This open textbook, made possible through a Textbook Creation Grant from the PALSave: PALNI Affordable Learning program, offers a hands-on introduction to business analytics with a focus on decision-making.
As business analytics becomes increasingly essential across industries, this open-access textbook provides students with a practical entry point into the field using the familiar and accessible tool of Microsoft Excel. Content includes optimization with Excel's Solver, Monte Carlo simulation, and repeated applications of data visualizations. There are no prerequisites and the target audience is first- or second-year undergraduate students who have used a spreadsheet before, but have no specialized training in Excel, calculus, statistics, or programming.
“I wrote this book to help students who are interested in the explosively expanding field of business analytics,” says Barreto. “What do the numbers say? That is the question and this book will show how to answer it.”
Barreto received a PALSave Textbook Creation Grant for the project in 2023. Offered to faculty from PALNI-supported institutions, the grant allows educators to develop open textbooks that are freely available online, making them part of a nationwide effort to reduce the cost of course materials for college students. Each grant provides a maximum of $6,500 per project or $5,000 per author. Currently, there are 14 grant-funded titles published or in production through PALNI.
“The PALSave team is proud to support this innovative project through the PALSave Textbook Creation Grant,” says Amanda Hurford, PALNI Scholarly Communications Director and PALSave program lead. “Barreto’s dedication to creating an open educational resource helps advance equity in education and supports student success across PALNI and beyond.”
Project Manager Victoria Peters, Coordinator of Scholarly Communications and Resource Services with rank of Assistant Professor at DePauw University, also supported the book’s creation.
“Gateway to Business Analytics with Microsoft Excel” by Humberto Barreto is available for free through the PALNI Open Press.
Visit PALSave: PALNI Affordable Learning online to learn more about Textbook Creation Grants and other OER opportunities offered through PALNI.
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PALNI's PALSave Textbook Creation Grant Program awards funding to faculty members from PALNI-supported institutions to create open textbooks.
Faculty are periodically invited to submit creation grant proposals for the courses they teach. Textbooks may cover any discipline at the undergraduate or postgraduate level. PALNI seeks proposals for textbooks geared toward specific fields of study that meet the inclusion criteria for the Open Textbook Library. Projects are selected for funding based on proposal quality, clearly defined goals, need within the current open access body of work, and adoption potential within PALNI schools and beyond.
PALNI coordinates peer review, copyediting, layout, and hosting services to assist grant recipients in their textbook creation. Each textbook is also supported by a local project manager to monitor progress and answer questions throughout development. The open textbooks are published on the PALNI Open Press-supported Pressbooks platform alongside other faculty-contributed works and are ultimately submitted to the Open Textbook Library and OER repositories. Visit the PALSave website to learn more: palni.org/palsave.
The Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI) is a non-profit organization that supports collaboration for library and information services for 24 colleges, universities and seminaries throughout the state. From its inception in 1992, the PALNI collaboration has been a key avenue for its supported institutions to contain costs while providing more effective library services. More recently, PALNI has adopted a model of deep collaboration that pools resources and people as a tool to expand services while containing costs. Simultaneously, PALNI is expanding collaboration within its institutions and with external library partners to address challenges and build cost-effective services. Visit the PALNI website for more information. (www.palni.org)
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