1. Discuss the impact of technology on the information needs of financial statement users. How often do you personally think publicly traded companies should prepare and release financial statements? What impact might your recommendation have on relevance and reliability of financial statements?

2. Identify a company that collects data about you. How do they collect that data? How do you think they use the data that they collect? Is the data structured or unstructured? Do you think you personally benefit from the data that is collected? Why or why not?

3. Identify two common financial accounting estimates that might be impacted by the use of big data. In what way(s) would they be impacted? For these examples, do you feel that the costs of collecting data outweigh the benefit from collecting it?

4. Identify and discuss two risks companies may encounter in collecting and using big data.

5. This graph summarizes a large amount of data. What is an example of a type of business that could be described by this graph? Discuss any predictive or descriptive meaning you can derive from the graph. Suppose you are the CEO of the company that produced this graph. How might it impact the decisions you will make over the next 3 years? Are there any operational risks identified by this graph?

6. Find a graph that you think conveys important information about a topic that you are personally interested in. You may use any media site, but you must give a reference, and it must be something that you personally located. It cannot be something that is used by other students. Briefly discuss what this graph shows, and the meaning you gain from it.

7. How comfortable do you personally feel using Excel? Do you feel comfortable entering data, performing calculations, and creating pivot tables?

8. Have you personally used data analytics in other courses in or jobs you have had. If so, briefly describe what you have done.