Courses tagged with "Nutrition" (461)

Practical Leadership is an interactive seminar where students receive repeated coaching and real-time feedback on their own leadership capabilities from their peers and the instructor. The course is structured around a set of readings. However, the key component is each student's own self-assessment. These self-assessments are done by the students in the first week of the semester. The areas for improvement that the students identify are then targeted in the weekly role plays that are customized for each student in the class. The goal of the class is for each student to increase his or her own leadership abilities through an ongoing cycle of practice, feedback and reflection.

This is a course in how corporations make use of the insights and tools of risk management. Most courses on derivatives, futures and options, and financial engineering are taught from the viewpoint of investment bankers and traders in the securities. This course is taught from the point of view of the manufacturing corporation, the utility, the software firm—any potential end-user of derivatives, but not the dealer. Most related courses focus on the extensive taxonomy of instruments and the complex models developed to price them, and on ways to exploit mispricing. While this course will make use of some of these pricing models, the focus is on how corporations use the insights and models to improve their operations, to increase the value of their real assets, or to create the financial flexibility necessary to implement their core strategy.

This course provides students with a comprehensive introduction to computers. Students will explore a variety of topics in computing, such as the following: the components of a computer, common computer terminology, an introduction to the Internet, computer security and privacy, computer troubleshooting techniques, and steps to maintain the life of your computer. Through readings and videos, students will learn how to fully understand the basics of computer technology.

Professional Writing is designed to provide adult learners with the basic skills they need to write effective documents in the workplace.  In this course, you will learn how to analyze your audience so that you can write prose that is both clear and persuasive.  You will practice writing common business documents, such as emails, memos, proposals, and presentations.  You will also learn how to effectively edit these documents for maximum impact. This course is part of the Professional Development Program (PRDV), which is designed especially for adult learners who are ready to gain and apply skills demanded by today’s employers.

This course is designed for the novice who has little or no word processing experience.  The course provides an introduction to word processing.  You will explore word processing skills while also learning to create a basic business letter and a business memo.  Although the resources in this course use Microsoft Word 2010, it should be noted that all of the basic skills and tasks that you will be asked  can be done on any word processing program.  If you stay flexible enough in your own word processing program to search out the commands and icons on whatever software you are using, you will succeed.  The most current version of Microsoft Word was selected, because it would be most beneficial to the job seeker.  In addition most colleges, universities, and some public libraries are using a newer version of Word.  You can complete this course using any word processing software, but if you are using an older version of Word, you may also want to seek out a resource where you can interact with the newer v…

This course will provide you with a comprehensive introduction to spreadsheets. The course is designed for first-time users with very little or no exposure to the subject. For this course, you will use Microsoft Excel as the software. The course will explore the following fundamental topics: an introduction to spreadsheets, terminology in Excel, components of a spreadsheet, what a cell consists of, and the creation of a spreadsheet for practical use.  You will examine sample files, videos, and books that will enable you to gain practical knowledge about spreadsheets that can be used in daily life, either at work, school, or home.

Effective time management is the key to getting the most out of your day. It helps you improve performance, increase productivity, and reduce stress. Time management is critical to maximizing your day and surviving mounting responsibilities and pressures. Time is your most important resource. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify your objectives and determine priorities daily. Every action you take represents a priority decision. The problem is rarely that you aren’t capable of completing a task; the problem, most often, is time eventually you will run out of it. This course will provide learners with several time management tools and techniques that can be applied to most work and life situations. From juggling multiple tasks, to managing e-mail, to beating deadlines: you will learn how to budget time wisely, and overcome distractions and time wasters.

This course is the first in a series of four courses under the Job Search “umbrella” that include Job Search Skills, Resume Writing, Interview Skills, and Professional Etiquette.  The Job Search Skills course is intended to give you a solid beginning to this exciting time of self-exploration with finding a job.  Whether you are seeking your first job, wish to take the next step in your existing career, or desire to begin a new career, you will obtain the necessary information about yourself to turn this desire into a successful job search.  If, for example, you think of yourself as a product that you are trying to market to potential employers, you will realize that you can only be successful if you know the product thoroughly and how this product can meet the needs of the consumer (the employer).  This course will guide you to information on how to target jobs and/or careers that are desirable and realistic for you and that fill a need for employers in today’s challenging job market.

Are you getting ready to apply for a job, or are you already seeking employment?  A resume (or résumé) is a brief written account of personal, educational, and professional qualifications and experience that you prepare as part of your application materials for a prospective job.  To ensure that your resume is read by the recipient, you will need a cover letter that markets your unique qualifications for the specified job description.  In the current global economy, it is essential for job seekers to optimize their chances of being considered and hired for positions that are well-suited to their qualifications and interests.  This course will help you effectively develop employment application materials for today’s job market by honing your resume writing skills, providing you with tools to create an impressive resume (or to improve the one you already have), and giving suggestions on developing an effective cover letter.  You will study different types of resume and cover letter formats…

Welcome to PRDV103: Interviewing Skills.  This course is the third in a series of four courses included in the Job Search Skills Program that also includes Job Search Skills, Resume Writing, and Professional Etiquette.  The Interviewing Skills course is intended to help you showcase your personality, strengths, interests, and abilities to potential employers.  At this stage of your career exploration, you will have researched and targeted appropriate jobs and have marketed yourself to these employers with an attention-getting resume.  If you have not already done so and feel you would benefit from more information about how to conduct a successful job search, or how to formulate a resume that gets you that interview, please explore the other exciting courses in this track.

What images come to mind when you think of the term professional?  Do you picture an executive in a fancy suit strutting into a boardroom?  Or, perhaps you envision a supervisor walking among cubicles and issuing orders to employees.  While it is true that professionalism encompasses how we present ourselves outwardly, the meaning of the term goes far beyond appearances.  Professionalism also encompasses inward characteristics and attitudes that affect how others in the workplace perceive us.  The professional world can be full of challenging situations, including conflicting personalities, miscommunication, and cultural differences.  In this course, you will learn about typical workplace etiquette protocols, communication standards, and cultural awareness strategies in order to navigate these common obstacles as smoothly as possible. By this point in Saylor’s Job Search Skills courses in the Professional Development Program, you have started the process of honing your professional image by producin…

Though accounting may seem like a dense and complex subject, this course is designed to present the accounting cycle in an accessible and logical manner.  This course will provide you with a solid understanding of basic accounting principles and will introduce you to financial statement analysis.  Please note that this course is the first of two courses on the principles of accounting and that each of these two courses is divided into 10 units.  Each unit should take approximately three hours to complete and should be completed sequentially for the most logical progression of information.  As you work through these units, you will encounter a range of examples and problem sets geared towards providing you with practical applications of the lessons you learn.  By the end of this course, you will able to create accurate and appropriate financial statements to convey a company’s financial health. This course begins with an introduction to financial accounting and the various ways in which financial stat…

Management is an activity found in all organizations, made necessary by the need to determine the organization’s purpose and future activities, the nature of its organization and structure, to lead and motivate the workforce within the organization, and to evaluate and correct its course, if necessary. The organization accomplishes its purpose in part through its workforce, the people it employs. If you have just joined the ranks of management, you may need to quickly obtain hands-on knowledge for a brisk, successful start to your new position. Our objective in this course is to provide new supervisors or managers with just such basic, practical knowledge necessary for their new positions, such as making the transition to management, leadership, coaching, team building, communication skills, motivation and empowerment, organization, efficiency, time management, an appreciation for diversity, performance management, hiring, termination, discipline, decision making, and problem solving. The course will begi…

Welcome to the exciting world of Payroll Administration!  What you’ll learn in this course is essential to your understanding of the human-resources concept of payroll as it is interpreted from a business perspective.  In applying the theoretical principles of the course in real-world ways, you should gain a better understanding of yourself and your work environment.  The goal of this course is to help you develop the fundamental skills critical to payroll operations, and to help you understand state and federal compliance.  This will provide you with a foundation for becoming more versed on the depth of payroll as an intricate component of human-resource management, and business overall. Fundamentally, the concept of payroll is rooted in both human-resource management and accounting principles.  From a human-resource management perspective, the concept of payroll embodies compliance, which includes the identification of the relationship between the employee and the employer.  There are a number of…

The management and processing of information is an essential practice in a business environment. All organizations ranging from social groups, small businesses, non-profits, and large corporations have a need for information to be analyzed and processed. These organizations require that business analysts or other key employees demonstrate a mastery of information management and processing in order to address critical business problems such as business planning, inventory management, and organizational forecast planning. In particular, these skills are needed to perform data and information analyses and present the findings of such analyses to help guide business-related decisions. This course will provide you with a structured introduction to the key tools and techniques used in information management and processing. If you have ever been asked to organize information, analyze data, or create a presentation to help your organization make a business-related decision, then this course will help you develop or…

This course provides students with an introduction to the core technologies used to communicate information on the Web: Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).  Whether managing an employer's website, producing an online resume, or starting a web-based business, knowing the fundamentals of how information is structured and presented on the internet is a crucial skill for the contemporary workplace. Today, many technologies exist to facilitate the creation and management of websites, including development environments like Adobe Dreamweaver and Content Management Systems like WordPress and Joomla!  Even though mastery of the basics of HTML and CSS is easily attainable, these labor-saving technologies have discouraged many professionals from learning crucial coding skills.  With a basic understanding of how HTML code is created and transformed, professionals are better able to produce or transform websites according to precise specifications, whether they use a fully-featured dev…