Université Catholique de Lille · M2 International Management
Data Analytics for Business
Welcome. This is the companion page for your 2026–2027 course at Université Catholique de Lille (la Catho). It mirrors the syllabus and points you to free, browser-based practice you can do before and after each session, no installs and no account needed.
By Sitraka Forler · Lecturer, Durham Business SchoolUpdated 23 August 2026 About this site
18 hours
6 sessions · Dec 2026 – Jan 2027
English
no coding background assumed
Campus Vauban
5 on campus · 1 remote
One case
Olist e-commerce, ~100k orders
What you will be able to do
- 1Frame a business problem as an analytical question and pick the right type of analytics (descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, prescriptive) and KPIs.
- 2Clean real tabular data and retrieve it yourself with core SQL (SELECT, WHERE, GROUP BY, JOIN).
- 3Design honest, decision-oriented visualisations and dashboards, and tell the story from "what" to "so what" to "now what".
- 4Interpret regression, classification and clustering outputs, evaluate them with business-relevant metrics, and spot overfitting, leakage and biased samples.
- 5Use generative AI as an assistant: prompt well, verify outputs, and disclose how you used it.
- 6Judge the governance of data and AI in Europe: GDPR essentials, the EU AI Act, and the manager’s accountability for AI-assisted decisions.
The six sessions, with practice
Every practice link below is free and runs in your browser. The lessons finance-flavour the examples, but the skills are the same ones the course teaches on the e-commerce case.
From Data to Decisions
Wed 9 Dec 2026 · 4h · On campus
The analytics maturity ladder (descriptive → diagnostic → predictive → prescriptive), data literacy, KPI trees, and the cost of dirty data. Hands-on cleaning and pivots on the Olist case; groups get their management brief.
Go deeper on EcoFinLearn
Data Visualisation & Storytelling
Thu 17 Dec 2026 · 3h · Remote
Chart choice and perception, decluttering and honest axes, dashboards for executives, and narrative structure. Each group builds a live Looker Studio dashboard and critiques another’s.
Go deeper on EcoFinLearn
SQL Essentials for Managers
Thu 7 Jan 2027 · 2h · On campus
The relational model in twenty minutes, then SELECT, WHERE, ORDER BY, GROUP BY/HAVING and JOINs across the case tables, plus reading and challenging queries written by others (including by AI).
Practise before class (free, in your browser)
Predictive Analytics for Decision-Makers
Thu 7 Jan 2027 · 3h · On campus
Regression, classification and clustering as business tools; train vs test, overfitting and leakage; and the metrics that matter to a manager, the cost of a false positive vs a false negative, not just accuracy.
Go deeper on EcoFinLearn
Generative AI, Governance & the EU AI Act
Fri 8 Jan 2027 · 3h · On campus
LLMs as analytical assistants, what they do well and where they fail, and verification workflows. GDPR essentials, the EU AI Act’s risk-based architecture and live timeline, and what "deployer" obligations mean for a manager.
Go deeper on EcoFinLearn
Capstone — Pitch Your Insights
Fri 8 Jan 2027 · 3h · On campus
Each group delivers a 10-minute executive pitch: one clear recommendation for its brief, backed by the dashboard and analysis built across the course, then 5 minutes of Q&A. Plus a short individual quiz.
Go deeper on EcoFinLearn
Assessment and the AI rules
50%
Group capstone
dashboard, a 4-page brief, and the live pitch with Q&A
30%
Individual quiz
30-min closed-book, in Session 6
20%
Milestones & participation
cleaned data, draft dashboard, model memo
AI fluency is a learning outcome here, not a threat, but every piece of work is labelled with a level of the AI Assessment Scale. Honest disclosure is never penalised; undisclosed AI where it is not allowed, or fabricated data or sources, is misconduct. You are accountable for everything you submit: "the AI said so" is not a defence here, or later under the EU AI Act.
The toolbox
All free, all in the browser. This is the stack you can reuse on day one of a job.
Further reading
Where to go deeper. Free means a full, legal copy is online.
The anchor text: data-analytic thinking for managers (Sessions 1, 3, 4).
The data-storytelling reference for Session 2.
Recommended: analytics as competitive strategy.
Recommended: why good analysis fails to persuade, and how to fix it.
New here? Start with SQL
It is the highest-leverage skill in the course and the fastest win. Ten minutes now makes Session 3 easy.
Run your first query, freeThis companion is maintained by your instructor, Sitraka Forler, and is not an official publication of Université Catholique de Lille. The authoritative syllabus, dates and rooms are the ones on the university's learning platform. Spotted an error? tell me and I will fix it.