Session 3: Rules of the Road
Peggy Golden and
Pamela Peterson Drake
The Syllabus
a.k.a. Your contract with students
The Syllabus
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Name, contact info, office hours
Course description – include catalog
description and prereq’s
Learning objectives
Outcomes
All policies of class
Schedule (may be modified downward)
Syllabus policies
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Include statement regarding the
University Honor Code.
Include a statement regarding ADA.
Include a statement disclosing whether
you use Turnitin® for written work.
If you provide the syllabus online, this
syllabus must be printable.
Syllabus policy, cont.
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You cannot change the syllabus during
the semester unless it is in the direct
benefit of all students.
Bottom line: don’t change it
To minimize changes, separate the
syllabus and the schedule.
Syllabus example
MAN6721: Peggy Golden
Syllabus Elements
SYLLABUS Management 6721 – August 16, 2005
Global Management Strategy
Professor: Dr. Peggy Golden[1]
Textbooks: Mintzberg, Lampel, Quinn, Goshal, The Strategy
Process: Concepts and Cases 4th Edition
Smith and Golden: Corporation A Business
Simulation, 4th Edition
Coursepack from Xanedu available on screen or for print from
eCompanion/Course Home
[1]
Office hours are 3:00-5:00 Mondays. Others by
appointment or 24/7 at my email: golden@fau.edu. My
office is 812 Askew Tower Downtown Fort Lauderdale.
Various phones: 954.762.5220 (work);
954.462.5224(home)
COURSE OBJECTIVES AND
OUTCOMES
This course is considered to be the capstone course in the MBA
program and its focus is strategy, both corporate and
competitive levels. The learning objectives are:
 Be able to identify the fundamental competencies of a
firm
 Understand the overall condition of all functional areas of
the firm
 Place the firm in its proper context in the industry and
from a marketplace perspective
 Anticipate the immediate future performance of the firm
 Identify the implications of the corporate governance on
decision-making
 Become familiar with the resources and competencies that
assist the firm in competition
Outcomes
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Evaluate opportunities and threats, strenghs
and weaknesses in the firm
Relate these positive and negative attributes
to the mission and value statements
Identify critical areas for strategic change
Assess the impact of global forces on
expansion, repositioning, and other strategic
initiatives
Address the benefits of privately held vs.
publicly listed firms
GRADING:
Semester grades are based on the percentages shown below.
The cut-off percentages may be lowered at the end of the semester
to match the curve of the performance of the class.
%
Grade criteria
overall
Written Assignments
35%
Simulation management including
qualitative/quantitative
performance and peer evaluation
15
Management Audit and Board of
Directors report
5
Case presentation
20
A=92-100%
A-=90-92%
B+=89%
B=82-88%
B-=80-81%
C+=79%
C=72-78%
C-=70-71%
D=60-70%
F=below 60%
Enhancement and reading
discussions
15
Class participation
10
Assignments
Due on time
3 absences
may result in a
failing grade
COURSE OUTLINE
Fall 2005
Session date
Topic
Readings
Assignment
August 22
Introduction to
competitive
strategy
Mintzberg Chapter 1
Overview lecture
August 29
The Concepts of
Strategy.
Hamel – Strategy as Revolution
Mintzberg Chapter 3
Corporation manual through p.
33
Choose a company. Write a short
paper showing how this company
indicates understanding of their
competitive advantage. Have they
used incremental or revolutionary
strategies. Upload to the Dropbox for
Week 2 Assignment eCompanion.
Form teams and brief Corporation
Mintzberg, Chapter 14 Chapter
9
Eisenhardt, Co-Evolving: At
last, a way to make synergies
work
Field case (no formal class meeting)
– Select a company that you believe
has a “differentiated” advantage.
Write a short paper describing why
that is the case and how long you
think they can leverage the
differentiation. Upload to Week 8
dropbox and participate in the
threaded discussion.
October 3
(Note that
this is the
beginning of
Rosh
Hashanah)
Managing
Maturity
Syllabus example
FIN4504: Pamela Peterson Drake
Recommendations
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Be sure your syllabus is as inclusive
as possible.
When your students have questions,
highlight the location of that
information in your syllabus.
Grades and Grading Policies
Or …
My students think that I gave unfair grades
Grades
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GRADING STANDARDS SHOULD BE
CLEARLY SPELLED OUT IN SYLLABUS
All grades are posted through FASS
FASS directly vs. FASS through MyFAU
What about incompletes
CAUTION! Students are litigious
Controlling subjectivity in grading
Consequences of incomplete
grading information
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What about absence policies?
Student grievances
Open communication to
Provost/President via email
Avoiding problems
Recommendations
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Be sure that grades conform to
syllabus expectations.
Document absences and other
non-quantitative expectations.
Final exams
Faculty responsibilities
Final exam policy
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Final exams are given at the discretion of the
instructing faculty member.
Final exams may not be given on the
designated Reading Day.
Final exams can only be given at the time
published in the Final Examination Schedule.
If no final exam is given, the class must meet
during the scheduled final exam period.
Final exam: distance learning
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Final exam should be given during the
final exam week. Including the
weekend prior to the final exam week is
fine, but do not schedule the exam
prior to or on the Reading Day.
Office hours
How many and what type?
Office hours
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General guidelines
Why face-to-face
Why at all?
Benefits vs. costs
Recommendations
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Be sure to post your office hours
and be available during that period
of time.
Some face-to-face hours are a
requirement even for web classes.
Academic irregularities
Violations of the Honor Code
University policy
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“FAU is committed to a policy of
honesty in academic affairs. Academic
irregularities frustrate the efforts of the
faculty and serious students to meet
university goals.”
FAU Academic Affairs Faculty Handbook, p. 38
Honor Code
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The Honor Code is provided in 6C54.001 of the University Catalog (p. 72).
“Irregularities”:
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Cheating (use of materials or assistance)
Plagiarism
“Other activities that interfere with the
educational mission” (p.72)
Reducing “irregularities”
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Define cheating
Encourage ethical behavior
Know the test takers
Maintain assessment security
Control the exam environment
Maintain assessment security
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Large lectures:
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Multiple versions of exams
Different exams each semester
Warnings
Proctors
Maintain assessment security
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Written assignments: Turnitin®
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Be aware of paper mills, e.g.,
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www.schoolsucks.com [School Sucks]
www.cheathouse.com [Evil House of Cheat]
www.termpapersonfile.com
www.megaessays.com
www.termpapers.com
For more information, go to
www.plagiarism.org
Maintain assessment security
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Distance learning:
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Large pools of questions
Multiple types of assessments
Dynamic content
Control the exam environment
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Limit materials brought to the exam
Limit materials taken from the exam
Limit handheld devices to specific
calculators; prohibit transference among
devices
Forbid cell phones and ear phones
Why bother?
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Reputation effects for unchecked
violations diminishes the value of the
degree for all.
Provide a consistent message regarding
the importance of ethical conduct.
Without faculty action, many repeatoffenders go un-noticed.
Unfairness in cases when faculty
“curves”
Academic irregularity: Procedure
1. The instructor determines that there is
reason to believe that a violation occurred.
2. The instructor informs the student of the
charges and penalty.
3. The instructor provides the student with a
written statement of the charges.
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Statement is sent to department chairperson,
who informs the Registrar’s office.
A note is made to student’s internal file
Academic irregularity: Procedure
4. The student may appeal instructor’s action
by requesting a conference with the
department chairperson within 10 days.
5. When the department chair notifies the
Registrar’s office, the Registrar’s office will
inform the department chair whether a
student is a “repeat offender”.
Repeat offender  suspension or expulsion
Academic irregularity: Procedure
6. The student may appeal to a facultystudent council in the College.
7. A student may appeal the action of
the faculty-student council to the
Provost.
Recommendations
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Place statement in syllabus regarding
the Honor Code and penalties.
Place statement in syllabus regarding
use of Turnitin® if there are written
assignments.
Make an effort to reduce cheating.
Conflicts of interest
Or…
Who is my employer anyway?
University Policies
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Reporting outside employment – every
year
Who gets the patent for your
intellectual property?
Teaching for another institution – the
legalities and university policies
Pro bono vs. paid outside work
Outside work/travel during the week
Use of University property/resources
Recommendations
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File appropriate reports
Do not use University property
for non-University business
Student confidentiality
What you can and cannot do and say.
The Buckley Amendment
20 U.S.C. § 1232g(a)(4)(A)(i)&(ii)
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Prohibits dissemination of a student’s
educational record without the written
consent of the student (if the student is 18
years of age or older) or parent (if the
student in younger than 18 years of age).
Educational records: files, documents, and
other material directly related to the student.
Does not include public information (e.g.,
name, address, major, dates of attendance at
the university, etc.)
Communicating grades
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Do not post grades using social security
numbers or any subset (e.g., last 4
digits) of this number.
Do not hand back a graded assignment
or exam to anyone other than the
student.
E-mail & discussion boards
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Email users should exercise extreme caution
in using email to communicate confidential
student information, and should not assume
that email is private and confidential.
It is especially important that users be careful
to send messages only to the intended
recipient(s).
Recommendation: Do not send confidential
information through email.
Discussion with other faculty
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Confidential student information
may be discussed with other
faculty and administrators only as
it benefits either the individual
student involved or the objectives
of the College/University.
For more information …
Check out the
College of Business Faculty Handbook