College of Business

What Can Claude Code Do?

Explore the full range of capabilities that make Claude Code a powerful tool for faculty and staff

Key Insight: Claude Code is an agentic AI tool. Unlike chatbots that only respond with text, Claude Code can take actions: reading files, writing code, executing commands, and completing multi-step tasks autonomously.

Core Capabilities

File Operations

  • Read any file type (documents, code, data files)
  • Write and edit files with precision
  • Search across entire directories
  • Organize and rename files in bulk
  • Convert between file formats

Code & Development

  • Write code in any programming language
  • Debug and fix errors in existing code
  • Build complete web applications
  • Create scripts for automation
  • Refactor and improve code quality

Data Processing

  • Analyze CSV, Excel, and JSON files
  • Generate charts and visualizations
  • Clean and transform datasets
  • Perform statistical analysis
  • Export results in multiple formats

Document Generation

  • Create formatted documents (HTML, Markdown)
  • Generate templates and forms
  • Build slide decks from content
  • Draft policies and procedures
  • Produce reports from data

Use Cases for Higher Education

Course Material Development

Teaching

Create comprehensive course materials efficiently. Claude Code can generate syllabi following your institution's format, create detailed grading rubrics with criteria and point distributions, develop case studies with discussion questions, and build interactive exercises.

# Example conversation with Claude Code: > Create a grading rubric for a 15-page research paper on business ethics. Include criteria for thesis statement, research quality, analysis, writing, and citations. ✓ Created rubric with 5 criteria (Excellent/Good/Satisfactory/Needs Improvement) ✓ Added point distributions totaling 100 points ✓ Saved as rubric.html and rubric.docx

Data Analysis & Reporting

Research Assessment

Analyze course evaluations, grade distributions, survey responses, and research data. Generate visualizations and reports automatically from raw data files.

# Example conversation with Claude Code: > Analyze the survey responses in survey_data.csv and create a summary report with charts showing response distributions for each question. ✓ Read survey_data.csv (245 responses, 12 questions) ✓ Generated statistical summary for each question ✓ Created bar charts for Likert-scale questions ✓ Exported report as survey_analysis.html

Website & Application Development

Technical

Build course websites, interactive demos, and web applications without requiring deep programming expertise. Claude Code handles the technical implementation while you focus on content and design requirements.

# This entire demo website was created with a single prompt: > Create a sub website within this directory (claude-code) that is a powerful and helpful demonstration of what Claude Code can do for DePaul University College of Business faculty and staff. Make it visually consistent with DePaul's branding. ✓ Researched DePaul brand colors and guidelines ✓ Created 5 interconnected HTML pages ✓ Built responsive CSS with DePaul brand styling ✓ Added interactive JavaScript functionality

Administrative Automation

Efficiency

Automate repetitive administrative tasks like formatting documents, generating reports from templates, organizing files, and processing bulk data operations.

# Example conversation with Claude Code: > I have 50 student project submissions in the /submissions folder. Create a grading spreadsheet with columns for student name, file received date, word count, and a notes column. Flag any files submitted after March 15. ✓ Scanned 50 files in /submissions ✓ Extracted metadata from each file ✓ Flagged 7 late submissions ✓ Created grading_tracker.xlsx

How It Differs From ChatGPT

Traditional AI Chatbots

  • Text-only responses in a chat window
  • Cannot access your local files
  • Cannot execute commands or scripts
  • Copy/paste workflow for any output
  • Limited context in conversations

Claude Code (Agentic AI)

  • Takes actions in your file system
  • Reads and writes local files directly
  • Executes terminal commands
  • Creates production-ready outputs
  • Maintains context across the project

Safety & Control

Claude Code is designed with safety in mind. You maintain control over all actions:

Permission System

Claude Code asks for approval before executing potentially impactful commands. You can review and approve or deny each action.

Transparent Operations

Every action is logged and displayed. You can see exactly what files are being read, written, or modified in real-time.

Local Processing

Files are processed locally on your machine. Sensitive data stays on your computer unless you explicitly share it.

Undo Capability

Working in a git repository? Claude Code integrates with version control, making it easy to review and undo changes.

See It In Action

Try the interactive demo to experience Claude Code's capabilities firsthand.

Interactive Demo Get Started