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.

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.

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.

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

This course is designed for students who have not yet become proficient with the fundamental topics of algebra needed for further study in mathematics and statistics. Covered in this course are operations on signed numbers, properties of real numbers, linear equations and inequalities, the Cartesian coordinate system, graphing, polynomials, rational and radical expressions and equations, factoring, and quadratic equations.

This course develops data literacy and statistical thinking and essential skills for business process improvement. Topics covered include descriptive statistics and data visualization, distributions, sampling, Central Limit Theorem, estimation using confidence intervals, statistical inference, and single and multiple regression analysis.

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.

In this course, students will not only begin to understand what accounting means, but they will further examine how important accounting really is. Accounting knowledge can be applied to any industry, at any level of the organization. As the business world has come under tremendous scrutiny, all business professionals are expected to have a general knowledge of accounting and are thus held much more accountable for their financial practices. Accountants are responsible for providing data that is used to determine the present and future economic stability of an organization. This course presents an interesting opportunity for working professionals to examine the fundamentals of basic accounting concepts, assumptions, and principles. The topics chosen in this course will benefit any student who is responsible for managing budgets, reading financial statements, or making business decisions. 

In this course, you'll apply psychological principles and theory to your everyday life.  In addition to foundational topics like psychology as a science, learning and memory, human development, and consciousness, you will learn about some more specific topics like stress and health, psychological disorders and therapy, and human sexuality. Concepts learned in this course can be applied in any career to better understand behavior, thought, and emotion. Note: This course uses lower cost interactive courseware instead of textbooks.  

This course is intended to help students develop an understanding of the process of identifying, measuring, analyzing, interpreting, and communicating information in pursuit of an organization's goals.  By the end of the course, students should be familiar with technical skills for solving problems such as the fundamentals of basic unit costs, cost flow management systems and processes, budgeting and performance measurement, and cost analysis and pricing decisions.  As a manager, students should be able to identify relevant information, the appropriate methods for analyzing information, and working together with a team of addressing global and ethical issues.  Students will be able to think on their feet and address real-world business issues.

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.

This course focuses on the crucial behaviors of organizations at the individual, group/team, and organizational level. It examines how external and internal forces influence behaviors such as leadership, communication, management, employee motivation, engagement, and valuing diversity. The focus on domestic and global organizations includes private, public, and military organizations and the impact of organizational behavior on the effectiveness of the organization.

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.

This course provides an analysis of key legal issues affecting businesses. There is an emphasis on the development of legal strategies to support the venture over its expected life cycle. This course also focuses on the legal environment of the United States. Students examine a series of real-world scenarios and apply the legal tools developed during the course to those cases.

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.

Questions of ethics seem inextricably intertwined with business these days: Facebook and the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Wells Fargo, and Harvey Weinstein. The manager in today s workplace, whether they are in the private or public sector, needs to understand the ethical climate in which they are operating and navigate a path that allows them to acknowledge, understand, and act appropriately when faced with an ethical dilemma. This course will encourage you to prepare for the ethical challenges that you might face, through an exploration of ethical theory and the way in which personal values and ethical behaviors impact the culture of an organization. On completing this course, you will gain a greater understanding of how ethical principles relate to organizations within which they operate and how the perception of ethics can impact an organization in terms of reputation, functioning, and performance.

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

This course is designed to help you improve your academic and workplace writing skills. The course emphasizes research-based, argument-driven writing. You will complete a research paper, a workplace proposal, and an oral presentation related to your academic discipline or profession. You will practice finding, evaluating, and citing sources; paraphrasing and summarizing; outlining and paragraphing; and revising and proofreading.

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

Is Thor greater than Zeus? Can vampires be good guys? Why are so many American companies named after Greek Gods and Goddesses such as Nike, Amazon, Pandora, and the (Tennessee) Titans? Who gets to live forever and why? Explore these questions and other mysteries of the universe as we track the enduring role of mythology in our lives. Get to know Hercules, Cupid, Prometheus and Pandora. Read distinguished scholars like Mircea Eliade, Northrop Frye, and Carl Jung. Discuss the hero s journey, read creation myths, and watch Star Wars and Harry Potter. A healthy imagination and a love of action and adventure required!

This course provides students with a fundamental knowledge of the computer system and its components, including computer hardware and architecture, application software, operating systems, networks, and the Internet. Advanced topics such as information privacy and security, database and data warehouse, data mining, and legal, ethical, and privacy issues in the information technology field will also be introduced in this course. Additionally, students will participate in learning activities to develop the needed skills to work with Microsoft Office suite.

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).

Should a manufacturer produce automobiles or ventilators? Should a local government intervene when sugar cane farmers in an area burn stalks to expose cane and the smoke results in a costly rise in asthma treatment among children in a state-run Medicaid program? In this course you will sharpen your ability to understand choices you or others face in a range of personal, professional and public contexts as you are introduced to the framework economists use to compare alternatives faced by individuals, businesses and governments. Governments uniquely make rules. Governments also impose taxes offer incentives and make choices to redistribute wealth, protect, regulate hiring and conditions of work, internet service and air quality. It may surprise you to learn how microeconomic tools introduced in this course can be applied in such diverse contexts to measure and compare relative costs and benefits.

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

Course description: A study of fundamental management theories, examining the manager's role in today's global business environment. Topics include the role of managers in the business environment, strategies for planning and decision making, organization and controls, leadership, motivation, staffing, and managing change.

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

Human resources has evolved over the years. However, some of the basic tenets of understanding still remain and are necessary for both employers and employees. In this course, students will uncover topics including the role and context of human resource management, fair employment practices, human resource planning, human resource staffing, performance management, employee development, employee compensation, and labor relations.

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

An introduction to the discipline of finance, this course examines general principles of finance and corporate finance.  Topics include financial objectives of the firm, the time value of money, risk and return, capital budgeting, the cost of capital, financial forecasting, and ratio analysis, working capital management, EVA and MVA concepts, and current and future trends in corporate finance.

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

The course is an introduction to the language and issues of marketing with an emphasis on learning to develop responsive marketing strategies that meet customer needs. The course focuses on basic marketing concepts, the role of marketing in the organization, and the role of marketing in society. Topics include market segmentation, product development, promotion, distribution, and pricing. Other topics, which will be incorporated into the course, are external environment (which will focus on integrative topics with marketing, such as economics, politics, government, and nature), marketing research, international/global marketing with relevance to cultural diversity, ethics, the impact of technology on marketing, and careers in marketing.

Explores system development life cycle (SDLC) and project life cycle to enhance skills in budget and timeline management. Use of project management software to design project schedules, using bar charts, PERT and critical path method.

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.

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

In this course, we'll examine and analyze global business in its historical, theoretical, environmental, and functional dimensions. Our focus will be on understanding the growing economic interdependence of nations and the impact of that interdependence on managerial and corporate policy decisions that transcend national boundaries. This course will also provide an introduction to globalization and the cultural, economic, political, and legal environments of international business, including an overview of risks, challenges, and opportunities of competing in the global marketplace. Your key challenge will be to develop and present a business plan to launch a product or service of your choice in a foreign market.

Focuses on research findings about leadership, leadership practice, and leadership skill development. Explores and evaluates leadership practices, behaviors, and personal attributes of leaders and includes case studies of leaders and organizations. The course balances theory with real-world applications for a practical, skill-building approach to leadership.

This is a capstone course in the Bachelor of Professional Studies (BPS) in Business and Management. Students will analyze complex management situations to make strategic decisions related to process improvement.