft Windows 5. Mac OS
3.
OS/2 6.
Solaris
The examples below are for mobile devices
1.
Android 2. iOS 3. Blackberry OS 4.
Symbian OS
Functions of the operating system
1. Task management: the OS controls
the focus (where the attention is at any given time) by giving control to the
program the user brings to the foreground.
2. Job management: the OS controls
the order and time in which programs are run. An example is when multiple print
commands is sent to the printer, the OS spool the content and schedule which
one prints first in a first come first served (FCFS) approach.
3. Memory management: the
memory manager, a part of the OS manages the limited memory by allocating and
de-allocating memory space as required by programs.
4. File
management: this function allows the OS to read, write and modify data
while managing the logical storage of the data using a file system. A file
system is a logical structure used on a storage device for the purpose of
storing file. Examples of file systems are FAT, FAT32, NTFS, HFS, HFS+, JFS
etc. File system is important for a well file organization and faster access
time.
5. Device management: the
device management function controls hardware devices by using special software
called device driver, which is installed upon connecting the
particular device to the system unit of the computer.
6.
Booting: the OS manages
the starting up of the computer
7.
Loading of data
and programs from disk to main memory for execution
8.
Controls hardware
resources
9. Security: by means of
password and other similar techniques (biometrics, patterns etc.) the OS
prevents unauthorized access to programs and data.
10.
Act as an
interface between user and the computer hardware.
Operating system interfaces
The
interface refers to the medium through which the users and application programs
communicate with the OS. The two levels are:
1.
Command line interface
(also called The shell or CLI): this interface enforce that
you type the exact command you want to execute. No icon can be clicked here.
The common example is MS-DOS
2.
Graphical User Interface (GUI):
this interface allows users to have direct control of the visible graphical
objects (icons) and actions (menu) that replaced command syntax. These icons
represent files, disks, programs and other objects. Examples are Windows OS,
Linux and Mac OS.
The components of
the GUI are:
a.
Pointer: This appears as
a small angled-arrow or a capital I in text processing applications
b.
Icon: these are small
pictures that represent commands, files or drives.
c.
Windows: a typical icon
turns to a window upon opening. This can be resized, moved, minimized etc.
d.
Menus: most GUI
interfaces let you execute commands by selecting a choice from a menu.
e.
Desktop: the area on the
display screen where icons are grouped.
TOPIC 2:
WORD PROCESSING
Word
processing is the art of typing, editing, and formatting a document such as
letters, memos, reports etc., through the use of a computer program. It can
also be defined as an act of using a word processor for the production of
documents.
A
word processor is application software capable of creating, editing, formatting
and producing documents that contains textual or/and graphical information.
A
word processor should not be confused for text editor such as a Notepad that
only allows creating and editing of plaintext. A document has an extension .doc
or .docx.
Examples of Word processor
- Microsoft Word 3. Lotus WordPro 5. Microsoft Write 7. WordStar
- Apple iWork 4. OpenOffice Write 6. Professional Write 8. InCopy
Features of Microsoft Word
MS
Word versions earlier than 2007 have the Menu bar, Standard tool bar and the
Formatting
bar as separate bars snapped on top of each other. The Menu bar contains the
menus such as File, Edit, Insert, View, Format etc., the Standard tool bar has New (page), Save, Open, Print, Cut, Copy, Undo, Redo buttons and the Formatting bar contains the Bold, Italics, Underline, Alignment( Right, Left, Centre and
Justify), Font style, Font size, Bullet and Numbering buttons etc. MS Word
version 2007 up to the latest versions has all the above bars all fused together
to form a Ribbon.
Ribbon: is a term used to describe a band of
functional tabs across the top of the screen. This replaces the menus and
toolbars from earlier versions of word. Each tab is task-oriented and displays
logical groups of buttons, which offer visual representation of their
functions. The ribbon has the following:
Tab: contains group of commands that are loosely
related to core tasks. It helps to think
of each tab as a category. The tabs are the File, Home, Insert, Page Layout,
etc. The Home tab brings together
the most frequently used commands.
Groups:
contains sets of commands that fall under the umbrella of that tab’s core task.
The Home tab has the Font, Paragraph, Styles, Editing
groups.
Dialog
launcher: are small arrows located in the
lower-right corner of certain group. Clicking the dialog launcher activates a
dialog box containing all the commands available for a given group.
Features of Microsoft Word
Creating a document
To create a document, Click Start
button > All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Word or just double-click
a MS Word icon on the desktop. A new
blank document is created with the insertion point at the beginning of the
line. The default name of a newly created (yet to be saved) document is
Document1.
As you type into the document, on getting to
the end of the line MS Word automatically wraps the words to form sentence and
sentence to form paragraph. This feature is called WordWrap.
Selecting/highlighting
text
To select text, do the following:
- To select a word, double-click it.
- To select a sentence, click anywhere in the sentence while holding the Ctrl key.
- To select a paragraph, triple-click it.
- To select the whole content of a document, press Ctrl + A.
Saving the document
In
MS Words 2007, 2010 and above, documents are saved (by default) with the
extension ‘.docx’. This can only be opened with the current version of MS Word
and above. Should you intend to share the file with a person using a lower
version, then save the document as a ‘.doc’.
If
you are saving the document for the first time, click the Save or Save As button
or press F12.The Save As dialog box pops up with the
default name (document1) in the File
name: text box. Give it a desired name. You can change the location, file
type and also protect your document. Click Save
button to save the document; it saves in the document folder by default. Subsequent saves can be done using Ctrl + S or Clicking the Save (a diskette-like icon) button.
Editing and formatting your document
In
the context of word processing, editing involves correcting textual mistakes in
a document and can involve the use of Spelling
and Grammar, Thesaurus etc.
Formatting involves the changing of the look and feel of the content in the
document. Formatting involves changing the font
size, font colour, font type, alignment, page orientation
etc.
Text
can also be formatted by selecting the text and applying the Bold, Italics and Underline and Change Case command buttons.
Changing Font size
Select the text and click the Font size button and choose the
appropriate size or type the required size in number, then press the Enter key. Alternatively, select the
text then press CTRL + > (to
increase by +2) or CTRL + ] (to
increase by +1). Use the CTRL +<
and CTRL + [ (to decrease font size
by -2 and -1 respectively).
Text
Alignment
Alignment is the linear arrangement or the
positioning of text or MS Word objects with respect to each other in the
document. To change text alignment:
Select the text (or object you want to align)
and click one of the four alignment options from the Paragraph group on the
Home tab.
- Align Left: aligns the selected text to the left margin. Press CTRL + L for left alignment
- Align
Right: align the selected text to the right margin. Press CTRL + R for right alignment
- Align
Centre: align text such that there is an equal distance from the left and the
right margins. Press CTRL + E to
align to the center
- Justify: Aligns text equally on both sides and lines up equally to the right and left margins. Press CTRL + J to justify.
Adding
Watermark
A Watermark is a faded background image that
displays behind the text in a document. It can be used to indicate the document
state (confidential, draft etc.) or to add a subtle company logo.
To add a Watermark to your document:
- On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Background group, click Watermark
- Choose from the default options (i.e. CONFIDENTIAL or DO NOT COPY)
- You can click Custom Watermark to define your desired watermark
Line and
Paragraph spacing
Line spacing otherwise called leading
determines the amount of vertical space between the lines of text in a
paragraph. Paragraph spacing determines the amount of space above or below a
paragraph. In MS Word 2010, the default spacing is 1.15 between lines and a
blank line between paragraphs.
To change the line spacing in a portion of the
document:
- Select the paragraphs for which you want to change the line spacing
- On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click Line spacing. Then click the number of spacing you want.
- CTRL
+ 1 for single (1pt)
line spacing
- CTRL
+ 2 for double (2pt)
line spacing
- CTRL
+ 5 for (1.5pt) line
spacing
- A table can be inserted by clicking the Insert tab then click the Table.
- Hover your mouse on the grid of cells and click to select the number of columns and the rows
Superscript and Subscript
Superscript
and subscript refer to numbers that are positioned slightly higher or slightly
lower than the text on the line. For example a scientific formula CO32-
has (2-) in the superscript position and (3) the subscript position.
To make text
superscript or subscript:
- Select the text you want to format as superscript or subscript.
- Do one of the following:
· On the Home tab, in the Font group, click Superscript
(X2) or press CTRL + SHIFT + =.
· On the Home tab, in the Font group, click Subscript
(X2) or press CTRL + =.
Page numbering
To add a page number in your document, do the
following:
- On the Insert tab, in the Header & Footer group, click Page Number.
- Click the page number location that you want
- In the gallery, scroll through the options, and then click the page number format that you want
- Click Close Header & Footer
A drop cap (dropped capital) is a
large capital letter used as a decorative element at the beginning of a
paragraph or section that has the depth of two or more lines of regular text.
To add a drop cap, do the following:
- Select the first character of a paragraph
- On the insert tab, in the Text group, select Drop Cap.
- Select the drop cap option you want (e.g. Dropped, In margin)
TOPIC 3: SPREADSHEET
A spreadsheet package (sometimes called Spreadsheet) is an
application program consisting of grid of cells arranged in rows and columns
that is used for modeling data for the purpose of budgeting, planning, data
analysis etc.
The columns in a spreadsheet are represented by letters, ‘A’, ‘B’,
‘CA’ etc., while rows are represented by numbers, 1, 2, 3 etc. A single cell is
referenced by addressing its column letter and row number e.g. ‘B5’. In
spreadsheet, a contiguous group of cells is referred to as a Range. For example
A1:A10 reference the contiguous group of cells A1 to A10. In MS Excel 2007 and
above, a typical worksheet contains 16384 (XFD) columns and 1,048,576 rows. A
spreadsheet is generally designed to hold numeric data, short text strings or
results of formulas that is automatically calculated based on the contents of
other cells. A file created by MS Excel is called a Workbook with default name
Book1 or BookX, where X can be any number starting from 1. This workbook has
three worksheets (sheets) by default and users can create as many as the
computer memory allows. A workbook has the extension ‘.xlsx’. The total number
of characters a cell can contain is 32,767.
Examples of Spreadsheet packages
- Microsoft Excel 3. SuperCalc 5. Lotus 1-2-3
- Google Sheet 4. StatView Spreadsheet 6. Gnumeric
- Used for simple lists
- Used for analysis of numerical data
- Used for sorting
and filtering of information
- Used for preparation of daily sales report
- Spreadsheet turns information within table into detailed graphs and charts to show visual representation of the data.
- Name box: this is a space to the left of the formula bar that references the cell that is active. It shows the name (address) of a selected cell.
- Formula bar: this bar displays information entered (being entered as you type) in the current or active cell. The content of this cell can be edited in the formula bar
Working with Excel worksheet
Recall that a
cell can take short text (label), number and formula. So when working with
Excel, you are expected to type in any of the above in the cells. The Excel
sheet below will be used for our practical example.
Calculating in Excel
To
do any form of calculation, a user is required to put a formula together or by
using the pre-defined functions available in Excel.
To
use any of the available functions, the following information should be taken
into consideration:
- The cell that you want to store the result of your calculation must be made active
- Any formula or function to be inserted must be preceded by an equality sign (=) followed by desired argument
- Press Enter key when done to see the result of your formula
= funct_name (arg1, arg2 , …, argN) ,
where
N >= 1 and funct_name is the name of the function e.g. SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT,
MIN, MAX etc.
Addition in Excel
Consider
the Excel sheet above, to calculate the CA score for the first student (ESTHER) on the table:
Type
any of the following formulas in cell D2
- =B2+ C2
- =SUM(B2,C2)
- =SUM(B2:C2)
- =D4 + E4
- =SUM(D4,E4)
- =SUM(D4:E4)
Average in Excel
Assuming
the Total score for all students
have been calculated, how do you calculate the Average of all the Total
scores?
Note
that the Total score for each student is calculated in column F, cell F2 for the first student up to cell F9 for the last student. To get the average of the Total scores,
use the formula below:
- =(F2+F3+F4+F5+F6+F7+F8+F9)/8
- =AVERAGE(F2,F3,F4,F5,F6,F7,F8,F9)
- =AVERAGE(F2:F9)
To
calculate the lowest Exam score, use the following formula:
- =MIN(E2,E3,E4,
E5,E6,E7,E8,E9)
- =MIN(E2:E9)
- =MAX(E2,E3,E4, E5,E6,E7,E8,E9)
- =MAX(E2:E9)
Consider the
table above, If we are to grade according to a particular condition say, if a
student’s Total score is 50 and
above then his/her grade is “PASS”
and if below 50, the grade is “FAIL”.
How do you use Excel to achieve this?
To calculate the
grade, MS Excel provides the IF function
which has the syntax:
=IF(logical_test, value_if_true,
value_if_false) , where:
- Logical_test is what you want
to test for i.e. is Total score is greater than or equal to 50?
- Value_if_true is what should
happen if the ‘logical_test’ is true i.e. “PASS”.
- Value_if_false is what should
happen if the ‘logical_test’ is false i.e. “FAIL”.
It is assumed
that the total score has been calculated for JOSHUA, so in cell G9, type the following formula:
=IF(F9>=50, “PASS”,”FAIL”)
F9 is the cell
where the Total score for JOSHUA is located, the ‘>=’ is the
conditional operator to test if the value in cell F9 is greater than or equal
to 50. If the test is carried out and it amount to true, then “PASS” will be
inserted into cell G9 else ‘FAIL’.
DO IT YOURSELF!
What if the
conditions are:
Total
score is 75 and above, then grade is “ABOVE AVERAGE”, 50 to 74, the grade is
“AVERAGE” and below 50 , the grade is “BELOW AVERAGE”. Write the IF functions
to achieve this. Try this on your own!
Formula errors in Excel
- ##### error: when your cell
contains this error, the column isn’t wide enough to display the value. The
solution is to increase the width of the cell by double-clicking the right
border of the cell (at the top of the cell column) or clicking and dragging to
the right.
- #NAME? error: occurs when Excel does not recognize the text in a formula. For
example typing the formula =SU(A1:A3), Excel can’t recognise the function name
‘SU’. So the solution is to change the ‘SU’ to ‘SUM’ which is a correct
function name for addition.
- #VALUE! Error: occurs when a formula has the wrong type of argument. For example
cell A1 has 4, cell A2 has 5 and cell A3 has ‘Hi’. If you try to add the three
using the formula =SUM(A1:A3), Excel
displays #VALUE! Error because the value in cell A3 is a text and not a number.
The solution is to change the value in cell A3 to a number.
- #DIV/0! Error: occurs when a formula tries to divide a number by zero (0) or an
empty cell. The solution is to change the dividing value to a value not equal
to zero (0)
Assignment: Explain
the #REF! error, with typical example.
Sorting, Creating
Chart, Setting print area, changing page orientation, inserting
gridline/border, merging cells etc. will be explained in the course of the
practical class.
TOPIC 4:
DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
A
database is a structured collection of interrelated data. It is a collection of
data ordered and structured in a way that data can be easily accessed and
managed.
A
database management system (DBMS) is application software that is used to
create, maintain and manage a database. MS Access database has the extension
“.accdb’.
The
smallest unit of data representation is called a bit. A character is made up of
1 byte i.e. 8 bits. A field consists of a group of characters. A record is a
collection of related fields. File is a collection of related records and
database is a collection of related files.
Benefits (functions) of a DBMS
- Creation of database
- Efficient data access
- Data administration
- Data integrity and security
- Concurrent access and crash recovery
- Data manipulation
- Data
transformation/modification/editing
- Report generation/presentation
- Microsoft Access 4. Oracle 7. IBM Dbase (III & IV)
- Informix 5. Ingress 8. MS SQL Server
- MySQL 6. FoxBase 9. Paradox
Database Object
A
database object is a data structure used to either store or reference the data.
The following are some of the objects in MS Access
- Table: this is the most important database object. It consists of rows and columns. It stores records about a particular entity.
- Form: this object provides a convenient way to enter and view records in a table
- Query: this object enables the user to locate records that match specified criteria.
- Report: this object allows you to format, organize and summarize all or a portion of the data in a database
Database elements
The
elements of a typical database are Tables, fields, records, primary key, and characters.
Creating a database
To
create a database:
- Click Blank Database button on the Backstage View window
- On the File name box, type in an appropriate name
for the database, then click Create
Forward
slash (/), Asterisk (*), Back slash (\), Colon (:), Question mark (?),
Quotation mark (“), Pipe symbol (|), Greater than (>) and less than (<)
symbols.
Creating Table
After
clicking the Create button, a new window shows up with a table already created
with a default name Table1. This
very window is called the Datasheet View.
If
the Database is storing information about a school, then the entities in a
school include Student, Teacher, and Subject etc. So if we are going to create
a table that stores student information, then we list the attributes of a
typical student such as StudentID, Firstname, Lastname, Gender, DOB, Address,
Nationality etc. The above listed attributes are what make the fields (column
name). To define the structure of the Student table, do the following:
- On the Home tab, click the View button on the top left corner (directly below the File tab)
- Then click Design view
Data type
|
Description
|
Text
|
Accepts either
alphabet or numbers including special characters with a maximum of 255
characters in length. It is called short text in version 2013 above
|
Memo
|
Similar to Text data
type but can allow a maximum of 63,999 characters in length. It is called
long text in version 2013 and above
|
Number
|
Only numeric value
is allowed and can be used to perform calculations
|
Date/Time
|
Date and time values
can be stored in this field
|
Currency
|
You can enter only
currency values in this field
|
AutoNumber
|
You cannot enter or
change the data in this field at any time. MS Access increments the value in
this field whenever you add a new record to a table.
|
Yes/No
|
The field is
depicted with a Check box that by default result to FALSE (No)and when
checked becomes TRUE (Yes)
|
Other data types
are OLE Object, Hyperlink, Attachment and Lookup Wizard.
Now enter the
following field names and select the appropriate data type as indicated in the
table below:
Field Name
|
Data Type
|
StudentID
|
Number
|
Last Name
|
Text
|
First Name
|
Text
|
Gender
|
Text
|
DOB
|
Date/Time
|
Address
|
Memo
|
Phone
|
Text
|
Note that the
field name can be up to 64 characters long. They can include combination of
letters of the English alphabet, numbers, blank space and special characters
except a period (.), an exclamation mark (!), and brackets ([]).
You must make
sure that you set the primary key (PK) field. A primary key is any field
that contains values that are unique for each record in the table. In the case
of this, the PK field is StudentID, since no two students can have the same
StudentID.
After typing as
indicated in the table above, Save it, then click View to return to Datasheet
View. You can start filling the table with data values that form records.
Querying the Database
Querying the database
means asking the database to extract a subset of the information saved in it
based on the criteria you are giving it.
Note: The process of querying the DB would
be explained during the course of the practical.
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