MKT 302 Marketing Fall II 2007 INSTRUCTOR: Bob Castaneda, DBA, CPA PHONE: Daytime 8am – 5pm Evening 6pm – 9pm Office: 312-498-2028 Office: 312-945-3168 EMAIL: rcastaneda@argosy.edu FAX: ALT PHONE: REQUIRED TEXTS: Title Author(s) Copyright Publisher ISBN Edition Marketing: Real People, Real Choices Solomon, M. R. & Stuart, E. (2007) Prentice Hall 0-13-229920-8 5th This Course Requires the Purchase of a Course Packet: YES NO 1 Argosy University COURSE SYLLABUS MKT302 Marketing Faculty Information Faculty Name: Bob Castaneda, DBA, CPA Campus: Contact Information: Office Hours & Telephone: Daytime 8am – 5pm Office: 312-498-2028 Evening 6pm – 9pm Office: 312-945-3168 FAX: 312-945-3169 Email: Bobcastaneda@att.net Short Faculty Bio: ABOUT THE PROFESSOR Roberto Castaneda received his graduate degree (DBA) in Accounting from Argosy University; (MM/MBA) in Marketing and Finance from Northwestern University, and his undergraduate degree in Accounting and Marketing from DePaul University. He is also a Certified Public Accountant. I am usually available from 9AM-9PM Central Time on most days, but attempt to reserve Sunday for my family. If you find you need to communicate with me at another time please let me know and I will try to accommodate your schedule if at all possible. I provide you with these times to make it easier to communicate with me, not to limit our contact and want you to know that, should you have an urgent need to contact me outside these time frames, you should not hesitate to do so. EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY Learning is a life long process to be cherished whether you are a part-time or full-time student. Obtaining a degree helps one to standout from the crowd for that next job, promotion, or to further personal enrichment. Course description: This course studies the management of marketing in a dynamic organizational environment, including an analysis of such functions as product development, promotion, channels of distribution, and logistics. Includes a survey of basic methods of market research. Course Pre-requisites: None Required Textbook: Solomon, M. R. & Stuart, E. (2007). Marketing: Real People, Real Choices. (5/e). Prentice Hall. ISBN: 0-13-229920-8 Technology: Pentium III CPU/ Windows 98; 128MB RAM printer; Microsoft Office; Adobe Acrobat Reader (full version); Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 (PC) 5.0 (MAC) or Netscape Navigator 4.08; Norton Antivirus. Course length: 7.5 Weeks Contact Hours: 45 Hours Credit Value: 3.0 Program Outcomes: 1. Communication 1.1 Communicate business concepts effectively, both written and orally appropriate to the audience 2. Team 2.1 Define the attributes of an effective team member and leader and the characteristics of an effective team in reaching specific business goals 3 3. Cognitive 3.1 Problem Solving – Given a business problem, select and defend a business solution chosen from specific alternatives 3.2 Information Literacy – Given a business research question, access information from a variety of sources, select appropriate sources to respond to a business question 4. Analysis/Application 4.1 Integration – Describe the interrelationship of the functional business areas of statistics, accounting, operations, finance, marketing, and strategy 5. Ethics/Diversity 5.1 Diversity – Identify the issues and challenges related to diversity in current business organizations 5.2 Ethics – Identify the issues and challenges related to ethics in current business organizations Course Objectives: Assignment Table Topics 1 Fundamental concepts of marketing Factors that influence the marketing environment of an organization: micro level macro level Market analysis SWOT analysis Trends Readings Assignments Chapter 1: Welcome to the World of Marketing: Creating and Delivering Value Discussion Question #1 Chapter 2: Strategic Planning and the Marketing Environment: The Advantage is Undeniable 1. Identify the major trends and forces that are influencing today's market landscape. If you were to order these trends according to their possible impact, which is the one trend that you feel will have the most impact. Give rationale for your choice. Assignment / Discussion #2 Read the article "Sales versus Marketing " by Chris Yeh by clicking on the following link: 4 http://www.clickz.com/experts/archives/mkt/discip_mkt/article.php/927301 On the basis of your reading, be able to answer the following questions for discussion during class. What is the relationship between Marketing and Sales? What are the general responsibilities of each of these departments in an organization? Consider the differences in opinions and approaches outlined in Yeh's article, would you recommend that the sales department should be a part of marketing department or vice versa? Discuss some actions to overcome this conflict between the sales and marketing personnel. Assignment #3 Marketing on the Web Choose one of the following Web Retailing companies and answer the following questions about them in a 1-2 page paper. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. BestBuy.com Berries.com Amazon.com 1-800-Flowers.com Allposters.com Bluefly.com Discoverystore.com Examine how the company uses its customers' needs, wants, and values to 5 successfully market to its customers. Submit a short report, which includes the answers to the following questions: What is the most important customer benefit stressed on this site? How does the company try to create a relationship with its customers? What evidence of enhanced customer value do you see? Based on what you see, rate their success on a scale of 1 - 5. If you were to rate the use of marketing concept on a scale of 1-5, to what extent does this site employ the marketing concept? Support your answer with relevant examples from the site. Identify and discuss the macro-environmental factors that influence this business and assess the impact of each of these factors on its future success/failure on a scale of 1-5. If the company were to conduct its business in absence of the Internet, how do you think it would have impacted the company? Assignment #4 Case Study You work with Body Build Corporation as their marketing assistant. Body Build operates a chain of gyms and spas across the United States . The company is planning to open a large health center with a gym and a spa that can cater to about 1000 people. The demographics and other details about the town where they will build a facility for the first time are as follows: Town population: The total population is 40,367. 6 Sex distribution: 60 percent of the population is male and 40 percent is female. Age distribution: 30 percent are children below the age of 15, 40 percent are between the ages of 16 and 30, and 30 percent are above the age of 30. General health of the population: 15 percent of the population is obese, and 5 percent are heart patients. Existing number of health centers with both a gym and a spa: There are six such facilities, catering to about 600 people. Existing number of gyms: There are 25 gyms, catering to about 3000 people. Existing number of spas without gym: There are five spas, catering to about 500 people. Write a two-page report on the marketing strategy that you will adopt to promote the health center in this town. The report should be addressed to the Marketing Manager and created using Microsoft Word. Use headings, bolding, and bulleted lists in your report. Week 1 : Final Project Now that you've learned about the basic concepts and the need for marketing in today's changing environment, select a company from the following list for which you would like to create a marketing plan. Courier Industry: UPS, FedEx Personal Computers: Gateway, Dell Airline Industry: Southwest Airlines, TED, and Song 7 Departmental Stores: Nordstrom, Federated, and May Automobile Industry: Toyota, Volkswagen Apparel Industry: Levis, GAP Footwear Industry: Nike, Reebok Your final project will comprise the application of different marketing principles and concepts to the company selected by you. This will entail mapping the company's business operations to the requirements of the different assignments, so it is recommended that you gain an in-depth knowledge of the operations of the company you've selected. You may want to begin gathering information from all probable sources right away. Some of the sources may include but are not limited to the Internet, public libraries, business magazines, newspapers, the Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, and so on. There are many sources from which you can gather relevant information. These include: annual reports, consultant/industry analyst reports, databases, Department of Commerce publications, Temple and other university libraries, trade and academic journals, Moody's, Value Line, the business press (Wall Street Journal, Business Week, etc.), and so on. You may be surprised and overwhelmed by the volume of information that is available for many topics, though you may have to do some "detective work" to locate them. Search engines such as Galileo, Hoovers.com, and Lexis-Nexis are extremely helpful. 8 2 International Trade International Marketing Strategic Planning for International Marketing Designing the Marketing Mix Online readings from the following Web site: Competitive Intelligence: http://www.kmbook.com/ci over.htm Discussion Question #1 Marketing Intelligence involves building internal databases to identify marketing opportunities. Suppose you are the marketing manager for a cell phone company. What types of information would you collect in your company's internal database? Do you think that some of this data would be useless for a company that makes a different product (say Shoes)? Why? Marketing Research Function Marketing Information Systems Marketing Research Projects Competitive Intelligence Chapter 3:Think Globally Locally/Act Ethically Assignment #1 Field Assignment (Marketing Research) The Consumer Market Consumer Decision Making Components of the Business Market Characteristics of Business Demand Determinants of Business Market Demand Business Buyer Behavior Market Segmentation Segmenting Consumer Markets Segmenting Business Markets Target Market Strategies Pepsi/Coke Taste Test: Chapter 4: Marketing Information and Research: Analyzing the Business Environment Offline and Online Chapter 5: Consumer Behavior: How and Why People Buy In the late 1970s, Pepsi was looking for a creative promotion campaign. Pepsi's national market share was 17 percent. Pepsi decided to stage a blind taste test using a sample of loyal Coke drinkers. Pepsi had the volunteers taste test two colas — one labeled M (Pepsi) and one labeled Q (Coke) — and state their preference. Your task as a part of this field exercise is to replicate the taste test comparing Coca Cola Classic, and Pepsi as follows: 1. Get 20 small paper cups and label ten with the letter R, and ten with S. Chapter 6: Business-toBusiness Markets: How and Why Organizations Buy Chapter 7: Sharpening the Focus: Target Marketing Strategies and Customer Relationship Management 2. Randomly assign Coca Cola Classic, and Pepsi to the letters R and S. Write down which soft drink goes with which letter. 3. Seek participation from your family or friends as taste testers. The subjects/participants should be regular consumers of non-diet cola. 4. Secretly fill each cup with the appropriate soda. 5. Put an R and S cup in front of each participant and hand each 9 Note: While reading, make notes of pertinent and important facts. You are required to reference your readings in discussions and apply them in the week's assignments. participant a copy of the Cola Taste Test Form provided. 6. To eliminate order bias, have part of your sample start the taste test with cup R, and the other half with cup S. Have them take a sip of water between colas and continue to sample and test in any order they wish. They can resample as needed to fill out the questionnaire. 7. Tabulate the answers during class and share with the class in the discussion forum. Use the Tabulation Format to submit your response. Along with the results, post a one-page introductory write-up for your test. Describe the gathering and the process. Review the consolidated results posted by the facilitator. Do you see a trend in tastes/preferences on the basis of geographical location, age, gender, and so on? Discuss the factors that could have resulted in diverse/similar results Week #2: Final Project Business Environment, Buyer Behavior, and Marketing Research For the product category that you've chosen for your Final Project, complete the following: 1. Suggest variables that you believe are important in segmenting the market, and discuss why you believe these variables to be the ones in differentiating customers for the product. 2. Describe at least two possible target market segments that you would expect to see emerge based on combinations of these variables. Describe their respective profiles (based on demographic 10 and psychographic variables.) 3. How do these segments differ from each other in terms of their purchasing behavior? 4. For the firm that markets your product, suggest which segment would be best for targeting. You should consider all the five factors used to select the target market. Make sure that you include your reasoning in your Final Project report posted this week. 3 Classifications of New Products Product Adoption and Diffusion Product-Mix and Product line Product-Mix Strategies Product Life Cycle Chapter 8 – Creating the Product Discussion Question #1 Chapter 9 – Managing the Product Pick any existing consumer product and suggest a innovative use for it. Be sure to suggest a use/application that is NEW and unknown. State the market segment for that innovative application of that product and discuss your rationale behind your market segmentation. Assignment #1 Failure of Promising Products It happens quite often that some products that seem to be extremely promising unexpectedly fail. Why does it happen? How could you make sure that a product doesn't fail? Submit a short essay, substantiating your arguments with examples. Assignment #2 11 Describing Market Segmentation Compare and contrast the bases of market segmentation in the following two industries. Identify/list market segments within each industry and state their most important preference. Provide examples of how companies "tailor" their products for each of these segments. Illustrate using examples of offerings that are aligned with the specific preference of the target market. Automobile Industry Airline Industry Include the following details in your report to compare market segmentation between the Automobile industry and Airline industry: Introduction Potential customers/target market Average cost per customer Market value Product attitude Loyalty status Buyer readiness state Conclusion Week 3 – Final Project Final Project: Product Life Cycle Define the following and submit a report. Expected Product Life Cycle A Branding Strategy 12 Main features of its packaging As you are working towards the final proposal you may want to make revisions and adjustments to you plans. Be sure to include your reasons for choosing a particular strategy over another. Discuss the common strategies that can be adopted to achieve a goal of getting a dream job. 4 Brands Branding Strategies Packaging and Labeling Nature and Importance of Services Marketing Managing Service Quality Chapter 9: Service and Other Intangibles: Marketing the Product That Isn’t There Chapter 10: Pricing the Product Discussion Question #1 Pick a product that has both industrial as well as consumer application. As its marketing manager, discuss the differences, if any in your approach towards the marketplace, that is your marketing strategy. Discuss the factors, such as customer characteristics and product characteristics that induce these differences in the marketing strategy. Assignment #1 Web Quest Conduct a Web Quest on Mazda Miata. You can choose to log onto a search engine, Yahoo or Google, and search by keywords such as Mazda Miata, marketing strategies, and corporate branding. What competitive advantage did the design cycle of the Mazda Miata provide to Mazda? What did they do that was innovative? Identify and describe four successful branding strategies that could have been used by Mazda Miata to gain competitive advantage. Also provide your reason for feeling why these branding strategies will be successful. Assignment #2 13 Field Activity — Retailing The objective of this field exercise is to find the optimal location for a new retail establishment. Select any of the following store types that appeal to college students: a bar, bookshop, pizzeria, or a coffee shop. You will perform the role of a "location consultant”. The task is to find an actual available location in your city/town. The assignment report to your client should include description, square footage, leasing terms, or price, and a justification for the selection of the site. Remember the justification of the site should focus on the demographics of residents around that location, and how it matches with your target market characteristics. Also you should consider issues such as present and potential competitors around the area, and even optimizing on the cost of the lease, etc. In your report evaluate a minimum of 4 sites based on the above parameters and finally recommend your choice. Submit your report with the following details : Introduction Store type selected Locations considered Reasons for considering these locations Location selected Description of the location Reasons for selecting this location Conclusion Week 4 – Final Project 14 Brand Management, Packaging, and Services 1. Describe a product, preferably from the industry from which you have chosen the product for your Final Project, which, in your opinion has failed in the marketplace. State how you classify it as a failure i.e. did the product not achieve its intended market share or profit or revenue, or did the product not work/perform as intended or was the product too late to the market. 2. Propose some hypotheses why the product did not "make it" in regular stores. Provide arguments supported by factual information as why the product failed. 3. Identify which stage of the NPD process failed or was ineffective, which led to the commercial failure of the product. Give concrete recommendations to revive/rescue the product by redesigning or repackaging. On the basis of your study, suggest what you would do differently when you launch your product. Propose a marketing strategy for your product that will ensure success. Submit the proposal in form of a written report. 5 Pricing Objectives Cost-plus Pricing Break-even Analysis Prices set in relation to Market alone Price versus Non-Price Competition Market Entry Strategies Discounts and Allowances Chapter 11: Pricing the Product Chapter 15: Creating Value Through Supply Chain Management: Channels of Distribution, Logistics, and Wholesaling Discussion Question #1 Internet retailing frequently uses dynamic pricing. Discuss the pros and cons of dynamic pricing. List at least three products where dynamic pricing should not be used, and give rationale for your selection. Assignment #2 Field Activity — Pricing Strategies 15 Identify pricing strategies for different product categories. Middlemen and Distribution Channels Designing Distribution Channels Selecting Distribution Channels Determining Intensity of Distribution Conflict and Control in Channels Nature and Importance of Retailing Non-store Retailing Chapter 16: Retailing: Bricks and Clicks Note: While reading, make notes of pertinent and important facts. You are required to reference your readings in discussions and apply them in the week's assignments. There are several ways that stores can price their products to maximize overall profits. One approach is to have a relatively constant margin on each product — “cost-plus” strategy. For example, the store might automatically price each product at 115% of the wholesale cost. Other stores choose to make small margins on some highly visible items “loss leaders” and “make up” for these lower margins by higher prices elsewhere. Stores also make tradeoffs between low prices and the amount of services they provide. Select five product categories of interest to you that are all sold in several different stores. For example, music CDs, laundry detergent, cereal, printer paper, automobile parts, microwaves, or lumber. Please consider interesting and unusual products! Visit at least three retail stores that carry all the products on your list. Collect prices on at least six items, a specific product, brand, and size in each store. Note your six items include different brands/sizes in the same product category. Summarize the prices of each item in each store in a chart. Do you see any patterns in the pricing strategy of each store? For example, does one tend to use loss leaders while another does not? What might be some reasons for these differences in pricing strategy? (Example: Does one store cater to a different segment than another? Are service levels different? Is one store simply using a better strategy? Please discuss your reasoning. 16 Submit a report on the assignment with the following details: Introduction Product Category Average Price of the Product Competitors Target Market Characteristics Average Sales Figures Media used for advertising Buyers’ Readiness state Conclusion Week 5 – Final Project Pricing Strategy Choose a product category. Evaluate your product with regard to pricing. Study the prices of other similar products in the market then complete the following. Determine a price range for your product after considering the costs, doing a Break-even analysis followed by a demand analysis. Decide upon the pricing strategy that you would like to follow to beat the competition. Create a report containing the Break-even analysis, the demand analysis, the price range, and the pricing strategy for your product. This report will be consolidated and submitted with that of the other Final Project assignment this Week. 6 Developing and Advertising Chapter 13: Advertising Discussion Question #1 17 Campaign Public Relations Sales Promotion Personal Selling Process Strategic Sales-force Management Evaluating Sales-force Performance Wholesaling Physical Distribution and Public Relations Chapter 14: Sales Promotion, Personal Selling, and Sales Management Chapter 15: Creating Value Through Supply Chain Management: Channels of Distribution, Logistics, and Wholesaling Illustrate with the example of a newspaper ad, Web site, or link to a print ad where the marketer intends to accomplish all these objectives: Inform Persuade Change Attitude/belief Do you think the marketer was successful in his objective? What could have prevented him from being successful? What could have made the ads more successful? Assignment #2 Advertising Choose four full-page print advertisements from any magazine. The advertisements should be ones that catch attention and/or intrigues. Choose these advertisements from different product categories: a) Consumer durable category, b) Services, c) Industrial or B2B product, and d) Internet retailer/service/portal. For each advertisement: 1. Identify the product(s) being advertised. 2. Who is the intended audience for the ad/product? How did you come to a decision about the intended audience? (There is often a broad audience that the ad might apply to but there is usually a narrower audience to which it is specifically intended to apply). 3. What is the desired purpose of the ad? (Consider the audience). 4. How does the ad accomplish its intended purpose? Briefly describe 18 the implicit or explicit message in the ad. 5. Is the ad effective? Why/how? Submit: 1. A scanned image or a digital photograph of the advertisements that you selected. Provide a link/citation of the magazine issue. This will help the facilitator to look at the advertisement and evaluate your answer. 2. A Word document with the answers to the above questions substantiated through the use of examples wherever required. Assignment #3 Case Study NewAwareness, an NGO, sells greeting cards, posters, and other stationery through its Web site to raise funds for AIDS research. You work as a freelance marketing consultant for NewAwareness. NewAwareness is launching a new range of greeting cards to be endorsed by a top Hollywood actor. The NGO is planning to engage an advertising agency to promote the new range of cards. Prepare a list of 12 marketing strategies that you’d recommend to the advertising agency on the promotional campaign for this project. Though you are to write the marketing strategies as a bulleted list, use complete sentences. Take care to include your rationale for recommendation with each point. Develop the list in Microsoft Word. 19 Week 6 – Final Project Distribution Channels and Retailer Selection Once you’ve completed the field assignment on retailing decide upon the distribution channels (and retail environment, if required) that you will like for your product. Base your decision on the target market, type of coverage required, economic factors, and the degree of control you would want to have on the channel. Prepare a consolidated report on the Final Project assignments of this week and submit the document for evaluation. 7 Planning as Part of Management Strategic Company Planning Strategic Marketing Planning Planning Models Evaluating Marketing Performance: Discussion Question #1 http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/rese arch/mma/1998/pdf/06.pdf State the five major promotion tools. According to you, which of these tools is most appropriate for each of the following: Promotion Methods Integrated Marketing Communication Communication Process and Promotion Determining the Promotional Mix Promotional Budget Chapter 2: Strategic Planning and the Marketing Environment: The Advantage is Undeniable Chapter 12: Connecting with the Customer: Integrated Marketing Communications and Interactive Marketing A University Human resource industry Power generation equipment industry Anti-Smoking awareness campaign Increasing sales of milk Why do you feel that a particular promotion tool is best suited to the needs of a particular industry? Assignment #2 Promotion Identify and critically evaluate the advertising, sales promotion, and public Note: While reading, make 20 notes of pertinent and important facts. You are required to reference your readings in discussions and apply them in the week's assignments. relations for two firms in the fast food industry. Submit your answer in form of an essay. Assignment #3 Case Study Read the following case from Wall Street Journal, and answer the following questions. 1. Describe your understanding of the term 'counter-branding' as it's used in the article. 2. Describe the creative/advertising strategy that is being used in the antismoking campaign. How, in your opinion, will the target audience receive this message? 3. Can you suggest an alternative message that you feel would impact teen attitudes and behaviors more effectively? 4. According to Jeff Hicks, why do teens smoke? 5. On what media types (e.g., network TV vs. radio) and media vehicles (e.g., Oprah vs. Friends) should the marketers place the ads? Week 7 – Final Project Sales Promotion 21 Create a sales promotion strategy for your product. Also design a public relations strategy that you will follow before, during, and after the launch. Submit your answer in form of a report along with the answer to the other Final Project assignment this Week. Advertising Visualize an advertisement for your product. Think of your target market segment, the nature of your product. Decide upon the media that you would like to advertise on. Is the theme of your advertisement robust enough to ensure that your advertisement is equally effective on all media? Suggest how will you measure the effectiveness of your advertisement? Submit a report. 8 Implementation Online reading from the following Web site: http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/rese arch/mma/1998/pdf/06.pdf Discussion Question #1 You are the national sales manager of an industrial packaging equipment manager. Four sales people (assigned to each geographic area) report to you. Discuss the various evaluation tools you would employ to assess their performance every month/year? Give your reasons behind preferring one tool to the other. Assignment #2 Analyzing Company Performance 22 Pick a pair of companies from the following list. Wal-Mart versus Kmart Dell versus Gateway Amazon.com versus Buy.com Verizon Wireless versus AT&T Wireless Fedex versus USPS The task is to: Completely analyze and compare these two businesses with regard to their marketing practices. In particular, you should focus on the analysis of marketing issues (e.g., customer, competitor, industry, technology, government, self) product features, pricing, advertising, and sales promotions. According to you, which of these issues contribute most to the differences between the performances of the two companies. Non-marketing reasons should also be briefly mentioned. Suggest actions and strategies (on each issue) that you feel would enable the weak as well as the strong company to improve its market position. Clearly outline your assumptions and thought process. Week 8 – Final Project Due Week 8 23 Grading Criteria Grading Scale A AB+ B BC+ C CD+ D DF Grading requirements 100 – 93 92 – 90 89 – 88 87 – 83 82 – 80 79 – 78 77 – 73 72 – 70 69 – 68 67 – 63 62 – 60 59 and below Attendance/participation Weekly Assignments Final paper Optional Optional 25% 20% 35% 10% 10% 100% 24 Library: All resources in Argosy University’s online collection are available through the Internet. The campus librarian will provide students with links, user IDs, and passwords. Library Resources: Argosy University’s core online collection features nearly 21,000 full-text journals and 23,000 electronic books and other content covering all academic subject areas including Business & Economics, Career & General Education, Computers, Engineering & Applied Science, Humanities, Science, Medicine & Allied Health, and Social & Behavior Sciences. Many titles are directly accessible through the Online Public Access Catalog at http://library.argosy.edu. Detailed descriptions of online resources are located at http://library.argosy.edu/misc/onlinedblist.html. In addition to online resources, Argosy University’s onsite collections contain a wealth of subject-specific research materials searchable in the Online Public Access Catalog. Catalog searching is easily limited to individual campus collections. Alternatively, students can search combined collections of all Argosy University Libraries. Students are encouraged to seek research and reference assistance from campus librarians. Information Literacy: Argosy University’s Information Literacy Tutorial was developed to teach students fundamental and transferable research skills. The tutorial consists of five modules where students learn to select sources appropriate for academic-level research, search periodical indexes and search engines, and evaluate and cite information. In the tutorial, students study concepts and practice them through interactions. At the conclusion of each module, they can test their comprehension and receive immediate feedback. Each module takes less than 20 minutes to complete. Please view the tutorial at http://library.argosy.edu/infolit/ Academic Policies Academic Dishonesty/Plagiarism: In an effort to foster a spirit of honesty and integrity during the learning process, Argosy University requires that the submission of all course assignments represent the original work produced by that student. All sources must be documented through normal scholarly references/citations and all work must be submitted using the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition (2001). Washington DC: American Psychological Association (APA) format. Please refer to Appendix A in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition for thesis and paper format. Students are encouraged to purchase this manual (required in some courses) and become familiar with its content as well as consult the Argosy University catalog for further information regarding academic dishonesty and plagiarism. 25 Scholarly writing: The faculty at Argosy University is dedicated to providing a learning environment that supports scholarly and ethical writing, free from academic dishonesty and plagiarism. This includes the proper and appropriate referencing of all sources. You may be asked to submit your course assignments through “Turnitin,” (www.turnitin.com), an online resource established to help educators develop writing/research skills and detect potential cases of academic dishonesty. Turnitin compares submitted papers to billions of pages of content and provides a comparison report to your instructor. This comparison detects papers that share common information and duplicative language. Americans with Disabilities Act Policy It is the policy of Argosy University to make reasonable accommodations for qualified students with disabilities, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If a student with disabilities needs accommodations, the student must notify the Director of Student Services. Procedures for documenting student disability and the development of reasonable accommodations will be provided to the student upon request. Students will be notified by the Director of Student Services when each request for accommodation is approved or denied in writing via a designated form. To receive accommodation in class, it is the student’s responsibility to present the form (at his or her discretion) to the instructor. In an effort to protect student privacy, the Department of Student Services will not discuss the accommodation needs of any student with instructors. Faculty may not make accommodations for individuals who have not been approved in this manner. The Argosy University Statement Regarding Diversity Argosy University prepares students to serve populations with diverse social, ethnic, economic, and educational experiences. Both the academic and training curricula are designed to provide an environment in which students can develop the skills and attitudes essential to working with people from a wide range of backgrounds. 26