Course Exam—ADMN 417

ADMN 417 (International Business Management) is a three-credit senior-level business and administrative studies course that is designed to expose business majors to salient dimensions of the worldwide business activity of international firms.  In general, international firms are defined as small and medium-sized enterprises for which current and/or future operations transcend national boundaries; these enterprises can be “for-profit” as well as “not-for-profit” organizations.  This course has no prerequisites, though ADMIN 232 and or MKTG 396 are recommended.  There is also a challenge for credit option if students are interested.

International Business Management is made up of three core units, nine lessons, two assignments worth fifteen percent, a third exam that weighs twenty percent, and a final exam for the remaining fifty percent.  The nine lessons within this course cover some really interesting topics surrounding international business management, such as globalization, international trade, international human resource management, foreign direct investment, regional economic integration, and much more.  The textbook for this course is an electronic textbook.  To receive credit for ADMN 417, students must complete and submit the three written assignments and pass a final Examination.  The passing grade for the final Examination is 50 percent and you must achieve a course composite grade of at least a “D” or fifty percent.

Gayle St. Denis is currently enrolled in the Bachelor of Management in Human Resource Management at Athabasca University.  She provides a bit of an introduction, stating “I am currently living in Fort McMurray, Alberta and I have lived here for over twenty years! I am currently working full-time as the executive director of a registered charity, Safe Community Wood Buffalo.  I am married and have two beautiful daughters and three fun-loving dogs.  In my spare time, I enjoy volunteering and supporting my local community.”

When asked to explain the course to students, she states “ADMN 417 has three analytical reports and a final exam.  Each assignment is done following reading a supplied case study.  The final exam sounds intimidating for some because it is all short answer but as long as you study the course summaries, you are golden!”

As for the structure of the course, Gayle states “This course was a lot more fun than I was expecting! I found the course material interesting and engaging.  This course consisted of three assignments (analytical reports done in APA format).  For some, APA format isn’t their thing, but I have mastered it by using the sample APA document on the Owl Purdue Writing Lab.  That website was a suggested tool in one of my earlier courses and I haven’t looked back! The three assignments have you reading a case study and then writing an analytical report.  You only need to reference the case study and textbook on the assignments, so there’s not a bunch of research that needs to be done.  The assignments basically are a sneaky way to show that you comprehend the course material.  The final exam is all based on textbook material, not any of the supplemental readings.  All the questions are based on the unit summaries of the online course content.  The final three questions of the exam are based on a supplied (and very short) case study.  These three questions are also just a quick way to show you can use the course content in a real-life scenario, not just regurgitate memorized material onto paper.

Gayle would recommend this course, stating “ADMN417 is an interesting course.  It was not at all what I was expecting; I was expecting it to be dry and boring.  It has content on international business and partially how it relates to Human Resources which is always intriguing to me.  I found the course to be easy to navigate.  The assignment instructions tell you exactly how to organize your analytical report, right down to how many words for each part of the essay.  It can’t get much easier than that!”

As for any tips and tricks to finishing the course, she explains “I definitely recommend using the owl purdue website and use that format for literally any and every APA assignment you ever have! I use this sample for all my APA reports, and it has helped tremendously.  Follow the guidelines the course instructor has laid out for the assignments.  The instructions tell you how to label each section of your report, how many words to each section, it is fool proof! You are given the information on what the tutor wants to see in way of formatting, just follow it.  For example, the executive summary is 200 words, problem statement is 50 words, etc.”

When asked how communications with her tutor was, she explains that “Marking took a little bit longer, between five and eight business days.  I found this reasonable for the length and difficulty of the assignments.  The feedback for each assignment was appropriate, summarizing where I communicated well, and where I might have added more information or what was missed.  I did not contact my tutor because I did not have any questions about the course content or assignments.”

Whether ADMN 417 is a degree or program requirement of yours, or the topics discussed above are of interest to you, this course will have you learning a lot of interesting information surrounding the topic of international business management.