Syllabus for MSH-505
HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT SEMINAR
Hospitality Management Seminar provides students the opportunity to apply critical thinking and advanced business tools in completing a hospitality organization assessment. Students will evaluate the hospitality organization’s business strategy to determine ways to increase efficiency and revenue and sustain long-term success. Areas of focus include external environmental factors and operational areas of human resources, management, marketing, financial/accounting controls, and customer service. By examining key internal and external environments, learners will assess current practices and strategies to determine how even a successful organization can improve its overall strategy for a competitive advantage.
After completing this course, you should be able to:
CO1 Assess the ability of hospitality organizations to develop, grow, and remain sustainable based on their strategic framework.
CO2 Evaluate the external environment in which hospitality organizations operate.
CO3 Construct a comprehensive overview of a hospitality organization’s internal environment.
CO4 Analyze the ways in which business analysis tools can be used within various operational environments in the hospitality industry.
CO5 Recommend strategies to move organizations forward while taking into account their current practices.
You will need the following materials to do the work of the course. The required textbook is available from the College’s textbook supplier, MBS Direct.
ISBN-13: 978-0077720599
Note: This book will also be used in MSH-506.
ISBN-10: 0133101027
Hospitality Management Seminar is a three-credit, online course consisting of four modules. Modules include an overview, topics, learning objectives, study materials, and activities. Module titles are listed below.
For your formal work in the course, you are required to participate in online discussion forums, complete written assignments, attend a synchronous event, and complete a final project. See below for details.
Consult the Course Calendar for due dates.
You are required to participate in four graded discussion forums. Discussion forums are on a variety of topics associated with the course modules. Please read through the instructions that accompany each discussion as these may be slightly different from others you have participated in.
There is also an ungraded but required introduction forum in Module 1.
Consult the Evaluation Rubrics folder for a grading rubric for discussion forums.
You are required to complete four case study assignments. For each of these assignments, you will prepare an analysis on a certain case study within the textbook. Grading rubrics for these assignments can be found within the assignment submission links in Moodle.
You are required to complete four business tools and analysis assignments. These will give you the opportunity to apply business analysis tools to a hospitality organization of your choosing. Grading rubrics for these assignments can be found within the assignment submission links in Moodle.
One synchronous event will be held during Week 5 in Edison Live!, our virtual meeting space. (See the Course Calendar.) During this live event, you should be prepared to discuss a series of questions which can be found in Module 3. To access the event, click the Collaboration Space link in the Edison Live! section of the course site a few minutes before the designated time. Use the following link for directions and helpful videos about how to use the Edison Live! tool in Moodle. Your mentor will work with the class to propose a time that works best and accommodates the majority.
A grading rubric for this assignment can be found within the assignment submission link in Moodle.
You will be required to complete a final project for this course, which will be due during Week 8. Details can be found in the Final Project document. Please note that the organization you select for your final project in this course will also be used to complete the final project in MSH-506 Hospitality Management Capstone.
A grading rubric for the final project can be found within the final project submission link in Moodle.
Your grade in the course will be determined as follows:
All activities will receive a numerical grade of 0–100. You will receive a score of 0 for any work not submitted. Your final grade in the course will be a letter grade. Letter grade equivalents for numerical grades are as follows:
A | = | 93–100 | B | = | 83–87 | |
A– | = | 90–92 | C | = | 73–82 | |
B+ | = | 88–89 | F | = | Below 73 |
To receive credit for the course, you must earn a letter grade of C or higher on the weighted average of all assigned course work (e.g., assignments, discussion postings, projects). Graduate students must maintain a B average overall to remain in good academic standing.
To succeed in this course, take the following first steps:
Consider the following study tips for success:
Thomas Edison State College is committed to maintaining academic quality, excellence, and honesty. The College expects all members of its community to share the commitment to academic integrity, an essential component of a quality academic experience.
Students at Thomas Edison State College are expected to exhibit the highest level of academic citizenship. In particular, students are expected to read and follow all policies, procedures, and program information guidelines contained in publications; pursue their learning goals with honesty and integrity; demonstrate that they are progressing satisfactorily and in a timely fashion by meeting course deadlines and following outlined procedures; observe a code of mutual respect in dealing with mentors, staff, and other students; behave in a manner consistent with the standards and codes of the profession in which they are practicing; keep official records updated regarding changes in name, address, telephone number, or e-mail address; and meet financial obligations in a timely manner. Students not practicing good academic citizenship may be subject to disciplinary action including suspension, dismissal, or financial holds on records.
All members of the College community are responsible for reviewing the Academic Code of Conduct Policy in the College Catalog and online at www.tesc.edu.
Thomas Edison State College expects all of its students to approach their education with academic integrity—the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception. All mentors and administrative staff members at the College insist on strict standards of academic honesty in all courses. Academic dishonesty undermines this objective. Academic dishonesty can take the following forms:
Thomas Edison State College is committed to helping students understand the seriousness of plagiarism, which is defined as using the work and ideas of others without proper citation. The College takes a strong stance against plagiarism, and students found to be plagiarizing are subject to discipline under the academic code of conduct policy.
If you copy phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or whole documents word-for-word—or if you paraphrase by changing a word here and there—without identifying the author, or without identifying it as a direct quote, then you are plagiarizing. Please keep in mind that this type of identification applies to Internet sources as well as to print-based sources. Copying and pasting from the Internet, without using quotation marks and without acknowledging sources, constitutes plagiarism. (For information about how to cite Internet sources, see Online Student Handbook > Academic Standards > Citing Sources.)
Accidentally copying the words and ideas of another writer does not excuse the charge of plagiarism. It is easy to jot down notes and ideas from many sources and then write your own paper without knowing which words are your own and which are someone else’s. It is more difficult to keep track of each and every source. However, the conscientious writer who wishes to avoid plagiarizing never fails to keep careful track of sources.
Always be aware that if you write without acknowledging the sources of your ideas, you run the risk of being charged with plagiarism.
Clearly, plagiarism, no matter the degree of intent to deceive, defeats the purpose of education. If you plagiarize deliberately, you are not educating yourself, and you are wasting your time on courses meant to improve your skills. If you plagiarize through carelessness, you are deceiving yourself.
For examples of unintentional plagiarism, advice on when to quote and when to paraphrase, and information about writing assistance and originality report checking, click the links provided below.
Examples of Unintentional Plagiarism
When to Quote and When to Paraphrase
Writing Assistance at Smarthinking
Originality Report Checking at Turnitin
Acts of both intentional and unintentional plagiarism violate the Academic Code of Conduct.
If an incident of plagiarism is an isolated minor oversight or an obvious result of ignorance of proper citation requirements, the mentor may handle the matter as a learning exercise. Appropriate consequences may include the completion of tutorials, assignment rewrites, or any other reasonable learning tool in addition to a lower grade for the assignment or course. The mentor will notify the student and appropriate dean of the consequence by e-mail.
If the plagiarism appears intentional and/or is more than an isolated incident, the mentor will refer the matter to the appropriate dean, who will gather information about the violation(s) from the mentor and student, as necessary. The dean will review the matter and notify the student in writing of the specifics of the charge and the sanction to be imposed.
Possible sanctions include:
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