… introduce graduate students in business to the world of international business,
international trade and political economy …
Prerequisite: None
Stillman’s Mission
… is to enrich each student’s life through an ethics-centered education focusing on transforming concepts into business practice.
Welcome To The Course
Welcome to International Perspective. This is your course syllabus. I will update this syllabus if I add something to the course or if something unexpected intervenes … like a hurricane or blizzard. It is your responsibility to remain current on course assignments and materials by reviewing this syllabus regularly for updates.
The course will launch on Monday, June 5th and conclude on Saturday, July 22nd. You should review this syllabus, calendar and the other materials included in this site carefully. You will find answers to any questions about the course when you review the rest of the information included on this site.
Information about the several deliverables that you must complete before we begin is available here. Please complete these deliverables at least 48 hours before we launch our course.
Please remember that this is an online course. This course is designed to be completed on an asynchronous basis, i.e., there are no scheduled class meetings, either F2F or online. You will be able to complete the entire course without any time and place constraints except for the deadlines related to each module. Since online learning is significantly different from traditional F2F learning please review the materials located here before you decide to continue your enrollment in this course.
Please DM me in Slack if you have any questions after you’ve reviewed the site and this syllabus.
Introduction To The Course
We will approach this course’s subject matter from the viewpoint of a generalist, offering information and insights from the broad perspectives of business, economics, finance, political and economic geography, risk management, marketing, ethics and international law. Through an introduction to these fields, it is expected that you will gain a core understanding of the concepts, ideas and vocabulary of international business. This approach to the subject matter will, of necessity, focus primarily on current, and near current, issues and events.
This course is designed to be completed on an asynchronous basis, i.e., there are no scheduled class meetings, either F2F or online, giving you maximum participation flexibility. That means that your work on each module can be completed on your schedule within the timeframe of that particular module. The Module schedule is available on the calendar and at the Course Schedule. I use Slack as the course communications / collaboration platform because it allows us to engage in either asynchronous or synchronous interaction with the course and everyone participating. It is also fully transparent. Everyone participating in the course can “see” everything posted except for DMs. DMs are closed to everyone except those participating in a particular DM conversation.
Contact Me
Professor John H. Shannon
- Office: 651 Jubilee Hall
- Email: john DOT shannon AT shu DOT edu
- Office Hours: By appointment only
We can schedule an alternative meeting time if you are not available during my office hours. Please DM me in Slack with some days/times when you are available when you are available and we will set up a meeting.
What Should You Expect?
The subject matter of the course is interesting, challenging and very timely. We will examine the basis and evolution of globalization and its impact on different cultures and political systems. We will also evaluate how the legal system impacts the international business environment and we will focus on intellectual property issues … a most important area of the law. We will close with an appraisal of international trade and foreign direct investment. We will use a variety of digital platforms to interact with each other and the course materials. You will have a better sense of my perspective on learning environments after you read this site’s section on Teaching and Learning.
Learning Objectives
As I noted above, this course is prepared from perspective of a generalist and will expose you to the concepts, ideas and vocabulary of international business. You will have the opportunity to dive much deeper into different aspects of international business in your other courses so this experience will provide a foundation. You will find the course learning objectives described in detail in the individual modules in the Course Schedule.
Required Course Materials
All course materials are available at the course wiki or in the Course Schedule section of this site. Please click here to request access to the course wiki. When you request access you will be prompted for your email address (please use your SHU email to register for the course wiki). Also, please add your full name to the Message box. I will then approve each user’s access to the course wiki.
Additional Materials
I may assign additional materials for use in our course. I will post links to those materials in advance in the Course Schedule. Please check regularly for updates.
Technology
Since this is an online course you have carefully reviewed the information at Online Courses. Your participation in this course will require you to engage with a number of different digital platforms. Our primary communication and collaboration platform will be Slack. If you need to reach me or have a question, please DM in Slack. We will also use Slack for our video conversations, when necessary. If you have a question that will require an extended discussion, I prefer to schedule a video conference so that we can share content during the discussion. You will prepare your writing assignments using digital platforms in Slack that will allow you to enhance your text based content by using what is known as a text+ approach. This means that will incorporate hyperlinks to your sources and multimedia content that supports your writing. You will use resources as varied as a search engine (Google, DuckDuckGo or Bing) as well as those available from our own Walsh Library. If you are unfamiliar with any of the platforms we will use for this course, visit Slack and Blackboard to review their tutorials.
You are responsible for “figuring it out” when it comes to the “how to” aspects of a project. If you don’t know how to do something … “Google” it!
Before We Begin
We will launch on Monday, June 5th and conclude on Saturday, July 22nd. We will begin work on Module 1 of the course on Thursday, June 8th.
Slack
We will be using Slack as our primary communications platform for all of our course communications as well as several assignments. If you have any questions about Slack please visit their support page.
If you are unfamiliar with Slack, it is a messaging app that a team uses to work together, share files and discuss issues related to the project. It also connects with other tools we already use, like Dropbox, OneDrive, and a variety of Google platforms. We have all experienced lost emails, misplaced documents and other organizational disruptions when using email to support a team working on a project. Having everything in one place helps us to work together, rather than jumping around between emails, IMs, texts and a bunch of other programs. Everything you share in Slack is automatically indexed and archived, creating a searchable archive of all of our work. I have used Slack to support communications (text, video, file sharing, etc.) in all of my courses and have learned that it is a terrific communication tool that helps everyone be more productive.
I will send you an invitation to join our Slack team before our first class. Please use your SHU email and your full name as your screen name when you create your Slack profile and join the course team. Be sure to complete your profile by adding all of the required information including name, mobile#, email address, Skype userid and a recent head shot (photo). I strongly recommend that you enable two-factor authentication when you set up your Slack profile. When your Slack profile is confirmed, please visit our team site and poke around a bit. Also, please post your responses to the Introductions and Learning Contract channels.
- Fill out your profile and be sure to include your full name, your role, etc. and upload a photo that is easily recognizable as you.
- Download the apps for desktop and mobile for a much better experience. When you have installed the apps please leave them active on your desktops (as you do with Outlook) so that you will receive the alerts. If you have general questions about Slack, their Help Center is a great resource.
- If you’ve never used Slack before, visit the video guides page and watch the “What is Slack?” video at the top.
Take a look at the other short videos on
- sending messages (3:01) … @mention someone in a channel, then try a direct message,
- using channels (2:32) … check out the channel’s purpose and add your comments,
- using search (2:45) … search for a message using modifiers (type “+” in the search bar to see the full list).
Finally, you can access Slack from any browser (mobile or desktop) and via the Slack apps for either type of device. Please download and install the Slack apps to your Mac, PC and mobile devices (iOS and Android versions are available) before we meet for our first class. You will need to keep your Slack access live on all of your devices so that we can fully integrate the platform into our learning environment.
If you have questions, please post them in the appropriate channel in Slack. Someone on the team will point you to the answer.
Join the course Slack no later than 48 hours before we begin.
Introduce yourself
Complete this deliverable by posting to the Introductions channel in Teams.
Introduce yourself to your classmates in the Introductions channel in Slack. In your post, please address the following topics or anything about yourself that you would like to share with the class so that we can get to know you better.
- What degree and concentration are you pursuing?
- When do anticipate completing your degree?
- What are your professional affiliation(s)?
- Hobbies and interests?
Post your Introduction to the Introductions channel in Teams no later than 48 hours before we begin.
Learning Contract
Complete this deliverable by posting to the Learning Contract channel in Teams.
Please read through the materials included in this site including your course syllabus, deliverables, schedule and plagiarism. Once you 
have completed your review, post in the Learning Contract channel in Teams that you have reviewed and understand these materials, including the plagiarism policy, your course’s requirements and your agreement to act in accord with those policies and requirements while enrolled in our course.
Post your agreement to the terms of the Learning Contract in the Learning Contract channel in Teams no later than 48 hours before we begin.
Media Test
You will work with a variety of different file types while working in our course. Please test the files below to view a sample video (with sound) and open a .PDF file.
Sample video/sound | ePirate Flyer
If neither work, you will need to install the appropriate software. Click theses links to find downloads for VLC Video Player and Adobe Reader.
Please complete these items as soon as possible but no later than 48 hours before our course launches so that we can begin work on Module 2 on Wednesday, June 7th.