International Business

(1) MGMT100; and (2) A further 45 points

MGMT220

Timetable Note

Lectures for MGMT221S1 are recorded using the ECHO360 lecture recording system.

Attendance
All students are expected to attend all scheduled class sessions, actively engage with course content, actively participate in all course activities, and complete all required tasks by the due dates. The lectures are also recorded and will be available through Echo. However, lecture attendance is highly recommended for a more active and engaging experience.

Course Coordinator / Lecturer

David Stiles

Assessment

Learn Quizzes
Learn quizzes are weekly online tests designed to help regularly test your own understanding of each of the main course topics. They are based on your ‘Required Readings’ (also called Essential Reading in the handouts) described in the lecture schedule below (the core text chapter) and the relevant lecture each week (including the video cases presented) – so reading the textbook and regularly attending lectures is essential. You will answer theoretical and applied questions to make you think more deeply about each topic. All quizzes open immediately after the lecture dealing with the relevant topic, starting in Week 1 with the Introduction & Overview quiz. Quizzes are normally open for 7 days after each class (i.e. will close at the start of the following week’s lecture), so be careful not to miss the deadlines. However, to allow extra time for enrolments, book buying etc., the deadline for the first 2 quizzes is the beginning of lecture 3 on 9th March. Check the Learn website for each deadline.

You may make unlimited attempts at each quiz, but there is a 30 minute delay between quiz attempts to get you to think rather than randomly guess. To make it fair to all, there is no option for late submission of a quiz or to complete the quiz other than via Learn. However, I have deliberately built some slack into the system to account for late enrolments, illness and a reasonable number of absences. This means you will need to complete all questions for 8 out of 11 quizzes to gain full credit for this item of assessment. So, this means you have three extra ‘lives’ i.e. you can fail to complete up to three quizzes – for whatever reason. Of course, since the quizzes are designed to help your learning, the best strategy is to attempt all of them to give you a buffer. There is no quiz after the last lecture.

Marks will be available for each quiz after the quiz closes (i.e. the final deadline for the whole class) – not when you complete your own quiz. Otherwise you would know the answers and could resubmit until you got 100% - or pass the answers on to others.

One warning about the Learn quiz system: Press the submit button when you’re ready to finalise your answers (or if you resubmit answers)! Some students forget to 'close' their quiz responses properly on Learn, but leave answers ‘open’ past the deadline, so don’t officially submit answers. If you do this, you may not receive any marks. It is a particular problem if you make multiple attempts at a quiz, since your final attempt won’t be clear. Be aware the very act of reopening the quiz to look at the questions counts as an attempt and Learn will automatically submit this as an open quiz, even if you don’t want it to. Learn counts the last submission made, not the highest scoring one. If it did, you could simply attempt the quiz as many times as you like, and eventually get 100%! Unfortunately, Learn doesn’t allow me to override your responses, so I can’t change the outcome once the quiz is closed. Neither are the quizzes available for special consideration, since they a form of continuing assessment. So please don’t email me then to say you forgot to complete the quiz, were absent, or request an alternative assessment for that week. Try to maximise your potential marks by closing the attempt with your preferred answers.

Obviously don’t consult your classmates on questions or answers, since this will be detrimental to your own learning and will not be a valid indication of whether you understand the course material. The final exam will be a lot harder in this case. In any case, the questions are in a different order each time you open the quiz. This item of assessment is not available for special consideration.

Group Project
The group project will help you understand how international business impacts practically upon a company. It is designed to help you develop applied strategic management understanding and skills. You will be allocated to a group and it is up to you to be able to function effectively as a team to deliver this assignment. All group members will be expected to contribute equally to this assignment and those not contributing satisfactorily may have marks deducted - but for all those engaging fully in the project it should be an enjoyable and interesting learning exercise.

Each group must submit a 1st Meeting Feedback Sheet at the start of the final lecture in the first term (30th March). This is evidence that you have met and have begun your project. The final Group Report is due at the start of the lecture on 11th May, together with a group cover sheet - only one report & cover sheet per group. However, each person on the course also needs to submit their own individual Reflections form by the 11th May deadline.

More details will be in a separate document posted on Learn.

Final Examination
The final examination will be a closed book, invigilated, short essay-style, applied 2-hour exam based on material from the lectures and the textbook. The paper is designed to test you on your broad knowledge of International Business issues, concepts and tools from across the course rather than on a single topic. You will need to answer 4 questions from a choice of 6, each from a different topic area. Good answers will use organisational examples to illustrate points drawn from short case studies in the textbook. So, to get higher marks it's a good idea to use the cases in each chapter (including the Active Learning ones) and/or lecture examples of companies to illustrate your answers. Answering the questions after each textbook Active Learning Case isn't compulsory, but might help you to understand and remember the material. As well as the textbook cases, I also give company/country examples in the lectures both anecdotally and through special video cases. So attending classes, and taking notes of each session, is doubly important. More detailed advice on the final exam will be given in the last lecture, but exam papers from 2013 onwards are good indications of this year’s exam format and level. This course was essentially new in 2013, so exam papers before this are not relevant.

Grading
The marks for assessments may be scaled before a final grade is determined.  You should not regard 50% as a pass mark.

Textbooks / Resources

Required Texts

Collinson, Simon et al; International business ; Eighth Edition; Pearson, 2020.

For unlimited access, the best option is to buy the eBook priced at $65, available from the publisher at:
https://www.pearsoned.co.nz/9781292274171

There are a few paper copies in the library High Demand collection and limited library access to the eBook at https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/canterbury/detail.action?docID=6031374 but there is likely to be strong demand for these from other students and availability is restricted. There is also a print edition available from the publisher/University Bookshop, but this is $119.99, so this option is unlikely to appeal to many. See: https://www.pearsoned.co.nz/9781292274157

Do not use previous editions, since much of the material will be out-of-date.

Other material will be posted on the course Learn website.

Course links

LEARN
Coversheets - Group and Individual

Notes

Class Representative
A class representative may be asked to volunteer in the first few weeks of class. Any problems with the course can be raised with the class rep. Their email can be found at UCSA. The class representative will take up any issues raised by class members with the lecturer concerned as they occur.

Departmental Academic Policies
A summary of Departmental academic policies on course grading, special considerations, etc. is available under: https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/business/departments/. The Department assumes that you have read this document.

You should also read the following:
• UC Business School Student Handbook on the UC Business School Students Learn page https://learn.canterbury.ac.nz/course/view.php?id=7744
• General Course and Examination Regulations http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/regulations/general/general_regs_enrolment_courses.shtml

Dishonest Practice
The University of Canterbury considers cheating and plagiarism to be serious acts of dishonesty.  All assessed work must be your own individual work unless specifically stated otherwise in the assessment guidelines. Material quoted from any other source must be clearly acknowledged. You must not copy the work of another person (student or published work) in any assessment including examinations, tests and assignments. Any person, who is found to have copied someone else's work, or to have allowed their work to be copied, will receive a fail grade for that piece of assessment and may face disciplinary action which may lead to a fine, community service or exclusion from the university.

IMPORTANT: Where there are concerns regarding the authorship of written course work, a student can be required to provide a formal, oral explanation of the content of their work.

Citations and referencing

Indicative Fees

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.