COURSE SYLLABUS & OUTLINE. Ash Pahwa, Ph.D.

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1 1 COURSE SYLLABUS & OUTLINE Course Title: X Digital Analytics, Reg# Quarter SPRING 2015 Course Dates: April 6 June 8, 2015 Meeting Location: Instructor: ONLINE Ash Pahwa, Ph.D. Contact Information: Office Phone: (949) ash@ashpahwa.com Website: Ash Pahwa, Ph.D., is an educator, author, entrepreneur, and technology visionary with three decades of industry and academic experience. He has founded several successful technology companies during his career, the latest of which is A+ Web Services ( which provides internet marketing and digital analytics services. His complete bio and CV are available at Dr. Pahwa earned his doctorate in Computer Science from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. He is listed in Who's Who in the Frontiers of Science and Technology. He is also a Google Certified Analytics Consultant. His expertise includes search engine optimization, digital analytics, web programming, digital image processing, database management, digital video, and data storage technologies. In Industry, Dr. Pahwa has worked for General Electric, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Xerox Corporation, and Oracle. He founded CD-Gen, Inc. and DV Studio Technologies, LLC., which introduced successful products for CD-Recording (CDR) and MPEG encoding. His book, CD-Recordable Bible was published in English, Japanese, and German. In Academia, Dr. Pahwa teaches internet technology courses and conducts webinars in the University of California system. Since 2008, he taught many courses at UC Irvine, UCLA, and UC San Diego, including:

2 2 Website Development Digital Marketing Predictive Analytics WordPress CMS Search Engine Optimization R Programming Microsoft ASP.NET Digital Analytics Predictive Analytics Using Google Analytics Google AdWords MATLAB Programming Course Description: Infinite amount of computing power, unleashed by cloud computing and high speed networks, is fueling explosive growth of web services. Big Data contains vast amount of information generated by the customers interacting with the web services using devices like smart phones, tablets and personal computers. Therefore, Big Data is a gold mine for marketing professionals to understand their customer base and market new products and services to them. Digital analytics is a set of business and technical activities that create and collect Big Data and process it into analyses, recommendations, optimizations, and predictions. First, we will define the term Digital Analytics and focus on its importance. The technical information to understand and implement digital analytics in an organizational context will be provided, including: internet architecture, HTML, and JavaScript. The concept of cookies, as it relates to digital analytics, will also be addressed. Next, digital analytics strategies will be examined, including segmentation, context and conversion attribution. The digital analytics goals of an organization depend on their business objectives. The process of defining the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) from business objectives will be covered. Next, the key metrics used in digital analytics will be explained including, page views, visits, visitors, unique visitors, traffic sources and other relevant metrics. This course will focus on digital analytics using Google Analytics (GA) as one of the tools. GA account creation, GA tracking code, filters, goals, and GA reports will be covered. The era of paper-based display advertising (newspapers, yellow pages, and magazines) is fading and being replaced by search engine advertisements called pay-per-click. Google s pay-per-click service is called AdWords. Advertising with AdWords increases website traffic which leads to higher visitor-to-customer conversion rates. By integrating AdWords account with analytics account provides comprehensive analytics data that allows further analysis. Google Analytics integration with Google AdWords will be covered in this course. All search engines maintain a webmaster database which contains the keywords designated for all the websites. During search, the database is queried to get a list of websites most relevant for the keywords specified by the user. Website owners can access the search engine webmaster database by verifying the ownership of their website using the webmaster account. This webmaster database contains a wealth of information about their website which can be integrated with analytics data. This course will examine the verification process and integration of webmaster data with analytics data.

3 3 Course Objectives: Students will learn about the digital analytics. Students will learn how to implement digital analytics in a business. Students will learn how to interpret information generated by analytics service and utilize that information to improve business. Students will learn how to improve the online advertising (pay per click) effectiveness by using analytics data. Expected Learning Outcomes: Define the value and importance of digital analytics in business strategy Develop KPI (Key Performance Indicators) from business objectives Identify key metrics for analytics Define Business analytics strategies; segmentation, context and conversions Understand Google Analytics account creation process Analyze reports generated by analytics service Understand the integration of analytics and pay-per-click service Analyze the data collected by webmaster service for analytics Materials: Class notes will be provided in PDF format Required Texts and Materials: There is no text book for this course. Class material will be taken from applicable white papers, books and websites. The source of material will be disclosed to the students before every class. Optional Texts and Materials: None Grading: Course grades will be based on participation and completion of assignments as follows: Evaluation of Student Performance: Homework assignments Discussion Forum Questions Total 100 points 50 Points 150 points Grading Scale: = A = B = C = D Below 60 = F Please note that ALL COURSE GRADES ARE FINAL. Deliverables/Assignments: Each assignment that students need to submit should have its own description, delineating what the assignment entails.

4 4 Expectations: Students are expected to: Actively participate in class discussions Complete all readings and homework as assigned Be on time in submitting homework assignments Communicate respectfully to instructors and fellow classmates Utilize professional level English in presentations and written assignments Policies: Incompletes: The interim grade Incomplete may be assigned when a student's work is of passing quality, but a small portion of the course requirements is incomplete for good cause (e.g. illness or other serious problem). It is the student s responsibility to discuss with the instructor the possibility of receiving an I grade as opposed to a non passing grade. The student is entitled to replace this grade by a passing grade and to receive unit credit provided they complete the remaining coursework satisfactorily, under the supervision of and in a time frame determined by the instructor in charge, but in no case later than the end of the next academic quarter. At that time, the Registrar will cause all remaining Incompletes to lapse to the grade "F". Note: Receiving an I does not entitle a student to retake all or any part of the course at a later date. Academic Honesty Policy Academic dishonesty covers behavior in cheating, plagiarism, and fabrication of information. These behaviors are not tolerated. Students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the UCLA Extension Student Conduct Code and the official statements regarding cheating and plagiarism at: Services for Students with Disabilities In accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, UCLA Extension provides appropriate accommodations and support services to qualified applicants and students with disabilities. These include, but are not limited to, auxiliary aids/services, such as note takers, audiotaping of courses, sign language interpreters, and assistive listening devices for hearing impaired individuals, extended time for and proctoring of exams, and registration assistance. Accommodations and types of support services vary and are specifically designed to meet the disability related needs of each stude3nt based on current, verifiable medical documentation. Arrangements for auxiliary aids/services are available only through UCLA Extension Disabled Student Services at (310) (voice/tty) or by at access@uclaextension.edu. Please request such arrangements with at least five working days advance notice. All assistance is handled in confidence. Accommodations must be pre approved. Requests for retroactive accommodation will not be accepted.

5 5 COURSE OUTLINE Week# Topic 1 Introduction to Digital Analytics What is Digital Analytics o Purpose of analytics and role of analytics in improving marketing effectiveness o Data Collection Methods Internet and JavaScript Cookies and Digital Analytics o Data Confidentiality and Security 2 Digital Analytics Techniques Analytics Strategies: Segmentation and Context Conversion Attribution Business objectives and KPI Key Performance Indicators Implementation Plan 3 Key Metrics Page Views, Visits, Visitors, Time Unique Visitors Traffic Sources + Landing Page + Navigation 4 Google Analytics Account Creation + GATC Google Analytics Account Creation Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC) Account Administration Universal Analytics 5 Regular Expression, Filters and Goals Regular Expression Filters Goals and Funnels 6 Google Analytics Report GA Report Interface 7 Google Analytics Reports Audience Acquisition + Behavior 8 Pay-Per-Click Intro to AdWords Ad Creation + Computing ROI 9 Link Tagging Social Media Analytics campaign analytics 10 Webmaster Tools for Analytics Webmaster Account Webmaster GUI Webmaster data for analytics