COM4016 Productivity and Collaboration Tools for Learning and Work Assessment Brief 2026 | Arden University

COM4016 Assessment Brief

Useful terms:

Learning outcomes (LOs): The skills and knowledge that you should be able to show in your work

Rubric/Marking Matrix: A set of rules or guidelines used to grade or assess work

Task summary:

You have joined the technical support team at a small firm (100 employees) with plans for rapid expansion. The company has been overly reliant on paper-based systems up to now. There are a core team of staff who are IT literate, but the majority of staff has significant gaps in their skills and knowledge of the benefits of productivity tools.

You will first prepare a report for the employees of the company using Microsoft Word. Then you will be asked to analyse some data using Microsoft Excel. Finally, you will create a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation for managers of the company.

Assignment instructions:

You are required to complete 3 tasks for this Assignment. Your submission must consist of 3 separate files, each named with your student number, for the 3 tasks respectively as follows:

Word file (.docx) for Task 1 Excel file (.xlsx) for Task 2
PowerPoint Presentation file (.pptx) for Task 3

Alternatively, submissions in Open Document Format, i.e. .odt, .ods and.odp for Task 1, 2 and 3 respectively, are also accepted, but students are warned that tutors and markers are NOT responsible for any compatibility issues. Interoperability is of public concern but out of the scope of this
[2039]

Arden University © reserves all rights of copyright and all other intellectual property rights in the learning materials and this publication. No part of any of the learning materials or this publication may be reproduced, shared (including in private social media groups), stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or means, including without limitation electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent of Arden University. To find out more about the use and distribution of programme materials please see the Arden Student Terms and Conditions assessment. Native Microsoft file formats are still recommended for the purpose of this assessment.

DO NOT zip or compress your files in any way. The submission portal will let you submit multiple files.
WARNING! Submission not in the correct file formats stated above will result in ZERO (0) marks given.

Task 1

Prepare a report for the employees of the company explaining the benefits of using Microsoft productivity tools and the need for the relevant skills expected of working professionals as well as university or college graduates finding jobs. Support your points with reference to relevant literature.

Use Microsoft Word to produce your report, using relevant features of the application to format and present your writing such as Table of Contents (TOC) with auto Page Numbers, Headings, Tables, and Figures.  Ensure appropriate References are created using Arden University Harvard Referencing.  The report should be error free.

[900 Words]
[30 marks]
(LO’s 1-4)

Task 2

Having explained the benefits of using productivity tools, you have been asked to analyse some sales data held by the company. This data will be unique to you (provided by Tutor by the end of Week 4) and will not be the same as any of your fellow students. This data is not in an easily usable format for analysis, comprising a series of pages. In total there are details of 20 sales.

Using Microsoft Excel, create a spreadsheet that presents this data. You should utilise the features of Excel that allow you to present the data in a [2039]

Arden University © reserves all rights of copyright and all other intellectual property rights in the learning materials and this publication. No part of any of the learning materials or this publication may be reproduced, shared (including in private social media groups), stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or means, including without limitation electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent of Arden University. To find out more about the use and distribution of programme materials please see the Arden Student Terms and Conditions logical and accessible way e.g. properly formatted text and numbers (where appropriate formatted as currency for example), use of headings, appropriate column widths, properly named worksheets (tabs).

Perform calculations on the data and present the corresponding results as follows:

1. Add a new column called Profit and calculate the profit on each sale.
2. The management is always interested in what the profit would have been if the selling price of each product had been increased by 10%. Create a new column called Predicted Profit 10% and calculate for each sale the profit that would have been generated if this increase had been made.
3. Calculate the total profit generated across all sales. Position, format and label the data appropriately.
4. Use the COUNTIF function to work out the number of instances of London district in your data. Position and label the data appropriately.
5. Use the COUNTIF function to work out the number of instances of Envelopes product in your data.    Position and label the data appropriately.

Adding columns or performing calculations which are not described above are considered unnecessary and will result in mark penalty. Full marks will not be given for formulas which are correct but are not at their best in terms of efficiency, scalability, compactness and readability.

Create and format charts for each of the following in new worksheets (tabs) within the same file:

• Sum of quantities sold per salesperson Sum of quantities sold per district
• Sum of quantities sold per product

Name each tab to show which chart it holds. The data required to generate the charts should be worked out using Pivot Tables and can be shown on the same worksheet as the resulting chart.

Note that the maximum word count for this task is 1200 words equivalent, which means that the amount of work and time required to complete this task should be equivalent to that of producing a 1200 -word academic report. The literal word count itself is irrelevant.

Task 3

Create a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation for managers of the company to facilitate business decision making. First, the charts you have created in Task 2 should be included. Moreover, sales performance in terms of profit is of even greater concern to the managers, so some more charts showing the best/worst performing products, salespersons and districts, all in terms of profit, are required. You need to use similar charting skills you demonstrated in Task 2 to create these charts and include them in your presentation. (These additional charts are not required in Task 2 so you are advised to make a copy of the Excel file for Task 2 and create them in the copy to avoid affecting Task 2.) It suffices to include your charts created in Excel as images in PowerPoint.

In the presentation, include content that explains each of the charts to provide insights such that the managers can consider what decisions they need to make. In total, including a title slide and a summary slide, you should aim for at least 8 slides. You should demonstrate your ability to use features of the application that enable you to communicate effectively with the intended audience. Due consideration should be given to use of slide design, use of colour, typefaces, media elements etc.

Note that the maximum word count for this task is 900 words equivalent, which means that the amount of work and time required to complete this task should be equivalent to that of producing a 900-word academic report. The literal word count itself is irrelevant.

[900 Words Equivalent]
[30 marks]
(LO’s 2-4)

Learning outcomes (LO)

By completing this assessment, you will have shown and be assessed on all four of the learning outcomes:

1. Identify the key features of common tools found in learning and workplace settings that can improve productivity e.g. word processing, spreadsheets, presentation tools and collaborative tools.
2. Identify the appropriate tools to use to solve specific problems e.g. analysing data, making a sales pitch or presenting findings
3. Develop competence in using a range of tools that can be used to support study and workplace skills and enhance employability.
4. Effective Communication: Communicate effectively both, verbally and in writing, using a range of
5. media widely used in relevant professional context. Be IT, digitally and information literate

You will be graded based on how well you meet these learning outcomes. Your marker will use a rubric/marking matrix to grade your work, and you can find this on the “My Assessment” tab on the module iLearn page.