From Data to Decisions: Building Business Skills from Day One
A new required first-year course helps UIC Business students build the quantitative reasoning and analytical skills needed to evaluate real-world business challenges.
From Data to Decisions: Building Business Skills from Day One
When business leaders evaluate investments, analyze markets, or forecast growth, their decisions depend on data.
This semester, the College of Business Administration launched BA 111: Business Decision-Making, a new required course designed to help first-year students learn how to turn data into informed business decisions.
The course is the result of several years of faculty collaboration examining how business students develop quantitative reasoning skills across the curriculum.
Required for all incoming first-year business students, BA 111 is being offered for the first time this spring and is taught collaboratively by a team of faculty members using a shared curriculum and coordinated teaching approach.
Strengthening Quantitative Reasoning for Business
The course grew out of a multi-year effort within the college to better understand how students develop quantitative reasoning skills throughout the business curriculum.
Faculty collaborated with colleagues in mathematics, statistics, and computer science to examine student performance in business math courses and evaluate how quantitative preparation affects success in later coursework.
Those conversations ultimately led to the creation of a new course focused on applying mathematical reasoning directly to business problems.
“Students encounter numbers throughout their courses, but what matters is learning how to use those numbers to guide decisions,” said Janya Golubeva, clinical professor of finance, who led the development of BA 111. “This course helps students build that analytical confidence early by connecting quantitative concepts directly to real business situations.”
Throughout the semester, students explore real-world datasets across multiple areas of business—from financial statements and stock prices to marketing campaigns, operational data, housing trends, and GDP growth—to see how numbers reveal the story behind business performance.
Learning Through Data, Technology, and Teamwork
BA 111 uses a three-part instructional approach designed to reinforce learning while connecting theory with practice.
Students first complete online modules that review key quantitative concepts, including ratios, linear functions, statistics, and probability.
They then apply those concepts through hands-on Excel projects focused on real business scenarios, including profit analysis, marketing performance, and forecasting financial outcomes.
Finally, students work in teams on a semester-long business case study that challenges them to apply data-driven reasoning to a complex organizational decision.
This reading–Excel–case structure helps students retain core concepts while developing practical analytical skills that will carry into their upper-level coursework and future careers.
A Real-World Business Case
At the center of the course is the case study “Southwest Airlines: Evolve or Decline?”, written by Golubeva as part of the course’s development.
The case examines the airline’s history, business model, and a recent corporate shakeup prompted by activist investors.
Students analyze data, review exhibits and financial information, and debate strategic options for the company before presenting their recommendation on what the airline should do next.
Working through the case allows students to see how quantitative analysis supports decision-making across multiple business areas, including operations, marketing, human resources, and risk management.
Built by Faculty, for Students
Another distinctive feature of BA 111 is that all course materials—including readings, Excel projects, assessments, and the case study—were developed by the instructors themselves.
This approach ensures the content aligns closely with the course’s learning goals while eliminating the need for students to purchase external materials.
The course is taught by a coordinated team of faculty: Janya Golubeva, Rabia Sipahi Akbas, Dean Andrews, Clifton Ross, and Saima Haider.
Upper-level students also support the course as Peer Mentors, helping facilitate study groups, connect students with resources, and strengthen the cohort learning experience.
Supporting the First-Year Experience
BA 111 builds on the foundation established in BA 101: First-Year Seminar, continuing the college’s cohort-based learning experience while introducing students to core business concepts through quantitative analysis.
Because students take BA 111 in the spring semester following BA 101, they continue learning alongside the same cohort of classmates.
The structure reinforces the college’s emphasis on community and early academic engagement while helping students build confidence applying analytical tools to real business questions.
Although the course has just launched its first semester, faculty are already enthusiastic about the opportunities it creates for students to develop analytical thinking early in their academic journey.
As the semester progresses, the instructional team will continue to evaluate student learning outcomes and refine the course to ensure it remains a strong foundation for success in the business curriculum.