Business Management

Program Goal and Outcomes

Program Goal
To prepare students for professional opportunities in management by providing a thorough background in the functional areas of modern business, such as human resources, finance/accounting, administration, marketing, and operations. Students will obtain skills they can apply immediately in the business workplace and the professional practices and benefits of general education required for lifelong personal growth in today's global economy. In addition, this program provides a foundation for further studies.

Program Outcomes
Upon completion of the program, students will be able to...

• Demonstrate effective written and interpersonal communication skills
• Demonstrate a high level of inquiry, analytical, and problem-solving skills
• Demonstrate effective quantitative skills
• Demonstrate computer and information literacy
• Demonstrate an understanding of the liberal arts, natural sciences, and social sciences
• Demonstrate an understanding of the principles and processes involved in the functional areas and the need for collaboration among the different functions
• Discuss the management function and application to the business organization and develop problem solving skills needed for management
• Discuss the steps of the accounting cycle and utilize financial document information as a management tool to plan, and track the financial status of a business
• Discuss the factors affecting marketing plans to promote the business’s products or services through an understanding of marketing principles, consumer buying habits, and advertising strategies
• Discuss and apply ethical and legal standards to the business environment
• Demonstrate an understanding of economic and financial markets and apply financial and economic principles to business decisions
• Discuss the human resources function as it relates to the business environment
• Analyze and evaluate the main structural features of a business or industry and develop strategies to position a firm attractively in the business environment
• Discuss the theories, influences, cultural forces, labor factors and methods of successfully entering international markets
• Discuss the scientific method and approach to a variety of research methods likely to be useful to supporting successful decision making in business

Semester 1

Basic Skills Assessment
All degree applicants are required to complete two Basic Skills Assessments, one in reading and one in math, to determine the level of readiness for beginning their selected program. Additional studies may be required.

Business Orientation (1 credit)
Succeed by learning how to use your Penn Foster program, and learn how to effectively manage your time, talents, and resources in your personal life, academics, and in your career.

Objectives:

• Understand how to use your Student Portal, including your My Homepage and My Courses pages.
• Access the Penn Foster Community and use it to find answers.
• Connect with Penn Foster on various social media sites.
• Examine your individual life goals and the steps needed to fulfill them.
• Recognize how your personal financial goals mirror that of most businesses.
• Use time management skills to make the most of your day.
• Determine personal financial goals.
• Set up a typical budget.
• Explain why creative thinking, research, planning, gathering resources, and production and marketing are vital for the start-up and maintenance of a business.

Information Literacy (1 credit)
Get better at finding and using information!

Objectives:

• Search the Internet more effectively.
• Get tips about search engines and reliable websites.
• Learn how to search libraries and other information centers for important, useful information.

Introduction to Business (3 credits)
This course is designed to introduce you to basic business concepts, theories, and perspectives. It will serve as a basis for further learning in your program.

Objectives:

• Understand the principles of business ethics and basic economics.
• Compare the different types of business ownership.
• Describe the basics of organizational structure.
• Identify the differences between management and leadership.
• Understand the importance of information technology in today’s business environments.

Principles of Management (3 credits)
This course will review the functions of management and its role in planning, leading, organizing, motivating, and controlling.

Objectives:

• Define and correctly use business terms.
• Explain the importance of communication.
• Identify the steps of managerial decision making.
• Explain the relevance of the basic skills required by managers.
• Describe major components of various management perspectives.
• Discuss the ever-increasing employee diversity and the management activities required for the changing workforce.

Music Appreciation (3 credits)
In this course, you'll understand how to appreciate music by learning about the roles of the composer and the listener, the principles of music theory and instrumentation, musically significant historical periods, and varying styles of music.

Objectives:

• Identify the building blocks of music a composer can use to create a piece, such as rhythm, melody, harmony, texture, form, and timbre
• Explain the evolution of Western music through history, from the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century
• Differentiate between the music of the baroque era and the musical styles of previous time periods
• Recognize the major characteristics of classical music, including form, melody, and instrumentation
• Discuss the musical trends and innovations that occurred during the romantic era
• Trace the evolution of American popular music in the twentieth century
• Recognize the influence of world music on modern Western composition

Textbook: Experience Music, Fourth Edition

Mathematics for Business and Finance (3 credits)
This course will hone your math skills so you are able to successfully use them in business and finance industries.

Objectives:

• Use percentages, discounts, and interest formulas effectively.
• Analyze present worth and sinking funds.
• Understand how to buy in installments and price merchandise.
• Explain depreciation, insurance, equations, and formulas.
• Discuss investments and statistics.

Proctored Exam
You will be required to complete a proctored exam on selected courses each semester. These assessments will evaluate the knowledge and skills that you learned during the semester. You choose the time, the location, and the qualified exam supervisor.

Semester 2

Computer Applications (3 credits)
This course will allow you to build your computer skills through a combination of reading and hands-on practice. You will navigate popular software tools such as Windows® and Microsoft® Office.

Objectives:

• Create, edit, and illustrate Microsoft® Word™ documents.
• Apply formulas and functions to large data sets in Microsoft® Excel.®
• Incorporate useful charts and graphs to summarize data.
• Add, delete, sort, and lay out table data.
• Create presentations in Microsoft® PowerPoint® using advanced tools, tables, and charts.

English Composition (3 credits)
This course will allow you to polish and enhance your writing skills.

Objectives:

• Effectively use free writing and brainstorming.
• Perfect your ability to edit and revise your writing.
• Apply techniques for getting the reader’s attention.
• Write descriptive essays, first-person narratives, reflective essays, persuasive essays, and effective thesis statements.

Intermediate Algebra (3 credits)
This course introduces basic algebraic concepts that you’ll need to be successful in your career.

Objectives:

• Understand the systems of equations, polynomials, and radicals.
• Factor polynomial expressions.
• Simplify rational expressions.

Textbook: Intermediate Algebra

Financial Accounting (3 credits)
This course provides a basic introduction to the study of finance, including financial institutions, investments, and corporate finance.

Objectives:

• Solve problems that involve the time value of money.
• Perform a basic analysis of financial statements.
• Describe the components of financial assets.
• Explain the role of a financial intermediary.
• Describe the role of security markets.
• List the components of financial decision making.

Nutrition (3 credits)
This course will allow you to develop a healthier lifestyle by making smarter nutritional decisions.

Objectives:

• Explain the various components of nutrition as a science.
• Describe nutrition from a global viewpoint.
• Understand the importance of water and exercise.
• Identify the basics of human growth and aging.
• Discuss food safety procedures.

Proctored Exam
You will be required to complete a proctored exam on selected courses each semester. These assessments will evaluate the knowledge and skills that you learned during the semester. You choose the time, the location, and the qualified exam supervisor.

Semester 3

World Civilizations (3 credits)
This course will allow you to understand the importance of studying history as it relates to the individual and society as a whole.

Objectives:

• Discuss the major events of the sixteenth through twentieth centuries.
• Explain the consequences of events and the trends that they cause.

Business and Technical Writing (3 credits)
This course provides an introduction to the various methods of organizing material for a professional setting. Students will compose business documents using the ABC method. These include memos, emails, outlines, reports and proposals, descriptions, and organizing materials. Students also work on honing their grammar skills.

Objectives:

• Describe the basics of the writing process and the ABC method of organizing material for a document
• Identify the parts of speech in a sentence
• Demonstrate correct pronoun use
• Choose proper and effective words for writing documents
• Identify the elements of a well-written sentence
• Demonstrate how to use length, directness, emphasis, and variety to craft impactful sentences
• Explain how to construct a coherent paragraph
• Describe how to write an effective cover letter and resume
• Format and write an interoffice memorandum, a routine business letter, and an effective email
• Identify the different ways to write for blogs, the Internet, and social media
• Describe how to create an organized formal outline
• Identify the types of research and methods of documentation used in business and technical writing
• Explain how to create visual interest and clarity in reports with illustrations, tables, graphs, charts, and overall design
• Explain the purpose and importance of various types of informal reports
• Describe the nature of formal reports and identify their components
• Differentiate among external, internal, informal, and formal proposals
• Describe an object or a process and prepare a set of instructions
• Describe the preparation and submission of professional and technical articles and manuals

Managerial Accounting (3 credits)
This course provides an introduction to managerial accounting; analysis: C-V-P and management; budgeting and performance evaluation; decentralized operations; differential analysis and product pricing; capital investment analysis, and cost activities.

Objectives:

• Understand cost classifications as applied to preparing financial statements, predicting cost behavior, and making decisions
• Understand the flow of cost in job-order costing and use activity-based absorption costing to compute product costs
• Understand the flow of process costing, computing the cost per equivalent unit using the weighted-average method and FIFO method and allocating department costs using the direct and step-down methods
• Explain how changes in activity affect contribution margin and net operating income and examine cost-volume-profit relationships, such as margin of safety and break-even points
• Explain how variable costing differs from absorption costing and prepare income statements using the different approaches as tools for management
• Understand activity-based costing and how it differs from a traditional costing system
• Understand budgets, the process used to create budgets, and the preparation of various kinds of budgets
• Compute and record various variances
• Understand and compute various performance measurements
• Prepare differential analysis as a key to decision making
• Evaluate calculations for capital budgeting decisions
• Prepare a statement of cash flows using the direct and indirect methods and compute free cash flow
• Compute and interpret financial ratios Textbook: Managerial Accounting

Speech (3 credits)
This course provides students with a foundation in the basic concepts of public speaking. Students will learn how to research, organize and write effective speeches, incorporate presentation aids, and rehearse and deliver speeches effectively. Students will prepare, rehearse, record and submit speeches in a number of rhetorical styles to be graded.

Objectives:

• Demonstrate knowledge of the importance and benefits of public speaking
• Demonstrate knowledge of communication apprehension, identify the causes of communication apprehension, and apply strategies to overcome communication apprehension
• Identify the audience for a speech
• Identify the purpose of a speech, select a topic and write a thesis, plan supporting materials and organize a speech effectively
• Use research and presentation aids appropriately and effectively
• Prepare speeches in different rhetorical styles, including narrative, informative and persuasive
• Identify and develop effective delivery and presentation techniques through practice and rehearsal

Economics 1 (3 credits)
This course will provide an overview of macroeconomics and the modern market economy. Law of supply and demand, the cost of living, monetary systems, international factors, and short-run economic fluctuations will be examined and discussed.

Objectives:

• Explain the economic systems and the economic perspective
• Identify the key factors in macroeconomics and how economists study the economy as a whole
• Explain the macroeconomic models and fiscal policies
• Explain money, banking, and financial policy
• Explain extending analysis of aggregate supply, current issues in theory and policy, and international economics
• Analyze foreign exchange and investment and the effects each nation’s economy has on another nation’s economy

Proctored Exam
You will be required to complete a proctored exam on selected courses each semester. These assessments will evaluate the knowledge and skills that you learned during the semester. You choose the time, the location, and the qualified exam supervisor.

Semester 4

Art Appreciation (3 credits)
In this course, you will gain an understanding of artistic media, historical periods and artistic movements, the roles of the artist and the viewer, and the principles of art criticism.

Objectives:

• Define the language, visual elements, and principles of design of art
• Identify two-dimensional media
• Identify three-dimensional media
• Explain the evolution of art from ancient Mediterranean cultures through eighteenth century Europe
• Identify features and popular examples of art throughout the history of African, Asian, Pacific, and American cultures
• Compare the genres of the Modern and Postmodern eras of art from around the world

Textbook: Living with Art, 11th Edition

Business Statistics (3 credits)
This course will provide you the opportunity to explore statistics and how they affect business.

Objectives:

• Interpret and present data.
• Analyze frequency distribution, averages, dispersion, and index numbers.
• Conduct time series analysis.
• Forecast business.
• Apply the theory of probability and statistical inference.

Advanced PC Applications (3 credits)
In this course, you'll learn to use computer software that's important to any business.

Objectives:

• Learn about Microsoft® Access,® Word,™ PowerPoint,® and Excel.®
• Create new Access® databases, forms, and reports.
• Sort and filter your data with queries.
• Analyze your data using Access.®
• Create PowerPoint® presentations by placing and manipulating clip art.
• Choose a background template and add notes to a PowerPoint® slide show.
• Embed and link Word™ and Excel® material in PowerPoint® presentations.
• Add sound, movie files, and hyperlinks to PowerPoint® presentations.
• Embed an Excel® worksheet, chart, or graph into a Word™ document.
• Learn the difference between object linking and embedding.
• Study the procedure for linking an object to a Word™ document.
• Use Microsoft® Access® to create a data source.
• Develop a form letter with form fields.
• Merge a database with a form letter.

Economics 2 (3 credits)
The course provides an overview of microeconomics by investigating the decisions people and businesses make at the individual level.

Objectives:

• Explain how supply and demand influences price levels.
• Understand the role of government in the economy, including the tax system design and labor markets.

General Elective (3 credits)
(Choose one) ...

ACC201 - Intermediate Accounting 1

Objectives:

• Compute earnings per share.
• Study lease transactions, cash flow, pensions, and benefits.
• Learn about income tax accounting.
• Analyze financial statements.

ACC202 - Intermediate Accounting 2

Objectives:

• Study the differences between current liabilities and long-term liabilities, and focus on short-term liabilities and the contingencies they present.
• Discover the treatment of long-term liabilities.
• Find out the effects and treatment of income taxes.
• Account for pensions and retirement benefits.
• Study invested capital and earned capital in relation to the creditor’s interest in the assets of a corporation through shareholder’s equity.

ACC210 - Cost Accounting

Objectives:

• Recognize how the knowledge of product and service costs is used to set selling prices.
• Discover techniques used to measure the performance of managers and subunits within an organization.
• Learn how the accounting system is used as a tool to motivate managers toward the goals of an organization.

ACC211 - Computer Applications in Accounting

Objectives:

• Explain how to install, register, and update the Sage 50® accounting software
• Print reports and back up data files using Sage 50®
• Record, post, and complete the accounting cycle for a service and merchandising enterprise using an automated accounting system
• Analyze the business flow of transactions in automated accounting systems, including customer lists, vendor files, inventory records, and employee files
• Demonstrate knowledge of the voucher system, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll systems, and departmentalized accounting
• Analyze and solve management accounting problems relating to operations and business profitability and financial reporting

COM110 - Public Relations 1

Objectives:

• Learn strategic writing in public relations, advertising, sales and marketing, and business communication.
• Discover the art of persuasion and the public relations planning process.
• Develop your research skills and get tips for writing clearly and simply, and for using proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
• Examine the writing styles and processes for emails, memos, letters, reports, proposals, news releases, broadcasts, ad copy, material for the Internet, speeches, newsletters, brochures, magazines, and annual reports.
• Discover the proper protocol for communicating information during a crisis.

COM115-Public Relations 2

Objectives:

• Get tips on research techniques and planning and evaluating a public relations program.
• Discover how to prepare and handle printed and video news releases, media alerts and media kits, and pitch letters.
• Explore the use of social media and the function of trade shows and exhibitions in public relations.
• Examine conflict management and how to manage public opinion.
• Analyze the role of public relations in a variety of sectors and settings, such as corporate, government, global, educational, nonprofit, and sports public relations.

FIN101- Financial Management

Objectives:

• Learn about investing in long-term assets.
• Study capital structure and dividend policy.
• Learn all about financial planning and working capital management.

FIN210 - Personal Financial Management

Objectives:

• Apply money management skills to personal financial goals and plans
• Formulate a plan for saving, protecting, and managing financial assets and debt
• Develop strategies for consumer and housing purchases
• Evaluate various types of investing
• Determine the type of investments that best suit your financial goals
• Construct a will, a trust, and an estate plan

HRM210 - Compensation Management

Objectives:

• Learn about the different forms of pay, the pay model, and compensation strategies.
• Determine the sources of competitive advantage.
• Study internal alignment and what factors shape internal structure.
• Create a skills analysis and a competency analysis.
• Learn the factors that shape external competitiveness.
• Determine how performance pay can motivate employee behavior.
• Analyze strategies for measuring job performance.
• Discover the key issues in benefits planning, design, and administration.
• Study unions and the impact of unions on wage determination.
• Learn the laws that regulate pay in the workplace.

INT205 - Introduction to Internet Multimedia

Objectives:

• Learn about graphics, sound, video, and animation.
• Study the best practices for how to incorporate multimedia into your website and for a user-friendly web design.
• Learn how to add databases to your website for greater functionality.
• Discover the basics of e-commerce for the web and how to effectively advertise your online business.
• Plan and design an attractive website using multimedia.

Proctored Exam
You will be required to complete a proctored exam on selected courses each semester. These assessments will evaluate the knowledge and skills that you learned during the semester. You choose the time, the location, and the qualified exam supervisor.

Semester 5

Essentials of Psychology (3 credits)
This course will introduce you to the relationship between biology and behavior. You will learn about human development throughout the life span.

Objectives:

• Identify major psychological theories.
• Discuss consciousness, memory, thought, and language.
• Define intelligence, personality, and stress.
• Analyze the role of gender in psychology.
• Explain how community influences behavior.

Marketing (3 credits)
In this course, you'll learn the Marketing techniques fundamental to the success of any business.

Objectives:

• Analyze the concept of marketing in a societal and global sense.
• Learn the four areas of strategy in marketing.
• Identify the principles of product, price, promotion, and distribution by considering interesting examples of real organizations.
• Explore how environmental factors affect designing strategies for marketing.

Advanced Composition (3 credits)
Build your writing and researching skills.

Objectives:

• Create and develop thesis statements.
• Apply appropriate writing styles to particular audiences and purposes.
• Analyze literary elements.
• Properly paraphrase, summarize, and quote sources.
• Build effective paragraphs.

Human Resources Management (3 credits)
This course provides an overview of Human Resources Management (HRM) as it's understood today. It illustrates the dynamic interaction of the personnel functions with each other and with the objectives of an organization.

Objectives:

• Describe the elements of human resource management, including labor considerations, regulation, and management of workflow
• Explain how companies should prepare for and implement HRM to hire new employees and create training programs
• Identify the aspects of employee, career, and turnover management
• Summarize how employees are paid, including legal requirements, performance-based pay, commissions, salaries, and benefits
• Describe other HRM functions including collective bargaining, labor relations, global HRM, and building a high-performance organization

Textbook: Fundamentals of Human Resource Management

General Elective (3 credits)
(Choose one) ...

ACC201 - Intermediate Accounting 1

Objectives:

• Compute earnings per share.
• Study lease transactions, cash flow, pensions, and benefits.
• Learn about income tax accounting.
• Analyze financial statements.

ACC202 - Intermediate Accounting 2

Objectives:

• Study the differences between current liabilities and long-term liabilities, and focus on short-term liabilities and the contingencies they present.
• Discover the treatment of long-term liabilities.
• Find out the effects and treatment of income taxes.
• Account for pensions and retirement benefits.
• Study invested capital and earned capital in relation to the creditor’s interest in the assets of a corporation through shareholder’s equity.

ACC210 - Cost Accounting

Objectives:

• Recognize how the knowledge of product and service costs is used to set selling prices.
• Discover techniques used to measure the performance of managers and subunits within an organization.
• Learn how the accounting system is used as a tool to motivate managers toward the goals of an organization.

ACC211 - Computer Applications in Accounting

Objectives:

• Explain how to install, register, and update the Sage 50® accounting software
• Print reports and back up data files using Sage 50®
• Record, post, and complete the accounting cycle for a service and merchandising enterprise using an automated accounting system
• Analyze the business flow of transactions in automated accounting systems, including customer lists, vendor files, inventory records, and employee files
• Demonstrate knowledge of the voucher system, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll systems, and departmentalized accounting
• Analyze and solve management accounting problems relating to operations and business profitability and financial reporting

COM110 - Public Relations 1

Objectives:

• Learn strategic writing in public relations, advertising, sales and marketing, and business communication.
• Discover the art of persuasion and the public relations planning process.
• Develop your research skills and get tips for writing clearly and simply, and for using proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
• Examine the writing styles and processes for emails, memos, letters, reports, proposals, news releases, broadcasts, ad copy, material for the Internet, speeches, newsletters, brochures, magazines, and annual reports.
• Discover the proper protocol for communicating information during a crisis.

COM115-Public Relations 2

Objectives:

• Get tips on research techniques and planning and evaluating a public relations program.
• Discover how to prepare and handle printed and video news releases, media alerts and media kits, and pitch letters.
• Explore the use of social media and the function of trade shows and exhibitions in public relations.
• Examine conflict management and how to manage public opinion.
• Analyze the role of public relations in a variety of sectors and settings, such as corporate, government, global, educational, nonprofit, and sports public relations.

FIN101- Financial Management

Objectives:

• Learn about investing in long-term assets.
• Study capital structure and dividend policy.
• Learn all about financial planning and working capital management.

FIN210 - Personal Financial Management

Objectives:

• Apply money management skills to personal financial goals and plans
• Formulate a plan for saving, protecting, and managing financial assets and debt
• Develop strategies for consumer and housing purchases
• Evaluate various types of investing
• Determine the type of investments that best suit your financial goals
• Construct a will, a trust, and an estate plan

HRM210 - Compensation Management

Objectives:

• Learn about the different forms of pay, the pay model, and compensation strategies.
• Determine the sources of competitive advantage.
• Study internal alignment and what factors shape internal structure.
• Create a skills analysis and a competency analysis.
• Learn the factors that shape external competitiveness.
• Determine how performance pay can motivate employee behavior.
• Analyze strategies for measuring job performance.
• Discover the key issues in benefits planning, design, and administration.
• Study unions and the impact of unions on wage determination.
• Learn the laws that regulate pay in the workplace.

INT205 - Introduction to Internet Multimedia

Objectives:

• Learn about graphics, sound, video, and animation.
• Study the best practices for how to incorporate multimedia into your website and for a user-friendly web design.
• Learn how to add databases to your website for greater functionality.
• Discover the basics of e-commerce for the web and how to effectively advertise your online business.
• Plan and design an attractive website using multimedia.

Proctored Exam
You will be required to complete a proctored exam on selected courses each semester. These assessments will evaluate the knowledge and skills that you learned during the semester. You choose the time, the location, and the qualified exam supervisor.

Semester 6

Legal Environment of Business (3 credits)
Explore the legal aspects of business today.

Objectives:

• Explain the sources of law
• Discuss the judicial process and alternative dispute resolution
• Describe different forms of business organization and their characteristics
• Explain the elements of contracts and rules pertaining to contracts
• Discuss the law of agency and laws concerning employment
• Explain laws pertaining to ownership and transfer of property
• Describe the general principles involved in wills, trusts, and estates
• Discuss the formation of sales and lease contracts and the legal issues arising from those types of contracts
• Explain the purpose and types of negotiable instruments and the role they play in business
• Explain the rights of secured and unsecured creditors and the consequences of bankruptcy
• Discuss the principles of torts, the different types of torts, and criminal law as it relates to business

Corporate Finance (3 credits)
This course will introduce you to the world of corporate finance.

Objectives:

• Evaluate financial statements and long-term financial planning
• Analyze the value of an investment based on cash outflows and/or inflows
• Evaluate new projects and determine which new projects to accept
• Perform and interpret a scenario analysis and incorporate risk into the analysis
• Determine a firm’s cost of debt and equity capital

Introduction to Biology (3 credits)
This course will allow you to explore the origin of life and the relationships among all living things.

Objectives:

• Explain how organisms are structured and how they work.
• Discuss the various forms of life and their processes.

Business Elective (3 credits)
(Choose one) ...

BUS330 - Risk Management

Objectives:

• Study term risk, business risk, personal risk, pure risk, and other types of risk, and learn major risk management methods and organization of the risk management function within business.
• Minimize the cost of risk to maximize business value and the possible conflicts between business and societal objectives.
• Learn how pooling of independent loss exposures reduces risk.
• Learn when legal liability affects safety incentives.
• Study the tax benefits associated with life insurance and annuity products.
• Learn major types of employee benefits and why firms provide them.
• Get the basic history, features, and economic rationale of workers’ compensation laws and liability insurance.
• Study Social Security retirement, survivor, and disability and Medicare programs, benefits, and their financing.
• Find out about major types of property-casualty insurance contracts purchased by businesses and describe the negotiation of commercial insurance programs.
• Discover basic derivative contracts (options, forwards, futures, and swaps) commonly used for hedging, and distinctions between insurance and derivatives contracts.

FIN305 - Securities and Investments

Objectives:

• Study securities, and find out about markets.
• Study how to do a technical analysis. Learn how to select and create an investment portfolio.

HRM320 - Employee Benefits

Objectives:

• Discover legally required social insurance programs for employees in the United States.
• Learn about the characteristics of group insurance and individual insurance in the categories of life, medical, dental, and disability.
• Compare managed care plans with traditional medical expense plans.
• Study the general requirements that must be met by qualified pension plans with respect to eligibility and plan coverage; nondiscrimination in benefits and contributions; funding; vesting; limitations on benefits and contributions; payout restrictions; and top-heavy rules.
• Learn the difference in pension benefit formulas.
• Discover general features of pension funding instruments and when each might best be used.
• Interpret qualified and nonqualified pension plans.

HRM350 - Labor Relations

Objectives:

• Learn the current trends in labor organization in light of changes in the labor force, such as the trend toward a two-tier wage system.
• Discover why workers join unions and why management is sometimes not enthusiastic about unions.
• Study the long struggle to establish the voice of organized labor in America from the nineteenth century to the present.
• Discover the relationship between national and local unions.
• Learn characteristics of the collective bargaining process and why early negotiations are marked by exaggerated demands.
• Study variables that impact labor management negotiations
• Find out the two major approaches to wage adjustments: escalator clauses and wage reopeners.
• Study the nature of concessionary bargaining on the part of organized labor.
• Study administrative issues under collective bargaining, including the role of seniority and affirmative action.

HRM355 - Training Concepts

Objectives:

• Learn the strategic planning process, its components, and their relationships.
• Get theoretical approaches to learning and the importance of a training needs analysis.
• Write effective learning objectives.
• Discover the strengths and weaknesses of different training delivery methods.
• Identify elements of the development and implementation of training.
• Learn best practies in various training areas.
• Discover different types of management development.

MKT310 - Advertising Principles

Objectives:

• Describe the impact that advertising and marketing have on society
• Explain how marketers determine consumers’ purchasing motives and incorporate that information in the marketing mix
• Describe the importance of a creative IMC plan
• Identify ways that copy and print, electronic, and digital interactive media are used effectively in marketing
• Explain the importance of social media, supplemental media, and relationship building in marketing strategy

Textbook: Contemporary Advertising and Integrated Marketing Communications

MKT320 - Consumer Behavior

Objectives:

• Discover the effects of consumer behavior on research and marketing.
• Determine environmental factors that influence consumer behavior.
• Study the ethical responsibilities involved with retail management.

MKT340 - Retail Management

Objectives:

• Study the basics of retailing and how to manage a successful retail business.
• Discover important merchandising principles.

Organizational Behavior (3 credits)
This course provides an overview of management approaches.

Objective:

• Learn the process of human decision-making.
• Study conflict management, communication in groups, power and influence, and organizational environment, structure, and design.
• Learn about the fundamental forces of change.

Proctored Exam
You will be required to complete a proctored exam on selected courses each semester. These assessments will evaluate the knowledge and skills that you learned during the semester. You choose the time, the location, and the qualified exam supervisor.

Semester 7

Business Research Methods (3 credits)
In this course, you'll learn to distinguish between business research, decision support, and business intelligence systems.

Objectives:

• Distinguish among business research, decision support, and business intelligence systems
• Understand research ethics and codes-of-conduct issues, the goal of “no harm,” and differing dilemmas for participants, researchers, and research sponsors
• Discuss the requirements needed to formulate a research hypothesis
• Describe what’s included in research design, data collection, data analysis, and reporting, including the influence of the budgeting process
• Explain the basic stages, major types, major descriptions, and relationships among variables in research design
• Compare and contrast qualitative and quantitative methods and discuss the controversies surrounding qualitative methods
• Describe the strengths and weaknesses of various designs of observation approaches and when these studies are most useful
• Understand the process for selecting appropriate and optimal communications approaches
• Explain the relationship between attitudes and behavior
• Describe the management research question hierarchy
• Discuss the impact of the communication method and question construction on instrument design
• Explain the importance and applicability of editing, coding, and content analysis, and describe how to deal with “don’t know” responses and missing data
• Understand when and how exploratory data analyses and cross-tabulation techniques are used
• Define hypothesis testing development and procedures, statistical significance, and parametric versus nonparametric techniques

Business Ethics (3 credits)
This course explores the ethical and moral responsibilities of businesses in a capitalist system. It examines different approaches to ethics and morality, including the principles of egoism, utilitarianism, Kant's categorical imperative, and Rawls’s theory of justice. The course also focuses on how different moral philosophies might best be applied to business organizations and their activities. Many examples and case studies are used to explain how the ethical issues facing businesses ultimately affect all of us.

Objectives:

• Explain the importance of business ethics and decision making in terms of ethical theories and perspectives
• Discuss how corporate culture influences business ethics and public perspectives on corporate social responsibility
• Describe the ethical issues that arise through changes in employer responsibilities, employee obligations, technological progress, product safety concerns, and marketing methods
• Explain how ethical corporate governance influences corporate sustainability, environmental issues, and the prevention of conflicts of interest

General Elective (3 credits)
(Choose one) ...

ACC201 - Intermediate Accounting 1

Objectives:

• Compute earnings per share.
• Study lease transactions, cash flow, pensions, and benefits.
• Learn about income tax accounting.
• Analyze financial statements.

ACC202 - Intermediate Accounting 2

Objectives:

• Evaluate how companies should account for investing in other companies' debt and equity securities
• Differentiate between current and long-term liabilities and properly demonstrate the accounting treatment for each
• Analyze and account for other types of liabilities including leases, bonds, long-term notes, income taxes, pensions, and post-retirement benefits
• Examine shareholder's equity and share-based employee compensation and how they’re represented in financial statements
• Distinguish among various accounting changes and provide explanations for error corrections
• Discuss the treatment of cash and noncash transactions through the statement of cash flows

ACC210 - Cost Accounting

Objectives:

• Recognize how the knowledge of product and service costs is used to set selling prices.
• Discover techniques used to measure the performance of managers and subunits within an organization.
• Learn how the accounting system is used as a tool to motivate managers toward the goals of an organization.

ACC211 - Computer Applications in Accounting

Objectives:

• Explain how to install, register, and update the Sage 50® accounting software
• Print reports and back up data files using Sage 50®
• Record, post, and complete the accounting cycle for a service and merchandising enterprise using an automated accounting system
• Analyze the business flow of transactions in automated accounting systems, including customer lists, vendor files, inventory records, and employee files
• Demonstrate knowledge of the voucher system, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll systems, and departmentalized accounting
• Analyze and solve management accounting problems relating to operations and business profitability and financial reporting

COM110 - Public Relations 1

Objectives:

• Learn strategic writing in public relations, advertising, sales and marketing, and business communication.
• Discover the art of persuasion and the public relations planning process.
• Develop your research skills and get tips for writing clearly and simply, and for using proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
• Examine the writing styles and processes for emails, memos, letters, reports, proposals, news releases, broadcasts, ad copy, material for the Internet, speeches, newsletters, brochures, magazines, and annual reports.
• Discover the proper protocol for communicating information during a crisis.

COM115-Public Relations 2

Objectives:

• Get tips on research techniques and planning and evaluating a public relations program.
• Discover how to prepare and handle printed and video news releases, media alerts and media kits, and pitch letters.
• Explore the use of social media and the function of trade shows and exhibitions in public relations.
• Examine conflict management and how to manage public opinion.
• Analyze the role of public relations in a variety of sectors and settings, such as corporate, government, global, educational, nonprofit, and sports public relations.

FIN101- Financial Management

Objectives:

• Learn about investing in long-term assets.
• Study capital structure and dividend policy.
• Learn all about financial planning and working capital management.

FIN210 - Personal Financial Management

Objectives:

• Apply money management skills to personal financial goals and plans
• Formulate a plan for saving, protecting, and managing financial assets and debt
• Develop strategies for consumer and housing purchases
• Evaluate various types of investing
• Determine the type of investments that best suit your financial goals
• Construct a will, a trust, and an estate plan

HRM210 - Compensation Management

Objectives:

• Learn about the different forms of pay, the pay model, and compensation strategies.
• Determine the sources of competitive advantage.
• Study internal alignment and what factors shape internal structure.
• Create a skills analysis and a competency analysis.
• Learn the factors that shape external competitiveness.
• Determine how performance pay can motivate employee behavior.
• Analyze strategies for measuring job performance.
• Discover the key issues in benefits planning, design, and administration.
• Study unions and the impact of unions on wage determination.
• Learn the laws that regulate pay in the workplace.

INT205 - Introduction to Internet Multimedia

Objectives:

• Learn about graphics, sound, video, and animation.
• Study the best practices for how to incorporate multimedia into your website and for a user-friendly web design.
• Learn how to add databases to your website for greater functionality.
• Discover the basics of e-commerce for the web and how to effectively advertise your online business.
• Plan and design an attractive website using multimedia.

Business Elective (3 credits)
(Choose one) ...

BUS330 - Risk Management

Objectives:

• Study term risk, business risk, personal risk, pure risk, and other types of risk, and learn major risk management methods and organization of the risk management function within business.
• Minimize the cost of risk to maximize business value and the possible conflicts between business and societal objectives.
• Learn how pooling of independent loss exposures reduces risk.
• Learn when legal liability affects safety incentives.
• Study the tax benefits associated with life insurance and annuity products.
• Learn major types of employee benefits and why firms provide them.
• Get the basic history, features, and economic rationale of workers’ compensation laws and liability insurance.
• Study Social Security retirement, survivor, and disability and Medicare programs, benefits, and their financing.
• Find out about major types of property-casualty insurance contracts purchased by businesses and describe the negotiation of commercial insurance programs.
• Discover basic derivative contracts (options, forwards, futures, and swaps) commonly used for hedging, and distinctions between insurance and derivatives contracts.

FIN305 - Securities and Investments

Objectives:

• Study securities, and find out about markets.
• Study how to do a technical analysis. Learn how to select and create an investment portfolio.

HRM320 - Employee Benefits

Objectives:

• Discover legally required social insurance programs for employees in the United States.
• Learn about the characteristics of group insurance and individual insurance in the categories of life, medical, dental, and disability.
• Compare managed care plans with traditional medical expense plans.
• Study the general requirements that must be met by qualified pension plans with respect to eligibility and plan coverage; nondiscrimination in benefits and contributions; funding; vesting; limitations on benefits and contributions; payout restrictions; and top-heavy rules.
• Learn the difference in pension benefit formulas.
• Discover general features of pension funding instruments and when each might best be used.
• Interpret qualified and nonqualified pension plans.

HRM350 - Labor Relations

Objectives:

• Learn the current trends in labor organization in light of changes in the labor force, such as the trend toward a two-tier wage system.
• Discover why workers join unions and why management is sometimes not enthusiastic about unions.
• Study the long struggle to establish the voice of organized labor in America from the nineteenth century to the present.
• Discover the relationship between national and local unions.
• Learn characteristics of the collective bargaining process and why early negotiations are marked by exaggerated demands.
• Study variables that impact labor management negotiations
• Find out the two major approaches to wage adjustments: escalator clauses and wage reopeners.
• Study the nature of concessionary bargaining on the part of organized labor.
• Study administrative issues under collective bargaining, including the role of seniority and affirmative action.

HRM355 - Training Concepts

Objectives:

• Learn the strategic planning process, its components, and their relationships.
• Get theoretical approaches to learning and the importance of a training needs analysis.
• Write effective learning objectives.
• Discover the strengths and weaknesses of different training delivery methods.
• Identify elements of the development and implementation of training.
• Learn best practies in various training areas.
• Discover different types of management development.

MKT310 - Advertising Principles

Objectives:

• Discover services provided by an advertising agency.
• Get the major trends in the history of American advertising.
• Study persuasive techniques used to market products and services.
• Recognize the purposes of advertising research.
• Study how advertisements are created for print, radio, television, and Internet audiences.
• Discover the societal and governmental forces that regulate the advertising industry.

MKT320 - Consumer Behavior

Objectives:

• Discover the effects of consumer behavior on research and marketing.
• Determine environmental factors that influence consumer behavior.
• Study the ethical responsibilities involved with retail management.

MKT340 - Retail Management

Objectives:

• Study the basics of retailing and how to manage a successful retail business.
• Discover important merchandising principles.

International Business (3 credits)
Learn theories of and influences on international trade.

Objectives:

• Identify cultural forces and values managers must recognize.
• Summarize how environmental, political, economic, and socioeconomic factors relate to business.
• Study labor and employment factors that affect productivity and profitability.
• Learn methods for entering the international market and the decision-making process among parent and subsidiary units of an international company.
• Discover the difference between domestic and international marketing.
• Get an overview of the challenges of staffing overseas offices and the major challenges of international accounting.

Proctored Exam
You will be required to complete a proctored exam on selected courses each semester. These assessments will evaluate the knowledge and skills that you learned during the semester. You choose the time, the location, and the qualified exam supervisor.

Semester 8

Strategic Business Management (3 credits)
In this course, you'll learn the elements of good strategy, good strategy execution, and good management.

Objectives:

• Describe the five phases of strategy and the execution processes
• Analyze a company’s environment, resources, capabilities, and competiveness
• Apply strategies to be competitive in the marketplace, hire talent, diversify, manage ethical and social responsibilities
• Create strategies to build organizational structure, manage internal operations, and cultivate corporate culture

Senior Capstone: Business (4 credits)
In this capstone, exercise your critical thinking skills by using case studies to explain the benefits of professional-development activities.

Objectives:

• Evaluate the professional-development potential of specific workshops, conferences, seminars, and professional business meetings.
• Plan for and arrange to attend professional development events.
• Present your reflections on the value of professional development activities.
• Identify discernible errors, irregularities, and improprieties in style and format within publicly reported data.
• Meet financial statement presentation requirements for a specific real-world example.
• Estimate variable and fixed costs for a publicly traded company.
• Assess publicly disseminated information from publicly traded companies to determine the feasibility of market potential and market penetration.
• Apply knowledge of generally accepted accounting principles to a specific real-world example.
• Integrate statistical analyses and scatter plots, line graphs, and regression to determine the reliability of financial information prepared for external use.
• Use analytical review procedures to examine a firm’s financial statements.

General Elective (3 credits)
(Choose one) ...

ACC201 - Intermediate Accounting 1

Objectives:

• Compute earnings per share.
• Study lease transactions, cash flow, pensions, and benefits.
• Learn about income tax accounting.
• Analyze financial statements.

ACC202 - Intermediate Accounting 2

Objectives:

• Study the differences between current liabilities and long-term liabilities, and focus on short-term liabilities and the contingencies they present.
• Discover the treatment of long-term liabilities.
• Find out the effects and treatment of income taxes.
• Account for pensions and retirement benefits.
• Study invested capital and earned capital in relation to the creditor’s interest in the assets of a corporation through shareholder’s equity.

ACC210 - Cost Accounting

Objectives:

• Recognize how the knowledge of product and service costs is used to set selling prices.
• Discover techniques used to measure the performance of managers and subunits within an organization.
• Learn how the accounting system is used as a tool to motivate managers toward the goals of an organization.

ACC211 - Computer Applications in Accounting

Objectives:

• Explain how to install, register, and update the Sage 50® accounting software
• Print reports and back up data files using Sage 50®
• Record, post, and complete the accounting cycle for a service and merchandising enterprise using an automated accounting system
• Analyze the business flow of transactions in automated accounting systems, including customer lists, vendor files, inventory records, and employee files
• Demonstrate knowledge of the voucher system, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll systems, and departmentalized accounting
• Analyze and solve management accounting problems relating to operations and business profitability and financial reporting

COM110 - Public Relations 1

Objectives:

• Learn strategic writing in public relations, advertising, sales and marketing, and business communication.
• Discover the art of persuasion and the public relations planning process.
• Develop your research skills and get tips for writing clearly and simply, and for using proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
• Examine the writing styles and processes for emails, memos, letters, reports, proposals, news releases, broadcasts, ad copy, material for the Internet, speeches, newsletters, brochures, magazines, and annual reports.
• Discover the proper protocol for communicating information during a crisis.

COM115-Public Relations 2

Objectives:

• Get tips on research techniques and planning and evaluating a public relations program.
• Discover how to prepare and handle printed and video news releases, media alerts and media kits, and pitch letters.
• Explore the use of social media and the function of trade shows and exhibitions in public relations.
• Examine conflict management and how to manage public opinion.
• Analyze the role of public relations in a variety of sectors and settings, such as corporate, government, global, educational, nonprofit, and sports public relations.

FIN101- Financial Management

Objectives:

• Learn about investing in long-term assets.
• Study capital structure and dividend policy.
• Learn all about financial planning and working capital management.

FIN210 - Personal Financial Management

Objectives:

• Apply money management skills to personal financial goals and plans
• Formulate a plan for saving, protecting, and managing financial assets and debt
• Develop strategies for consumer and housing purchases
• Evaluate various types of investing
• Determine the type of investments that best suit your financial goals
• Construct a will, a trust, and an estate plan

HRM210 - Compensation Management

Objectives:

• Learn about the different forms of pay, the pay model, and compensation strategies.
• Determine the sources of competitive advantage.
• Study internal alignment and what factors shape internal structure.
• Create a skills analysis and a competency analysis.
• Learn the factors that shape external competitiveness.
• Determine how performance pay can motivate employee behavior.
• Analyze strategies for measuring job performance.
• Discover the key issues in benefits planning, design, and administration.
• Study unions and the impact of unions on wage determination.
• Learn the laws that regulate pay in the workplace.

INT205 - Introduction to Internet Multimedia

Objectives:

• Learn about graphics, sound, video, and animation.
• Study the best practices for how to incorporate multimedia into your website and for a user-friendly web design.
• Learn how to add databases to your website for greater functionality.
• Discover the basics of e-commerce for the web and how to effectively advertise your online business.
• Plan and design an attractive website using multimedia.

Business Electives (6 credits)
(Choose one) ...

BUS330 - Risk Management

Objectives:

• Study term risk, business risk, personal risk, pure risk, and other types of risk, and learn major risk management methods and organization of the risk management function within business.
• Minimize the cost of risk to maximize business value and the possible conflicts between business and societal objectives.
• Learn how pooling of independent loss exposures reduces risk.
• Learn when legal liability affects safety incentives.
• Study the tax benefits associated with life insurance and annuity products.
• Learn major types of employee benefits and why firms provide them.
• Get the basic history, features, and economic rationale of workers’ compensation laws and liability insurance.
• Study Social Security retirement, survivor, and disability and Medicare programs, benefits, and their financing.
• Find out about major types of property-casualty insurance contracts purchased by businesses and describe the negotiation of commercial insurance programs.
• Discover basic derivative contracts (options, forwards, futures, and swaps) commonly used for hedging, and distinctions between insurance and derivatives contracts.

FIN305 - Securities and Investments

Objectives:

• Study securities, and find out about markets.
• Study how to do a technical analysis. Learn how to select and create an investment portfolio.

HRM320 - Employee Benefits

Objectives:

• Discover legally required social insurance programs for employees in the United States.
• Learn about the characteristics of group insurance and individual insurance in the categories of life, medical, dental, and disability.
• Compare managed care plans with traditional medical expense plans.
• Study the general requirements that must be met by qualified pension plans with respect to eligibility and plan coverage; nondiscrimination in benefits and contributions; funding; vesting; limitations on benefits and contributions; payout restrictions; and top-heavy rules.
• Learn the difference in pension benefit formulas.
• Discover general features of pension funding instruments and when each might best be used.
• Interpret qualified and nonqualified pension plans.

HRM350 - Labor Relations

Objectives:

• Learn the current trends in labor organization in light of changes in the labor force, such as the trend toward a two-tier wage system.
• Discover why workers join unions and why management is sometimes not enthusiastic about unions.
• Study the long struggle to establish the voice of organized labor in America from the nineteenth century to the present.
• Discover the relationship between national and local unions.
• Learn characteristics of the collective bargaining process and why early negotiations are marked by exaggerated demands.
• Study variables that impact labor management negotiations
• Find out the two major approaches to wage adjustments: escalator clauses and wage reopeners.
• Study the nature of concessionary bargaining on the part of organized labor.
• Study administrative issues under collective bargaining, including the role of seniority and affirmative action.

HRM355 - Training Concepts

Objectives:

• Learn the strategic planning process, its components, and their relationships.
• Get theoretical approaches to learning and the importance of a training needs analysis.
• Write effective learning objectives.
• Discover the strengths and weaknesses of different training delivery methods.
• Identify elements of the development and implementation of training.
• Learn best practies in various training areas.
• Discover different types of management development.

MKT310 - Advertising Principles

Objectives:

• Discover services provided by an advertising agency.
• Get the major trends in the history of American advertising.
• Study persuasive techniques used to market products and services.
• Recognize the purposes of advertising research.
• Study how advertisements are created for print, radio, television, and Internet audiences.
• Discover the societal and governmental forces that regulate the advertising industry.

MKT320 - Consumer Behavior

Objectives:

• Discover the effects of consumer behavior on research and marketing.
• Determine environmental factors that influence consumer behavior.
• Study the ethical responsibilities involved with retail management.

MKT340 - Retail Management

Objectives:

• Study the basics of retailing and how to manage a successful retail business.
• Discover important merchandising principles.

Proctored Exam
You will be required to complete a proctored exam on selected courses each semester. These assessments will evaluate the knowledge and skills that you learned during the semester. You choose the time, the location, and the qualified exam supervisor.

Graduation Requirements

• Complete all 8 semesters.
• Pass all courses.
• Achieve a cumulative Quality Point Average (QPA) of 2.0 or higher.