Curriculum For Our Associate Degree In Business

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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.
• 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.

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Information literacy is a fundamental skill of writing and recording research. In this course, you’ll learn what it means to formulate correct and effective research questions. You’ll also learn how to go about conducting and refining that research for any given project.

Objectives:

• Identify how to formulate focused and specific research questions and the need for information
• Explain the different types of research tools, how they’re used to conduct different searches, and how to evalu­ate the quality and usefulness of the information found
• Explain how to cite sources properly using various citation styles in consideration of academic integrity, plagia­rism, and ethical use of resources

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This course outlines the elements of business and the challenges businesses face in a global environment, such as competition and economic factors. You’ll learn why accounting, technology and information systems, marketing, and management are essential to starting and growing a business. You’ll also learn the basics of managing financial and human resources and the ethical and social responsibilities required of a successful manager.

Objectives:

• Identify different elements that distinguish capitalism, socialism, communism, and mixed economies
• Define the role of small business in the free enterprise system
• Assess elements of the global economy, such as labor, capital, trade, and natural resources, and how they influence business
• Analyze the functions of business, such as management, organization, human relations, marketing, financing, and ethics
• Identify the purpose of business policy and strategy

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In the business world, people are sometimes put into management situations when they really don’t understand what management is all about. Although some are able to step into a management position and handle it naturally, others find the responsibilities to be overwhelming. Management courses are a must. For those proficient in managerial positions, management courses can help improve their skills and gain a better understanding of their new responsibilities. For those who are overwhelmed by a new management position, or who strive to secure a management position, management courses help by presenting concepts and ideas to build new skills.

This course is divided into lessons that discuss the foundations and principles of management, planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. As you read the textbook, try to relate the material to your own experiences. If you don’t have any management experience, try to put yourself in the place of your manager and relate the material to those experiences.

Objectives:

• Summarize the functions of management and the basic steps in various planning processes
• Explain how to make effective decisions as a manager and a leader
• Describe the fundamental elements of an organization’s structure and the components of an organization’s competitive environment
• Explain principles for setting goals that motivate employees, why companies develop control systems, and why teamwork is beneficial
• Analyze why diversity is a critical organizational and managerial issue, and describe the criteria for technology decisions and managing change
• Demonstrate the foundations and principles of management by completing an open-book proctored exam

Textbook: M: Management

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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

Additional Course Material:
Textbook: Living with Art, 11th Edition

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This course will provide a foundation in basic mathematical operations. You'll learn about percentages, discounts, interest, present worth, sinking funds, installment buying, pricing, depreciation, investments, insurance, the use of symbols and their applications, equations and formulas, and the importance of statistics.

Objectives:

• Analyze functions of whole numbers, fractions, decimals, and percents
• Show calculations involved in simple interest, compound interest, and time value of money
• Prepare various business math applications involving financial reports, installment buying, and depreciation
• Analyze various financial concepts related to taxes, insurance, financial investments, and basic business statistics
• Describe other HRM functions including collective bargaining, labor relations, global HRM, and building a high-performance organization
• Prepare for the final exam

Additional Course Material:
Textbook: Practical Business Math Procedures

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.

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Microsoft® Office allows people to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and databases. This course will teach you how to use three popular tools from the Microsoft® Office Suite — Word™, Excel®, and PowerPoint®. In this course, you'll learn how to use Word™ to create and edit text documents, insert figures and tables, and format pages for a variety of uses. You'll then learn how to use Excel® to organize and format data, including charts, formulas, and more complex tables. Next, you'll learn how to use PowerPoint® to create and deliver slide shows. Finally, you'll complete a graded project, which will test the skills acquired in Word™, Excel®, and PowerPoint®.

By the end of this course, you'll be able to:

• Create various Microsoft® Word™ documents.
• Produce a thorough Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheet.
• Identify the basic skills needed to use Microsoft® PowerPoint®.
• Synthesize what you’ve learned by integrating Word™, Excel®, and PowerPoint®.

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This course teaches the skills and techniques of effectively developing, drafting, and revising college-level essays toward a specific purpose and audience: active reading, prewriting strategies, sentence and paragraph structure, thesis statements, varied patterns of development (e.g., illustration, comparison and contrast, classification), critical reading toward revision of structure and organization, editing for standard written conventions, use and documentation of outside sources. Students submit two prewriting assignments and three essays (process analysis, classification and division, argumentation).

Objectives:

• Use writing skills to construct well-written sentences and active reading skills to understand and analyze text
• Develop paragraphs using topic sentences, adequate detail, supporting evidence, and transitions
• Describe the revision, editing, and proofreading steps of the writing process
• Distinguish between different patterns of development
• Use prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing to write a formal, college-level essay
• Recognize how to determine the reliability of secondary sources and to give proper credit to sources referenced in an essay
• Use prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing to write a formal, college-level essay
• Use techniques of drafting, evaluating, and creating a sound written argument

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This course will provide students with a basic understanding of the principles of financial accounting. Topics covered include analyzing transactions; completing the accounting cycle; merchandising businesses; inventories, assets, and liabilities; and corporations, stocks, bonds, and cash flow.

Objectives:

• Solve important accounting principles and concepts by creating four common types of financial statements: balance sheet, income statement, statement of retained earnings, and statement of cash flows
• Explain inventory systems, the inventory process, and the role of ethics in accounting
• Explain cash and receivables, assets, current liabilities, and debt
• Analyze stocks and the statement of cash flows and financial statements that are used to assess the value of a business
• Solve accounting problems using knowledge of accounting forms and functions

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This course covers the principles of marketing. Topics covered include assessing, analyzing, understanding, and targeting the marketplace, as well as the creation, capture, delivery, and communication of value. Students will learn how to develop a marketing plan; use social and mobile marketing effectively; integrate ethics into marketing strategies; influence the consumer decision process; perform market research; perform SWOT and STP analyses; make decisions concerning branding, packaging, and developing new products; price products and services fairly; set advertising objectives; and more.

Objectives:

• Analyze the many components that are considered and used when making marketing plans and strategies
• Analyze the foundation of the marketing model and its emergence
• Point out the targeted strategies and plans in marketing and globalization
• Formulate a plan of valuing production, innovation, and product marketing
• Develop valuing strategies for products and services in marketing
• Categorize the strategies for supply chain management and retailing
• Distinguish between the various domains under IMC strategies
• Design a marketing plan for an existing business

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SSC130 - Essentials of Psychology

This course covers biology and behavior, consciousness, memory, thought and language, intelligence, personality and gender, stress, and community influences.

Objectives:

• Describe the science of psychology, basic structure and function of the human nervous system, and basic struc­ture and function of the sensory system.
• Explain various states of consciousness, learning theories, and thought processes and development.
• Summarize the nature of human motivation and development, the human development cycle, and approaches to understanding and assessing personality.
• Prepare an essay on the topic of conditioning, memory, or motivation and emotion.
• Recognize psychological disorders and available treatments.
• Explain social psychology as it relates to attitudes, influences, behaviors, and stress.
• Use critical thinking skills to determine the likely causes of behaviors of individuals and groups discussed in case studies.

Textbook: Psychology and Your Life with Power Learning

SSC105 - World Civilizations

This course serves as an introduction to many of the major events of the fifteenth through twenty-first centuries. It also examines the causal relationships between events and trends all across the globe.

Objectives:

• Identify the causes and consequences of global trade and its conflicting worldwide impact
• Describe the impact of social and industrial revolutions, fifteenth century onward, on various nations
• Recognize the conditions that led to the World Wars, decolonization, and the Cold War
• Summarize post–World War II effects on the economic and political structures around the world
• Discuss an event that occurred after the fifteenth century and had an impact on a world civilization
• Explain the effects of World War II on the world population

Textbook: A History of World Societies, Volume 2 

SSC125 - Introduction to Sociology

In this introduction to the field of sociology, you’ll learn about social structure, forms of power, and social relationships, as well as deviance, crime, and social control. You’ll explore issues of identity and inequality regarding class, race, ethnicity, sex, gender, and sexuality. Social institutions including the family, religion, education, work, and the media are examined, as well as the topics of health, politics, social movements, globalization, and social change.

Objectives:

• Examine foundational concepts and theories of sociology and recognize how they inform research.
• Analyze the ways in which culture, social structure, and power influence daily life.
• Evaluate the effects of socialization, interaction, deviance, and social control on human behavior.
• Develop an essay reflecting on the importance of cultural traditions amid increasing globalization.
• Examine the ways in which class, race, gender, and sexuality influence identity and inequality.
• Distinguish the various social institutions and issues in the current global system.
• Develop an essay examining the ways in which social inequality informs social change and movements.

Textbook: Experience Sociology

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Music Appreciation

In this course, you'll practice the skill of active listening. Learning to listen differently will allow you to experience all kinds of music in a new way. Most listeners are familiar with how music makes them feel, and we often say we like a particular piece of music because it has a "good beat" or a beautiful melody. This course will allow you to go deeper. You'll identify what the composer might have been trying to convey and listen for the way elements of musical composition and performance make each piece unique.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to do the following:

• Identify the building blocks of music a composer can use to create a piece, such as rhythm, melody, harmony, texture, form, and timbre
• Differentiate between the music of the baroque era and the musical styles of previous time periods
• List the major characteristics of classical music, including form, melody, and instrumentation
• Describe the musical trends and innovations that occurred during the romantic era
• Relate musical styles of the early twentieth century to comparable movements in art and literature
• Explain the evolution of American popular music in the twentieth century
• Describe the influence of world music on modern western composition
• Synthesize research comparing composers' influence in their respective genres

Textbook: Experience Music

Introduction to Literature

This course will allow you to develop your critical thinking skills and broaden your knowledge of the main genres of literature — fiction, poetry, and drama.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to do the following:

• Explain how to effectively read fiction for both knowledge and enjoyment
• Identify different styles and forms of poetry
• Use what you've learned in this course to discuss, write about, and understand literature
• Prepare a critical interpretation of fiction or poetry based on what you've learned in this course
• Discuss how literary dramas differ from fiction and poetry
• Identify different strategies of critical literary analysis

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.

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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

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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:

• Analyze the various concepts related to managerial accounting and the cost accounting
• Show the different tools of management used for the decision-making process
• Identify the various budget analysis processes and the performance measurements for decision making
• Analyze the various components of capital budgeting, cash flow statements, and ratio analysis
• Solve examples of real-world accounting problems using knowledge of accounting forms and equations

Textbook: Managerial Accounting

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Algebra is the mathematical language used to interpret and represent patterns in numbers by using variables, expressions, and equations. Algebra is an essential tool used in business, science, and computer technology. Throughout this course, you’ll be introduced to algebraic concepts, along with real-world application problems from a variety of fields. In addition to providing a springboard to the discovery of underlying mathematical properties, these applications illustrate the importance of mathematics in your world.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:

• Demonstrate effective quantitative skills
• Solve algebraic equations, linear equations, inequalities, and absolute value equations
• Solve and graph linear equations and inequalities
• Solve polynomials
• Apply algebraic operations to rational expressions and rational equations
• Solve problems involving radicals and complex numbers
• Solve quadratic equations, rational inequalities, nonlinear equations, and nonlinear inequalities
• Calculate exponential and logarithmic functions
• Solve binomial expansions, sequences, and arithmetic and geometric series
• Prepare for the final exam

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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:

• Recognize how to use words correctly and effectively
• Produce a well-constructed interoffice memo, workplace email, and business letter
• Produce a brief business report based on findings obtained using research techniques and methods of documentation
• Produce an informal report that lists findings of an investigation and provides recommendation for issues raised in the findings
• Describe procedures for creating proposals, descriptions, instructions, and manuals for the workplace
• Create a detailed proposal designed to solve an internal human resource issue

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Welcome to your Human Resources Management course, which is designed to introduce you to the field. Your textbook's learning objectives, found at the outset of each chapter, are meant to introduce you to basic concepts, theories, and perspectives related to effective human resource management. Further, your text includes a wealth of case studies and features that will help you understand practical problems and applications of human resource management principles. If you're seriously thinking about a career in human resource management, you should take advantage of these extra features, even when they aren't assigned.

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
• Explain key aspects of the field of human resource management

Additional Course Materials:
Textbook: Fundamentals of Human Resource Management

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SCI120 - Introduction to Biology

An introductory course that explains the origin of life and the relationships between all living things. It describes how a significant number of organisms are structured and how they work, in order to enable students to discuss intelligently the various forms of life and their processes.

Objectives:

• Analyze cells and their processes for obtaining energy and reproducing.
• Explain how traits are passed on from one generation to the next.
• Explain how different species of living things have evolved and are classified.
• Write responses to fundamental biology essay prompts.
• Identify the characteristics and behavior of plants and animals.
• Diagram the anatomy and physiology of the human body.
• Describe the ecology of living things.

SCI140 - Nutrition 

Nutrition is the science that investigates how the body takes in, breaks down, and uses foods. The course will provide you with basic information on how these processes take place, including information about nutrients and how they contribute to the way the body functions. This will help you to have a better understanding of your decisions about food and diet. You’ll also learn about physical activities that can contribute to a healthier lifestyle. Because a central focus of nutrition studies is on health promotion, suggestions for individual nutrition choice will be discussed, as well as tactics for maintaining a healthy weight and keeping food supplies safe. 

Objectives:

• Describe how nutrition supports a body's wellness
• Recognize the body's use of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins 
• Identify the body's use of water, minerals, and micronutrients
• Discuss what nutritional needs are for a healthy weight and for an athletic lifestyle 
• Define food safety and the nutritional needs of humans over a lifetime
• Prepare a research paper on a nutritional topic 

SCI110 - Earth Science

This course covers a number of topics which are concentrated in four main categories: geology, meteorology, oceanography, and astronomy. Geology is the study of Earth, its minerals and rocks, and the many varied processes that formed our planet and continue to reform it today. Oceanography is the study of Earth’s oceans. Meteorology is the study of Earth’s atmosphere and astronomy is the study of Earth’s place in space and all things related. These four elements combined make up the Earth and are essential in understanding how the world works and how it’s evolving.

Objectives:

• Categorize the matter, minerals, and materials that compose the Earth
• Distinguish between the various theories about the forces behind the Earth’s history
• Differentiate between the elements and their ways of sculpting the landscape
• Point out the geological features of oceans and the important concepts of geology
• Categorize the causes and effects of various phenomena affecting Earth’s atmosphere
• Analyze the components of the solar system and the universe
• Demonstrate an understanding of the fundamentals of earth science by completing an open-book 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.

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This course will introduce students to the world of finance, including financial concepts, instruments, and financial decision making. Topics covered include financial assets, investing in long-term assets, capital structure and dividend policy, financial planning, and working capital management.

Objectives:

• Categorize financial management functions and organizational structure
• Analyze the time value of money, financial ratios, and risks and returns from investments
• Categorize the capital structure and the capital management of a firm
• Perform financial calculations and analysis related to basic financial concepts

Additional Course Material:
Textbook: Finance: Applications & Theory

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This course is an introduction to the legal environment of business. Topics covered include American court practice and procedure, torts, employment law, international law, environmental law, and contract law.

Objectives:

• Categorize the various sources of law in the U.S. legal system
• Analyze the formations and characteristics of sole proprietorships, partnerships, and the corporation forms of business entities
• Point out the various constituents of the contract law
• Show the rules of a written contract with the rights and breaching of a contract
• Report the contract laws that govern principal-agent relationships, law of agency, and labor-management relationships

Textbook: Business Law with UCC Applications

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This course provides an overview of management approaches.

Objectives:

• Analyze the fundamentals of organizational behavior, culture, and individuality
• Differentiate between the stages of perception, attribution, stress management, motivation, and engagement
• Point out the methods of fostering creativity, innovation, and decision making
• Distinguish between the concepts of effective communication, group making, and team development
• Categorize the elements of conflict, negotiation, and leadership
• Analyze the structure of organizational working and its associated elements
• Prepare a report on emotional labor perspectives at various workplaces by utilizing your findings

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In this course, you’ll learn how to make sense of the numbers that drive business decisions. You'll develop the skills to organize and visualize data effectively, enabling you to uncover relationships and draw meaningful conclusions. Probability will become your ally as you learn to express common knowledge using standardized language, allowing statisticians to communicate effectively. You'll explore unions, intersections, conditional probability, and the concept of random variables.

You’ll also gain experience estimating unknown population parameters and conducting hypothesis tests, preparing you to make reliable inferences. From analyzing variances to conducting ANOVA and linear regression, you'll gain a solid foundation in statistical techniques that are essential for making informed business decisions.

Objectives:

• Show the methods of collecting data and visualizing of qualitative data in statistics
• Analyze the methods of computing probability for discrete and random variables
• Apply sampling distribution methods, estimation, and hypothesis testing in business applications
• Point out the process of computing inferences, linear regression, and least square

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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:

• Describe how to effectively use of the 10 necessary steps to preparing and presenting a public speech
• Demonstrate effective delivery and presentation techniques through practice and rehearsal
• Show how to effectively organize and present a narrative/personal experience speech
• Make effective presentation aids to enhance your public speaking
• Produce a speech to inform your audience of a product or service
• Prepare a speech to persuade your audience on a topic in which you are personally invested
• Demonstrate the key elements of public speaking through a variety of formats and occasions

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.

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.