MIS 24093 Fall 2010 Koesters

Kent State University

Course Syllabus – Fall 2010

MIS 24093 – Professional Development

Instructor:                  Tony Koesters

Class Meeting:           Wednesday 11:00 – 11:50 a.m.

Class Location:          215 College of Business Administration Building

Office:                        306 Business Administration Building

Phone:                        330-672-2268

Email:                         tkoester@kent.edu

Office Hours:             Monday 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. or by appointment

Course Goals

This course focuses on professional development concepts that help students excel in real world settings.  Topics of interest include but are not limited to: networking, job/internship search, resumes, interviewing, and etiquette.  The major emphasis of this course is to prepare students to enter the real world by developing their professional skills.  With an enhanced professional development skill set, students will develop the competitiveness needed to succeed in the job/internship search, interview process, and other real world settings.

Course Objectives

1. What are the different types and formats of resumes?
2. Create a professional quality personal resume.
3. What are business experiences?
4. What is the value of a business experience?
5. How do you conduct a successful job search, and what are the most common mistakes made during a job search?
6. What is the importance of networking?
7. How and when should you network?
8. What steps are used to prepare for an interview?
9. What is needed to succeed in an interview?
10. How do you properly answer interview questions?
11. What are illegal interview questions, and how do you handle them?
12. What are reasons why someone did not receive a job offer?
13. What are the advantages and disadvantages of social media?
14. How and when should you use social media to your advantage?
15. How to dress professionally for different business settings.
16. Experience a mock interview.
17. What steps are needed to be successful at a job/internship?
18. What are general etiquette and ethical guidelines that one should be aware of?
19. How do you write a cover and thank you letter?
20. Where can you find additional information and guidance to help improve your professional development skill set?

Prerequisites

Freshman or Sophomore status (Completed less than 59 cumulative credit hours)

Textbook

Course binder received in class

Exams and Grading

The final grade will be calculated as:

                                                                                                % of Total

CREATE/CRITIQUE/COMPELTE RESUME                    30%

ATTENDANCE (Class and Job Fair)                                                20%

ORAL PRESENTATION                                                      10%                

COVER/THANK YOU LETTERS                                       20%

FINAL EXAM                                                                       20%

Attendance Breakdown

·         Classes attended

o   16/16 = 16 %

o   15/16 = 15 %

o   14/16 = 10 %

o   13/16 = 6 %

o   < 13/16 = 0%

·         Job / Internship Fair = 4%

Students will be granted a make-up for a scheduled exam only if I am notified in advance of a university-defined legitimate absence.  For illnesses on exam day, you must either email or call me and leave a voice-mail before the exam and verification is needed from a doctor or health services.  If you do not contact me before the exam, no make-up will be given. 

Grading scale

Assignments and Grading: All credit workshops involve out-of-class assignments and are graded Satisfactory (S) or Unsatisfactory (U). I cannot issue grades of NA and SA. A student who “never attends” even one class session will receive a grade of NF (Never attended, F). A student who “stops attending” prior to the course withdrawal deadline will receive a grade of SF (Stopped attending, F). Both NF and SF grades will count as an F (zero quality points) in computing the grade point average.

Above 60%          Satisfactory (S)

60% or below       Unsatisfactory (U)

To receive a passing (satisfactory) grade in this course, two criteria must be fulfilled:

1. You must have a total grade of greater than 60%
2. A minimal grade of 50% of a category’s % of Total must be achieved in each of the five categories

University Grade Change Policy

Once course grades are submitted, they are final and will not be changed except in cases of administrative error.  Grades will not be changed by allowing the student to do additional work (e.g., retaking exams, redoing papers; submitting extra credit papers, reports, etc.) or by using criteria other than those applied to all students in the class.

Assignments

During the course of the semester, you will be required to complete a set of assignments.  These assignments will be explained and handed out throughout the semester.

Email and Contacting Me

If you have questions about the course or the material please stop by my office during office hours.  If you cannot meet during office hours, contact me and we will set up a time to meet.  Asking questions and coming to office hours are the best way to do well in this course and I am more than happy to meet with you.

Feel free to contact me by email and I will get back to you as soon as possible.  If you have questions about the material, please be as specific as possible so that I can answer your question better.  If your question is too complicated to be answered by email we will work out a time for you to meet with me.

Attendance

Students are expected to read assignments in the textbook in advance and to attend class regularly. Students are expected to know the assigned material even if time does not permit discussion of it all in class. Also, students are responsible for any additional material that may be discussed in class (e.g., newspaper articles, case problems, exercises, etc.) that is not specified in the textbook assignments.

Extra Credit 

Any extra credit given remains the prerogative of the instructor.  Extra credit cannot be offered on an individual basis.  Any extra credit opportunities will be relayed to the entire class. 

Cell Phones / PDAs

All electronic devices must be silenced during the lecture period.  Texting in class is also prohibited.  Call and text replies can wait 50 minutes until the lecture period is over.  Students will be asked to leave the classroom for the remainder of the lecture if this guideline is not followed and will count as an absence. 
The Following Policies Apply to All Students in this Course

A.    Students attending the course who do not have the proper prerequisite risk being deregistered from the class.

B.     Students have responsibility to ensure they are properly enrolled in classes.  You are advised to review your official class schedule (using Student Tools/Flashfast) during the first two weeks of the semester to ensure you are properly enrolled in this class and section.  Should you find an error in your class schedule, you have until Friday, January 30, 2009 to correct the error with your advising office.  If registration errors are not corrected by this date and you continue to attend and participate in classes for which you are not officially enrolled, you are advised now that you will not receive a grade at the conclusion of the semester for any class in which you are not properly registered.

C.    Academic Honesty:  Cheating means to misrepresent the source, nature, or other conditions of your academic work (e.g., tests, papers, projects, assignments) so as to get undeserved credit.  The use of the intellectual property of others without giving them appropriate credit is a serious academic offense.  It is the University's policy that cheating or plagiarism result in receiving a failing grade for the work or course.  Repeat offenses result in dismissal from the University.

D.    For Spring 2009, the course withdrawal deadline is Sunday, April 5, 2009.   Withdrawal before the deadline results in a "W" on the official transcript; after the deadline a grade must be calculated and reported.

E.     Students with disabilities:  University policy 3342-3-18 requires that students with disabilities be provided reasonable accommodations to ensure their equal access to course content.  If you have a documented disability and require accommodations, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester to make arrangements for necessary classroom adjustments.  Please note, you must first verify your eligibility for these through the office of Student Accessibility Services (contact 330-672-3391 or visit www.kent.edu/sas for more information on registration procedures).

F.     Class cancellations:  (i.e., due to inclement weather).  Refer to the Kent State University Information 3000 hotline service at (330) 672-3000, KSU website at www.kent.edu, WebCt Vista, and/or an e-mail message from your instructor.

G.    Changes in the Syllabus: All dates and assignments in this syllabus are subject to change at the discretion of the instructor. Every effort will be made to provide these changes to the class in writing. Verbal notification at any regularly scheduled class meeting, however, or through any one of the established means of communication (email, phone, vista, etc.) will constitute sufficient notice.

Tentative Outline*

*This schedule is subject to change.  Changes will be announced in class and by email.