TFCBUS 92F : Foundation Business

Business and Economics

2025 Summer School (1250) (15 POINTS)

Course Prescription

Develops an understanding of the role of business in a rapidly changing national and international context. Focuses on factors impacting success and value creation including effective management and leadership, understanding customers, innovation and product development, financial and accounting practices, and strategic planning and decision-making.

Course Overview

This course helps you understand your place in the world and enables you to grow your ability and capability to add value in those places. It lays the foundation to success by developing your understanding of the business world  and growing the key skills, knowledge, and attributes that employers seek.

One of the goals of TFCBUS is to support you to develop the academic and professional skills needed to succeed in your University studies and in your future business careers. The key skills that employers value are written and oral business communication, teamwork, and critical thinking.

Another goal of TFCBUS is to grow your business literacy. This will enable you to understand core business concepts relating to management and leadership, understanding customers, innovation and product development, financial and accounting practices, and strategic planning and decision-making.

Course Requirements

No pre-requisites or restrictions

Capabilities Developed in this Course

Capability 1: People and Place
Capability 3: Knowledge and Practice
Capability 4: Critical Thinking
Capability 5: Solution Seeking
Capability 6: Communication
Capability 7: Collaboration
Capability 8: Ethics and Professionalism

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:
  1. Outline the professional and ethical behaviours and attitudes that business employers are seeking. (Capability 3 and 8)
  2. Communicate key organisational and business ideas in a range of contexts to enable action (Capability 3 and 6)
  3. Apply academic and information literacy, and time and self-management to produce academic writing in a range of contexts. (Capability 4, 6 and 8)
  4. Actively contribute to a team to produce digital artefacts that show knowledge and skills learned in the course. (Capability 6, 7 and 8)
  5. Identify, discuss and problem solve solve organisational issues with awareness of how mātauranga Māori, kaupapa Māori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi shape New Zealand’s unique worldview (Capability 1, 4, 5 and 6)

Assessments

Assessment Type Percentage Classification
Weekly Quizzes (Best 5 ( from 6)x 2%) 10% Individual Coursework
Academic Writing Test 15% Individual Test
Team Performance (best 8 from 10 mini essays ) 15% Group Coursework
Digital Artefact 20% Group & Individual Coursework
Final examination 40% Individual Examination
Assessment Type Learning Outcome Addressed
1 2 3 4 5
Weekly Quizzes (Best 5 ( from 6)x 2%)
Academic Writing Test
Team Performance (best 8 from 10 mini essays )
Digital Artefact
Final examination

Workload Expectations

The TFCBUS 92F approach to learning is purposefully modelled to complement the design of courses found in Stage one of the University of Auckland business degree that use the principles of a flipped classroom and team-based learning. This approach emphasises both individual and team capabilities. 

Similar to what students nd in rst-year business papers, this course also has an online component, called Workshop Preparation that guides students to complete tasks in preparation for their weekly workshop. Using a similar model ensures that you can be introduced to and build capability and condence in the academic systems and programmes in the Business School.

Each week of the summer semester you will attend two Lectures (these can zoom based), and two in-person/on-campus workshops. Workshops require teamwork to develop solutions to relevant problems in different business contexts. These learning activities provide you opportunities to co-create knowledge with your peers. In the modern workplace dierent groups of people work together with a mix of perspectives and skills to work on a project before disbanding. Similarly, your team formation will mirror what you will encounter in the workplace. . In each workshop, you will be allowed to choose the team of people you will work with that week to answer your team assessment task. This might or might not be the same group of people from week to week. Each team normally comprises five to six students. When our learning is based on campus, there is no requirement for you to meet or work as a team outside of the scheduled weekly workshop times apart from in the later stages of the course when your team prepares for a team presentation.  If workshop learning is online (because of the University response to lockdown levels in society), students often appreciate greater flexibility in choosing when to meet to work on their assessments in addition to the time provided in class.

You will be required to finalise the members of your team for the creation of the digital artefact and lock that in a couple of weeks before this part of the course.

This course is a standard 15-point course and students are expected to spend 10 hours per week involved in each 15-point course that they are enrolled in. However, summer school takes 1/2 the amount of time (six weeks as opposed to 12 weeks), which doubles the amount of workload expected in each week. So you will have about 20 hours of coursework to undertake in most weeks. 

For this course, you can expect 2 hours of lectures, 4 hours of workshops, up to six to eight hours of reading, workshop preparation, and thinking about the content, and 6 hours of work on assignments and/or test preparation per week for each week of the summer semester.

Delivery Mode

Campus Experience

Attendance is required at scheduled activities including lectures and workshops to complete components of the course.
Lectures are taught live (either in person or via zoom) with a recording made available on Canvas as soon as practical afterwards.  Other learning activities including workshops and tutorials will not be recorded.
The course may include live online events for teaching and learning components of the course. Depending on the University policy at the time, this can include Lectures, workshops, tutorials, seminars, and group discussions. 
Attendance on campus for the final exam is dependent on University Policy and requirements. It is likely that your exam will be written using Inspera exam technology. There may also be provision for you do complete the examination onsite at the University.

The activities for the course are scheduled as a standard weekly timetable.

Learning Resources

Course materials are made available in a learning and collaboration tool called Canvas which also includes reading lists and lecture recordings (where available).

Please remember that the recording of any class on a personal device requires the permission of the instructor.

Using the University’s learning management system, Canvas, you can log into the course site for TFCBUS 92F. There, you will be able to access all official course information and course policies, follow your week-by-week Workshop Preparation tasks, and sit MCQ tests.

Please remember that the recording of any class on a personal device requires the permission of the instructor.

The Workshop Preparation learning resources that are accessible online each week through Canvas will include set and recommended readings, lecture, workshop, and some additional tutorial slides, video clips including lecture recordings, assessment instructions, and an online weekly quiz that counts towards your final grade.

There is no assigned textbook for this course. Rather, the course Talis reading list within Canvas provides links to a range of readings that collectively aim to cover all of the topics in this course. While not having a set text can take a while to get used to, it also ensures you
are not paying for a text where content is not completely covered in this course. Instead, learning resources have been specifically selected to grow the knowledge and perspectives that will help you flourish in this course. Some of these readings will be selections that have been digitised from a range of current business, management, economics, and marketing textbooks. Other readings will include case studies and articles selected to develop your appreciation for the difference between academic journals and the popular business press. 

Student Feedback

At the end of every semester students will be invited to give feedback on the course and teaching through a tool called SET or Qualtrics. The lecturers and course co-ordinators will consider all feedback and respond with summaries and actions.

Your feedback helps teachers to improve the course and its delivery for future students.

Class Representatives in each class can take feedback to the department and faculty staff-student consultative committees.

Students feedback from previous semesters have asked that they have the flexibility in team make up so they can switch teams between  assessments. While other students from the last semester have stated they would like to stay in the same team for each team assessment. The course has built flexibility into the team work so it can cater for both student preferences. It is your responsibility to join a team and commit to producing good outputs to be submitted for grading. Teams who typically perform best are those that have a committed and consistent core membership that can quickly adjust to welcoming and working with new members. 

Academic Integrity

The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework, tests and examinations as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student's own work, reflecting their learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. A student's assessed work may be reviewed against electronic source material using computerised detection mechanisms. Upon reasonable request, students may be required to provide an electronic version of their work for computerised review.

Class Representatives

Class representatives are students tasked with representing student issues to departments, faculties, and the wider university. If you have a complaint about this course, please contact your class rep who will know how to raise it in the right channels. See your departmental noticeboard for contact details for your class reps.

Inclusive Learning

All students are asked to discuss any impairment related requirements privately, face to face and/or in written form with the course coordinator, lecturer or tutor.

Student Disability Services also provides support for students with a wide range of impairments, both visible and invisible, to succeed and excel at the University. For more information and contact details, please visit the Student Disability Services’ website http://disability.auckland.ac.nz

Special Circumstances

If your ability to complete assessed coursework is affected by illness or other personal circumstances outside of your control, contact a member of teaching staff as soon as possible before the assessment is due.

If your personal circumstances significantly affect your performance, or preparation, for an exam or eligible written test, refer to the University’s aegrotat or compassionate consideration page https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/academic-information/exams-and-final-results/during-exams/aegrotat-and-compassionate-consideration.html.

This should be done as soon as possible and no later than seven days after the affected test or exam date.

Learning Continuity

In the event of an unexpected disruption we undertake to maintain the continuity and standard of teaching and learning in all your courses throughout the year. If there are unexpected disruptions the University has contingency plans to ensure that access to your course continues and your assessment is fair, and not compromised. Some adjustments may need to be made in emergencies. You will be kept fully informed by your course co-ordinator, and if disruption occurs you should refer to the University Website for information about how to proceed.

Student Charter and Responsibilities

The Student Charter assumes and acknowledges that students are active participants in the learning process and that they have responsibilities to the institution and the international community of scholars. The University expects that students will act at all times in a way that demonstrates respect for the rights of other students and staff so that the learning environment is both safe and productive. For further information visit Student Charter https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/forms-policies-and-guidelines/student-policies-and-guidelines/student-charter.html.

Disclaimer

Elements of this outline may be subject to change. The latest information about the course will be available for enrolled students in Canvas.

In this course you may be asked to submit your coursework assessments digitally. The University reserves the right to conduct scheduled tests and examinations for this course online or through the use of computers or other electronic devices. Where tests or examinations are conducted online remote invigilation arrangements may be used. The final decision on the completion mode for a test or examination, and remote invigilation arrangements where applicable, will be advised to students at least 10 days prior to the scheduled date of the assessment, or in the case of an examination when the examination timetable is published.

Published on 10/12/2024 06:03 p.m.