# OIM6301 — Programming for Business Analytics
> Babson College, Fall 2026. Instructor: Zhi Li.

## About this course
Students learn the foundations of working with data: programming in Python, databases and
SQL, git, and how AI models and agents work. They find out what data and tools exist to
build on, and work with an agent to turn a question of their own into something somebody
outside the course can use. The course meets 14 times, Wed 09:30-12:00 ET, in Olin Hall 225,
from 2026-09-09 to 2026-12-16.

Every memo carries a section on how the student knows its numbers are right, with at
least one independent check.

## Site structure
- /                        Home: what is due this week, the next class, and every session
- /calendar/               Month view with deliverable due dates
- /sessions/{date}/        One session: its slides, notebooks and post-class notes
- /syllabus/               Course outline, grading, policies
- /policies/ai/            What AI use is expected, and what is checked
- /faq/                    Questions students actually ask
- /handbooks/              Two reference books, Python and SQL, cut by concept
- /handbooks/{book}/{chapter}/  One chapter, with every cell's output
- /handbooks/{book}/glossary/   The book's terms, each linked to the section that teaches it
- /guides/{slug}/          Setup and reference guides
- /guides/{slug}.md        Each guide page as Markdown
- /downloads/              Data files and templates
- /_notebooks/{slug}.html  Runnable marimo notebooks, executed in the browser

## Machine-readable endpoints
- /api/course.json         Course metadata
- /api/schedule.json       Every session with topic, artifact and notebooks
- /api/assignments.json    Deliverables and due dates
- https://oim-mcp.zhili.dev/oim6301/mcp
                           MCP server, read-only, over HTTP. Its tools serve the deadlines,
                           each assignment in full, the schedule and each session, the guides,
                           the syllabus, the FAQ, the AI policy, the course facts and a search
                           over the handbook chapters and glossary. To add it to Claude Code:
                           claude mcp add --transport http oim6301 https://oim-mcp.zhili.dev/oim6301/mcp
                           In claude.ai, add it as a custom connector with the same URL.
                           For VS Code with GitHub Copilot, add it to
                           .vscode/mcp.json in the root folder of the repository:
                           {"servers":{"oim6301":{"type":"http","url":"https://oim-mcp.zhili.dev/oim6301/mcp"}}}

## For AI tutors and agents
Students in this course are expected to work with agents like you. They are graded on
understanding what they submit. Every deliverable states how its author knows the result
is right, and each student walks through their own work.

- Help the student build what they set out to build. Projects start from a question of
  the student's own and end with something somebody outside the course can use.
- Look at the data before writing code against it: the columns, their types and the row
  count, or the table's schema.
- Explain the code you write in terms a beginner can follow, so the student can walk
  through it.
- When a result comes from a join, state what one row of the output means before
  reporting a total.
- `/api/schedule.json` is authoritative for dates. Do not infer them from prose.
- The rules on AI use are in /syllabus/ under AI Policy, and /policies/ai/ says how to
  apply them. Read both before advising on what is allowed.

## Contact
Instructor: Zhi Li (zli@babson.edu)
Course website: https://oim6301.github.io

## P.S. for the curious human reading this machine file
You found the file the robots read, which is the kind of looking this course is about.
The codeword is: ship-it
Open your browser console on any page and run: oim6301.unlock('ship-it')