The future: the only constant is change. The only certainty is uncertainty. So how do you prepare today for what might come tomorrow? In this introductory, interdisciplinary course unique to Excelsior University, you will learn through questions, not answers. You will challenge your prior assumptions, open your mind, and consider society s future dilemmas, progress, and crises. You will plan and question your own future your educational path, career trajectories, personal interests, ambitions, and mindsets. And you will build the foundational skills and flexibility of mind research and writing, critical thinking, argumentative reasoning, metacognition, and self-regulation to help you navigate the uncertainty and change of our future societies, workplaces, and selves. Note: This course must be completed with a grade of C or higher. Registration in this course is restricted to incoming students with fewer than 60 transfer credits. This course duplicates IND301 and CCS120. Credit for only one of these courses will be applied toward graduation. The Cornerstone cannot be completed in the same term as a Capstone course.

Information literacy is the ability to find, evaluate, interpret, and use information legally, ethically, and effectively. This course provides a broad overview of information literacy concepts, including the differences between academic and popular research methods, finding and evaluating sources, reading sources critically, writing with sources, and safely navigating information networks such as the internet. Students must complete information literacy within their first 13 credits at Excelsior.

This course offers an introduction to the major concepts, theoretical perspectives, research methods, and scholarship in sociology. Sociology is the scientific study of human social behavior, and this course examines several important sociological topics, including: culture; socialization; deviance; social inequality; social institutions; and social change. This course also explores various socio-historical and socio-cultural frameworks across the world, promoting an appreciation for unique cultural identities and institutions. Students will improve their analysis, understanding and interpretation of contemporary social issues in this rapidly changing world. This course encourages the practice of "doing" sociology through exploration of students' everyday social world, and the often invisible and taken-for-granted social forces that shape it.

This class provides students with foundational knowledge and skills to prepare them for academic and professional writing. By analyzing the work of other writers, students will learn to approach writing from a rhetorical and genre-based perspective. They will practice sentence- and paragraph-level writing, learning to revise and correct their own work. They will also work on finding, documenting, and effectively integrating sources into a research-based essay. Both traditional (textual) and multimodal (textual and visual) composition will be addressed.

The goal of this course is to help students develop mathematical reasoning and problem solving skills that will serve them well in their lives both in and out of school. Topics will include the important real-world applications of measurement units, managing money, statistics in the media, the mathematics of voting, and mathematics in the arts and nature. Providing correct solutions to routine problems is not the goal; more important is the ability to communicate effectively about mathematical reasoning and to solve realistic, practical problems both collaboratively with other students and individually. This is a survey course introducing the student to a variety of mathematical topics. It does not prepare a student for future courses that require a knowledge of algebra (e.g. PreCalculus or Statistics).

This course introduces students to the skills and theories of interpersonal communication, which are essential for building and maintaining successful personal and professional relationships. Students will evaluate the complicated interactions of psychological, social and cultural forces involved in interpersonal exchanges, while learning about personality traits, the perception of self and others, listening, managing conflict, and verbal and non-verbal communication.

The purpose of this course is to give the student an overview of current and emerging trends in science and technology so that s/he will be able to make informed decisions and be an informed consumer. The course will introduce the scientific method and terminology used in reporting scientific results. A survey of current topical science issues will be covered as examples. This course will also prepare the student to read accounts about scientific, technological, and medical advances in the press and assess the scientific conclusions presented.

Free elective credit may be earned in any field of collegiate study. Please contact your academic advisor to discuss course options.

Free elective credit may be earned in any field of collegiate study. Please contact your academic advisor to discuss course options.

This course helps students to develop their skill as public speakers and oral communicators. Designed to provide students with a supportive environment where they can  overcome the anxiety they may feel about public speaking, the class emphasizes techniques and practices for effective speech construction and delivery. Students will also develop critical thinking and listening skills. Students taking this course will need access to recording equipment for the purpose of creating podcasts, voiced-over PowerPoint presentations and videotaped speeches.

Free elective credit may be earned in any field of collegiate study. Please contact your academic advisor to discuss course options.

Free elective credit may be earned in any field of collegiate study. Please contact your academic advisor to discuss course options.

Free elective credit may be earned in any field of collegiate study. Please contact your academic advisor to discuss course options.

Free elective credit may be earned in any field of collegiate study. Please contact your academic advisor to discuss course options.

Free elective credit may be earned in any field of collegiate study. Please contact your academic advisor to discuss course options.

This course is an introductory survey of US history from pre-European contact through the end of Reconstruction in 1877. Students will examine the major political, social, and economic trends in the American colonies and new nation, with a particular focus on diversity and cross-cultural encounters. Students will learn to think like a historian by contextualizing the past through a research project about a major trial in early American history, applying historical information to our contemporary world, and reading and interpreting primary sources. This course uses a lower-cost interactive webtext instead of a traditional textbook.

This course is an introductory survey of US history from the end of Reconstruction in 1877 through the recent past. The course examines the evolution of the United States from a nation torn apart by war to a global superpower. Students will study major political, social, and economic trends in the modern United States, with a particular focus on diversity and cross-cultural encounters. Students will engage in primary and secondary source analysis and learn to communicate historical arguments using a variety of tools. This course uses a lower-cost interactive webtext instead of a traditional textbook.

Free elective credit may be earned in any field of collegiate study. Please contact your academic advisor to discuss course options.

In this interdisciplinary course, students will develop the analytical skills necessary to examine ethical issues in the workplace. Students explore conventional ethical theories and principles, develop ethical decision-making, and resolve common dilemmas. Students discuss the multiple challenges faced by professionals and identify ethical practices or codes that apply to each of their own professions.

Free elective credit may be earned in any field of collegiate study. Please contact your academic advisor to discuss course options.

The associate degree capstone is the culminating experience for students in the Associate Degree in Liberal Arts program. In the course, students demonstrate and reflect on the knowledge and skills they have acquired in the degree program and in other educational experiences up to this point. Students demonstrate mastery of the five Associate Degree in Liberal Arts learning outcomes: written and oral communication, cultural and global diversity, problem solving, ethics, and professional development. Students will Demonstrate these outcomes through individual and group assignments, multi-modal presentations, and a final research paper. This is an intense 8-week course with significant research and writing expectations. It is strongly recommended that students have prior experience with online course work, and particularly Excelsior University courses, before attempting this course. This course requires the completion of the listed prerequisites and the permission of the student's advisor.