Cluster 2 — Business & Administration

Overview

ADMN 201 introduces students to the fundamental business topics (or functions) that comprise the typical majors found in business studies at universities around the world, including accounting, finance, management, and marketing. ADMN 201 also covers a variety of business-related topics, including the business environments (economic, cultural, political, and legal, all from an international perspective), ethics and social responsibility, business types, and entrepreneurship. ADMN 201 introduces students not only to business ideas and concepts, but also to the terms and concepts that are important for understanding modern business. Understanding these business terms will lay the groundwork for taking more in-depth business courses and for discussing business and management ideas in the workplace.

Outline

• Part 1: Introducing the Contemporary Business World
• Lesson 1: Understanding the Canadian Business System
• Lesson 2: The Environment of Business
• Lesson 3: Conducting Business Ethically and Responsibly
• Lesson 4: Entrepreneurship, Small Business, and New Venture Creation
• Lesson 5: The Global Context of Business
• Part 2: The Business of Managing
• Lesson 6: Managing the Business Enterprise
• Lesson 7: Organizing the Business Enterprise
• Lesson 8: Managing Human Resources and Labour Relations
• Lesson 9: Motivating, Satisfying, and Leading Employees
• Part 3: Managing Operations and Information
• Lesson 10: Operations Management, Productivity, and Quality
• Lesson 11: Understanding Accounting
• Part 4: Principles of Marketing
• Lesson 12: Understanding Marketing Principles and Developing Products
• Lesson 13: Pricing, Promoting, and Distributing Products
• Part 5: Managing Financial Issues
• Lesson 14: Money and Banking
• Lesson 15: Financial Decisions and Risk Management

Learning outcomes

• After completion of this course, students should be able to
• define what a business is and explain its economic and societal roles.
• explore international trade and the global business environment.
• identify the ways that ethics and social responsibility shape the behaviour of businesses.
• describe the contributions small businesses and entrepreneurs make to the Canadian economy.
• discuss the four primary business functions: accounting, finance, management, and marketing.
• explain the four basic areas of management: strategic planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.
• discuss the roles that employees have in business, and explain how to motivate employees.
• discuss the supply chain and production of goods.
• define marketing and outline its role for creating exchanges between businesses and their customers.
• explain the need for and use of financial information created by the accounting function.
• describe the importance of financial tools such as money, banking, and investments.

Evaluation

Your final grade in ADMN 201 is determined by a weighted average of the grades you receive on three written assignments, a midterm exam, and a final exam. To receive credit for ADMN 201, you must achieve a minimum grade of 50% on each of the exams and an overall grade of D (50 percent) or better for the entire course. You are advised not to attempt the final exam until you have received feedback on all three assignments.

The weighting of each assessment activity is indicated in the table below:

The midterm and final examinations for this course must be requested in advance and written under the supervision of an AU-approved exam invigilator. Invigilators include either ProctorU or an approved in-person invigilation centre that can accommodate online exams. Students are responsible for payment of any invigilation fees. Information on exam request deadlines, invigilators, and other exam-related questions, can be found at the Exams and grades section of the Calendar.

Digital course materials

• Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
• Ebert, R. J., Griffin, R. W., Dracopoulos, G., & Starke, F. A. (2023). Business essentials (10th Canadian ed.). Pearson Canada Inc. ISBN-13: 9780137369072

Other Resources

All other learning resources will be available online.

View Official AU Syllabus ↗

Overview

Interpersonal communication plays a central role in everyone’s life. We engage in communication in practically every aspect of our lives, whether in person or mediated via digital or analog media. However, much of our communication practices are a result of habits, and we rarely make a conscious effort to communicate more effectively.

Business and organizations rely on interpersonal communication, as much professional activity involves teamwork with coworkers, conversing with customers, and meeting with clients and partners. To overcome and avoid interpersonal communication problems, you must learn to enhance your listening skills and your verbal and nonverbal communication techniques. As well, you need to keep in mind the social and cultural contexts in which you interact with others.

COMM 243 introduces you to the challenges and rewards of communicating with others in professional settings. After completing the course, you will be able to detect communication problems, act as an effective communicator, and provide sound advice about ways to improve communication outcomes.

Through a simulated work environment, you will interact with virtual coworkers and clients to complete tasks and assignments that mimic actual interpersonal communication issues in a workplace setting. Educational material and individual, iterative feedback will guide you through developing skills that will not only be essential for successfully completing the course but will also help you excel in your chosen career.

Learning outcomes

• After successfully completing this course, you should be able to
• relate key concepts to communication problems you observe or experience at work.
• understand the social and cultural contexts in which interpersonal communication takes place.
• resolve and avoid interpersonal problems to better achieve organizational and individual goals.

Evaluation

To receive credit for COMM 243, you must achieve a minimum grade of D (50 percent) on the Final Examination, and achieve an overall grade of at least D (50 percent) in the entire course. The distribution of marks for the various credit activities is listed below:

The final examination for this course must be requested in advance and written under the supervision of an AU-approved exam invigilator. Invigilators include either ProctorU or an approved in-person invigilation centre that can accommodate online exams. Students are responsible for payment of any invigilation fees. Information on exam request deadlines, invigilators, and other exam-related questions, can be found at the Exams and grades section of the Calendar.

Work and assignments not submitted for evaluation will receive a grade of 0 percent.

Materials

• Registration in this course includes access to an online simulation platform. This learning platform includes interactive discussions and exercises as well as extensive educational texts and videos.
• As this course makes continuous use of an interactive online environment and online videos, it requires students to have regular access to a desktop or laptop computer with a high-speed Internet connection. It is not possible to download the course material and complete this course predominantly offline.
• Although you may be able to access the course website ahead of your start date, there is no early access to the simulation platform.

View Official AU Syllabus ↗

Overview

This course introduces you to microeconomics—the area of economics that deals with the behaviour of specific economic units (households and firms). Microeconomics focuses on the operation of the economy at the level of the units in which basic choices are made in the face of scarcity; therefore, it is primarily concerned with markets and prices.

The course as a whole is designed to allow you to gain the knowledge and skills you will need to accomplish the following objectives:

Describe how certain economic principles are derived.

Explain specific economic principles, and give examples of their application.

Select an appropriate principle and, given the relevant facts, apply it to derive a solution for an economic problem.

Outline

• Unit 1: The Nature and Method of Economics
• Unit 2: The Market Forces of Demand and Supply—The Basics
• Unit 3: The Elasticity of Demand and Supply
• Unit 4: Markets and Economic Welfare
• Unit 5: The Economics of the Public Sector
• Unit 6: The Costs of Production
• Unit 7: Firms in Competitive Markets
• Unit 8: Monopoly
• Unit 9: Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly
• Unit 10: The Markets for the Factors of Production

Learning outcomes

• The course as a whole is designed to allow you to gain the knowledge and skills you will need to accomplish the following objectives.
• Describe how certain economic principles are derived.
• Explain specific economic principles and give examples of their application.
• Select an appropriate principle and, given the relevant facts, apply it to derive a solution for an economic problem.

Evaluation

To receive credit for ECON 247, you must receive a grade of D (50 percent) or better on the final examination, and achieve an overall grade of at least D (50 percent) for the entire course. Your final grade is determined by a weighted average of the grades you receive on the activities listed below. The weightings for each of these activities are as follows:

The midterm and final examinations for this course must be requested in advance and written under the supervision of an AU-approved exam invigilator. Invigilators include either ProctorU or an approved in-person invigilation centre that can accommodate online exams. Students are responsible for payment of any invigilation fees. Information on exam request deadlines, invigilators, and other exam-related questions, can be found at the Exams and grades section of the Calendar.

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.

Digital course materials

• Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
• Mankiw, N. G., Kneebone, R. D., & McKenzie, K. J. (2024). Principles of microeconomics (9th Can. ed.). Cengage. ISBN-13: 978-1-77841-176-2

Other Resources

All other learning resources will be available online.

View Official AU Syllabus ↗

Overview

This course will help you gain the knowledge and skills to effectively manage your personal investments. You will examine the budgeting and investment process, become familiar with investment math and terminology, and learn to assess and apply different approaches to investing.

The first two lessons focus on foundational topics and skills. Lesson 1 covers financial planning concepts, which lay the groundwork for successful investing, and Lesson 2 introduces you to investments. The course then takes on a more applied focus, through which you will learn and practice creating and managing an investment portfolio. Lessons 3 through 5 cover core investment concepts in more detail. Finally, Lesson 6 provides an opportunity to compare and evaluate investment philosophies and approaches.

Learning outcomes

• After completing this course, you should be able to
• interpret and explain personal financial statements and the budgeting process.
• perform basic financial mathematics calculations.
• analyze and interpret industry and economic factors that affect financial markets.
• explain basic investment concepts and terminology.
• assess risk and return potential for various types of securities, including stocks and bonds.
• develop and manage a simple investment portfolio.
• contrast various investment approaches and styles.

Outline

• Lesson 1: Financial Statements, Budgeting, and Planning
• Lesson 2: Investment Basics—An Overview
• Lesson 3: Security Analysis—Stocks and Bonds
• Lesson 4: Mutual Funds and Exchange-Traded Funds
• Lesson 5: Capital Market Analysis, Risk, Inflation, and Taxes
• Lesson 6: Learning from the Masters

Evaluation

To receive credit in FNCE 249, you must complete and submit three assignments (in order from 1 to 3) and the Assignment 2/3 Preparation exercise. Your final grade is determined by a weighted average of the grades you receive on these activities. You must achieve a composite grade of D (50 percent) or better for the entire course. The weightings for each assignment are as follows:

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.

Digital course materials

• Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
• Kapoor, J. R., Dlabay, L. R., Hughes, R. J., Stevenson, L., & Kerst, E. J. (2024). Personal finance (9th Can. ed.). McGraw-Hill. ISBN: 9781264840397

Other Resources

• All other learning resources will be available online.
• Year 4 – First Semester
• SOCIAL SCIENCES and SCIENCE CLUSTER

View Official AU Syllabus ↗

Overview

Students planning to study Accounting, Management Science, Finance, Economics, and Marketing will need a solid background of mathematical skills in order to understand, analyze, and solve the types of problems they will encounter in these subject areas. ADMN 100 has been designed to build the quantitative skills that will foster post-secondary success in the online learning environment in all key business areas. It will especially appeal to students who want to upgrade their quantitative skills to the level required to enter a typical degree program in business or economics. In addition to a review of basic arithmetic, statistics, and algebra, students will become familiar with the mathematics of business, management, finance, and investment. The course concludes with an introduction to the basics of accounting. We anticipate that, as a result of first working through ADMN 100, more students will successfully complete business-related degrees in a variety of specializations including Accounting, Finance, Management, Marketing, and Economics offered at Athabasca University and at post-secondary institutions anywhere in the world.

Outline

• Each lesson consists of a lesson overview followed by a series of sections, each of which consists of key objectives, required reading(s), and assigned online and written exercises. If course material outside of your textbook is to be reviewed, this will be in the form of lesson notes that you will need to work through. You will complete each lesson by taking an online Quiz that is worth 10% of your final course grade.
• ADMN 100 comprises the following ten lessons.
• Lesson 1: Review of Arithmetic
• Lesson 2: Review of Basic Algebra
• Lesson 3: Ratio, Proportion, and Percent
• Lesson 4: Linear Systems
• Lesson 5: Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis and Break-Even
• Lesson 6: Trade Discounts, Cash Discounts, Markup, and Markdown
• Lesson 7: Simple Interest
• Lesson 8: Compound Interest
• Lesson 9: Ordinary Simple Annuities
• Lesson 10: Accounting

Learning outcomes

• When you have successfully completed the course, you will have learned how to
• Perform arithmetic calculations that are important in business operations.
• Use algebraic operations and simplification to solve business problems that can be represented by linear equations.
• Apply ratios, proportions, and percentages to a broad variety of business situations.
• Construct cost-volume-profit charts and compute break-even values.
• Apply both arithmetic computation and algebraic manipulation to solve a variety of borrowing and investing problems involving simple interest.
• Apply arithmetic computation and algebraic manipulation to solve problems that involve borrowing and investing funds involving compound interest.
• Solve compound interest problems that entail finding the present value or future value of a series of dollar values called an annuity.
• Be familiar with the key principles and concepts that serve as the basis for accounting practices.

Evaluation

To receive credit for ADMN 100, you must complete one online quiz for each of the ten lessons in the course. Each quiz carries a credit weight of 10% of your final mark. Your course composite grade (the average of the grades you achieve on all ten quizzes) must be D (50 percent) or higher.

Digital course materials

• Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
• Hummelbrunner, S. A., Halliday, K., Hassanlou, A. R. (2021). Contemporary Business Mathematics with Canadian Applications (12th ed.). Toronto: Pearson Canada Inc.
• Miller-Nobles, T. L., Mattison, B., Mowbray, G., Meissner, C. A., Johnston, J. L. (2023). Horngren’s Accounting (12th Cdn ed.). Toronto: Pearson Canada Inc.

Other Materials

All other course materials will be accessed online.

View Official AU Syllabus ↗

Overview

Welcome to ADMN 232: Introduction to Management. This course translates management theory into effective management practice by examining what managers do and how they do it. The course presents theories of management applicable to the public and private sectors and then reconciles these theories with current practice. This course will introduce many new concepts and terms common to management theories and practices and require you to apply them to business scenarios.

Outline

• Section 1: Introduction to Management
• Lesson 1: Management
• Lesson 2: History of Management
• Lesson 3: Global Management
• Lesson 4: Organizational Environments and Cultures
• Lesson 5: Ethics and Social Responsibility
• Section 2: Making Things Happen
• Lesson 6: Planning and Decision Making
• Lesson 7: Control
• Section 3: Meeting the Competition
• Lesson 8: Organizational Strategy
• Lesson 9: Innovation and Change
• Lesson 10: Designing Adaptive Organizations
• Section 4: Organizing People, Projects, and Processes
• Lesson 11: Leading Teams
• Lesson 12: Managing Human Resource Systems
• Lesson 13: Managing Individuals and a Diverse Workforce
• Lesson 14: Motivation
• Lesson 15: Leadership

Learning outcomes

• When you have successfully completed the course, you will be able to
• describe introductory management theory according to its three basic functions: how it makes things happen; meeting the competition; and organizing people, projects, and processes.
• describe the major approaches that influenced the development of management theory.
• discuss the ways businesses adapt to doing business internationally under global influences.
• discuss theories of administration that apply to public and private sectors and describe how to reconcile these theories with current practice.
• describe the different kinds of managers and their roles in organizations.
• analyze an organization’s specific and general environment.
• discuss corporate social responsibility and ethical decision making.
• discuss the elements of managerial planning, leading, controlling, and decision making:
• describe how plans are used at various management levels.
• discuss the various methods that managers can use to maintain control.
• explain the steps to rational decision making in individuals and groups.
• understand business strategy, organizational change, and organizational structure:
• explain the components of sustainable competitive advantage.
• explain the different kinds of corporate, industry, and firm-level business strategies.
• discuss different methods to manage innovation and organizational change.
• discuss organizational structure including the types of departmentalization, job design, and methods to redesign processes.
• explain how to manage people effectively through teams, leadership, and performance management:
• discuss the implications of managing a diverse workforce and explain some ways to manage diversity.
• discuss the different kinds of teams and how to enhance their effectiveness.
• describe the steps in human resource planning and methods of recruitment.
• discuss performance management, including performance appraisal and compensation.
• explain how managers can use the theory behind basic motivational and leadership theories.

Evaluation

To receive credit for this course, you must achieve a minimum grade of 50% on each of the examinations, and a minimum overall course grade of D (50 percent).

The following chart describes the credit weight associated with each course requirement.

The midterm and final examinations for this course must be requested in advance and written under the supervision of an AU-approved exam invigilator. Invigilators include either ProctorU or an approved in-person invigilation centre that can accommodate online exams. Students are responsible for payment of any invigilation fees. Information on exam request deadlines, invigilators, and other exam-related questions, can be found at the Exams and grades section of the Calendar.

Digital course materials

• Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
• Williams, C., Champion, T., & Hall, I. (2024). MGMT: Principles of management (4th Canadian ed.). Cengage. ISBN: 978-1-77474-783-4; Etext ISBN: 978-1-77841-266-0
• The textbook companion website (MindTap) provides a number of resources that can help you achieve mastery of the material.

Other Resources

All other course materials will be available online.

View Official AU Syllabus ↗

Overview

This course is primarily intended for individuals who

may wish to start a business of their own,

have already started a small firm and may want to improve their entrepreneurial skills,

want to assess their own potential for such an option, or

have an interest in entrepreneurship and the start-up and growth of a new enterprise.

The course covers a range of topics that will increase your understanding of what it takes to succeed in an entrepreneurial career. It begins with an overview of entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial process and then expands to consider how to find and evaluate a possible idea for a new business, how to buy an existing firm or acquire a franchise, and how to develop a marketing and financial plan as part of a feasibility study for a new business concept.

The assignments in ENTP 212 provide you with a practical opportunity to realistically assess both the potential of a new venture idea of your own and the feasibility for a small business based on that idea. They will guide you through the completion of a comprehensive feasibility study of a new business concept, including detailed market and financial assessments. Throughout the course you will apply what you are learning and receive constructive feedback and support from an Academic Expert.

To succeed in this course, you should get started on the assignments as soon as possible. Give yourself enough time to do a great job; the concepts, skills, and techniques you learn along the way will form a solid foundation for an entrepreneurial career.

Outline

• Lesson 1: Overview of Entrepreneurship and the Entrepreneurial Process
• Lesson 2: Assessing Your Potential for an Entrepreneurial Career
• Lesson 3: Exploring New Business Ideas and Opportunities
• Lesson 4: Entry Strategies: Buy a Business
• Lesson 5: Entry Strategies: Considering a Franchise
• Lesson 6: Entry Strategies: Start a Business of Your Own
• Lesson 7: Conducting a Feasibility Study – Part 1: Market Assessment
• Lesson 8: Conducting a Feasibility Study – Part 2: Cost and Profitability Assessment
• Lesson 9: Legal Issues and Considerations
• Lesson 10: Where Can You Find the Money?

Learning outcomes

• After completing ENTP 212, you should be able to
• describe the concept of entrepreneurship and assess your personal fit for undertaking an entrepreneurial business venture.
• identify, generate, and evaluate ideas for new business ventures.
• identify and describe the primary entry strategies and the risks associated with each.
• conduct a market assessment for a new venture idea, which includes a description of the product or service offering and details of strategies for pricing, promotion, and distribution.
• conduct a financial assessment for a new venture idea, which includes the development of pro forma financial statements.
• develop a two-part comprehensive feasibility study that includes an overview of your business concept, a detailed description of your market and competition, a marketing plan, a financial plan, and a concluding discussion regarding future plans regarding your new business.

Evaluation

There are no examinations in ENTP 212, so your work on the five assignments is vital to your success in this course. To receive credit for ENTP 212, you must

submit all five assignments,

achieve a grade of at least 50% on Assignments 4 and 5, and

achieve a course composite grade of at least C- (60 percent).

*Receiving at least 50% on both of these assignments is required to pass the course.

Digital course materials

• Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
• Good, W., Croteau, M., Mayhew, W., Yap, R., & Ford, M. (2024). Building your dream: A Canadian guide to starting your own business (12th ed.). McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9781264850747.

Other Resources

All other learning resources will be available online.

View Official AU Syllabus ↗