Category: Essays

Prepare a brief paragraph on the impact of Sputnik and “A Nation at Risk’ on public education ( treat separately ).
Expound on the statement that education is an investment in “Human Capital”
What vehicle is used to transfer private sector profits to the public sector?
Provide a brief definition of the following:
Equity
Equality
Cost-benefit
Cost-quality

Define and explain the impact of “Marginal Dollar Principal” and “Point of Diminishing Returns” on the financing of public education.
In what way is the U.S. a world leader in public education? In what way are we not?
What are the elements of an economic good? In what way is education unique?
What are a few of the non-economic benefits of public education?

Assignment 2

School expenditures are constantly increasing. What past and current factors have driven costs up?
What economic impact does the lack of education pose on the individual and society as a whole?

Assignment 3

Provide a brief overview regarding equity in the financing of public education as it relates to:
The varying needs of students
At the school level (school comparison)
For taxpayers

Briefly explain the statement “Fairness of taxation is increased when more kinds of wealth are included”.
Trace the history of educational funding from it’s inception to present. There are 4 to 5 identifiable eras depending on the author.( Found in chapter 7 0f text).

Students will focus on learning about and developing their own online information-based business. Students are not required to bring any products of their own into the business development process. Each student is required to produce information about a particular niche area of interest. This information is posted on a web site and a blog created by the student. All work is done individually. No group work is required or allowed.

These information-based web pages and blog posts form the basis of the online business. Traffic to these businesses is created and monitored using search engine registrations, ezine database article submissions, inbound lines (links to the students webpages from other online sources), niche related outbound links (links from the students web pages to other web pages related to the same area of interest), page counters and analytics.

A student’s online business is established on the Internet and accessible using normal search engine procedures. Student then attempt to make their business profitable through a monetization process. This monetization process includes: posting advertisements on their web pages, promoting physical products available through affiliate relationships, asking for donations, promoting physical products created using CafePress, and promoting the sale of ebooks created by the student.

The project is divided into four milestones with measureable deliverables. Comprehensive and clear expectations will be distributed in class as the term progresses.

Assignment 1 – Topic Selection

Most people who are just starting out in creating an online business make the mistake of looking for a product first, and a market second.

To boost your chances of success, start with a market. The trick is to find a group of people who are searching for a solution to a problem but not finding many results. They must be looking for a solution to a problem in a topic area that you know about or you are interested in learning about. The internet makes this kind of market research easy.

1. 1.Visit online forums to see what questions people ask and what problems they are trying to solve.

2. 2.Do keyword research to find keywords that a lot of people are searching, but for which not many sites are competing.

3. 3.Check out your potential competitors by visiting their sites and taking note of what they are doing to fill the demand. Then you can use what you have learned and create a product for a market that already exists – and do it better than the competition!

This deliverable is worth 5% of your overall class mark. The deliverable for this assignment will be 1 – 2 pages long (plus title page and appendices) and will be submitted to ACORN on Thursday September 17th, 2015.

The main deliverable will be an executive summary of what your research has found. The details of your research will be supplied in the appendices. The rubric provides details on what is expected.

Remember: you are developing an information based business. No product should be required to make your business financially successful.

The rubric for the deliverable is as follows:

Section

Description

Mark

Topic

In your executive summary, provide 1 – 2 paragraphs to explain your topic for your online business and why you are interested in this topic area.

20%

Market Research

Show that you have a market by providing the following:

· Run a google search on keywords related to your topic. Provide a screenshot of the search in the appendices.

· Provide a screenshot of 5 of the urls found to show that they have a question that isn’t being answered.

· Summarize the information you have found in your executive summary.

25%

Keyword Research

Show the viability of the keywords.

· Log into adwords.google.com and run the keyword planner for the keywords in the market research.

· Provide a screenshot of the summary report from adwords along with screenshots of the top 5 ad groups.

· Summarize the information you have found in your executive summary.

25%

Potential Competitors

Show that your potential competitors are not providing the information that your potential market is looking for.

· Identify 5 of your potential competitors from the google search that you did as part of your market research. Provide a screenshot (or screenshots) of their urls in the google search.

· NOTE: since it is difficult to prove a negative, provide an explanation in your executive summary as to why these competitors are not meeting market demand

Students will focus on learning about and developing their own online information-based business. Students are not required to bring any products of their own into the business development process. Each student is required to produce information about a particular niche area of interest. This information is posted on a web site and a blog created by the student. All work is done individually. No group work is required or allowed.

These information-based web pages and blog posts form the basis of the online business. Traffic to these businesses is created and monitored using search engine registrations, ezine database article submissions, inbound lines (links to the students webpages from other online sources), niche related outbound links (links from the students web pages to other web pages related to the same area of interest), page counters and analytics.

A student’s online business is established on the Internet and accessible using normal search engine procedures. Student then attempt to make their business profitable through a monetization process. This monetization process includes: posting advertisements on their web pages, promoting physical products available through affiliate relationships, asking for donations, promoting physical products created using CafePress, and promoting the sale of ebooks created by the student.

The project is divided into four milestones with measureable deliverables. Comprehensive and clear expectations will be distributed in class as the term progresses.

Assignment 1 – Topic Selection

Most people who are just starting out in creating an online business make the mistake of looking for a product first, and a market second.

To boost your chances of success, start with a market. The trick is to find a group of people who are searching for a solution to a problem but not finding many results. They must be looking for a solution to a problem in a topic area that you know about or you are interested in learning about. The internet makes this kind of market research easy.

1. 1.Visit online forums to see what questions people ask and what problems they are trying to solve.

2. 2.Do keyword research to find keywords that a lot of people are searching, but for which not many sites are competing.

3. 3.Check out your potential competitors by visiting their sites and taking note of what they are doing to fill the demand. Then you can use what you have learned and create a product for a market that already exists – and do it better than the competition!

This deliverable is worth 5% of your overall class mark. The deliverable for this assignment will be 1 – 2 pages long (plus title page and appendices) and will be submitted to ACORN on Thursday September 17th, 2015.

The main deliverable will be an executive summary of what your research has found. The details of your research will be supplied in the appendices. The rubric provides details on what is expected.

Remember: you are developing an information based business. No product should be required to make your business financially successful.

SWOT Analysis

Based on your unit reading, create a SWOT analysis for the company you chose to research. Your analysis should be between one to two pages, and identify the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Use Microsoft Word and create four sections for your paper using the SWOT categories as your headings.

Each category should have approximately 200-300 words describing the issues that fall under that area, for a total of 800- 1,200 words across the four areas of the mini-SWOT analysis. The opportunities and threats should have at least ten items identified for each.

Format your SWOT analysis using APA Style. Use your own words, and include citations and references as needed to avoid plagiarism.

Part II

Using the information gathered from your SWOT analysis conducted in Unit II, create an EFAS table for the company you researched. Use Microsoft Word to create your table. It should have five columns. The first column heading should be entitled External Factors, the second column should be titled Weight, the third column should be titled Rating, the fourth column should be titled Weighted Score, and the fifth column should be titled Comments.

In the External Factors column, list at least six opportunities you saw in the company you researched. Underneath the opportunities, list at least six threats you saw in the company you researched.

In the Weight column, assign an importance factor to each of these issues from 0.0-1.0 (1.0 is most important; 0.0 is least important). These ratings are based on the probable impact on a particular company’s current strategic position. The higher the weight, the more important the factor to the current and future success of the company. You may not be privy to the exact information for this company, so in some cases you will need to use your best judgment. (You will justify your weighting in column five.)

In the Rating column, assign a rating factor from 5.0-1.0 (5.0 is outstanding; 1.0 is poor). These ratings are based on the company’s response to that particular factor. It is a judgment call on how the company is currently dealing with each specific factor. Once again, you may need to make an estimate in this area if you are not privy to all of the information. (You will justify your weighting in column five.)

In the Weighted Score column, multiply the weight from column two by the rating in column three to get the factor’s weighted score.

In the Comments column, explain why a particular factor was selected and how its weight and rating were estimated.

At the bottom of column four, add the weighted scores for the external factors. Is the company doing better or worse than others in the same industry? Complete this answer underneath your table.

Format your assignment using APA Style. Use your own words, and include citations and references as needed to avoid plagiarism

1.Were there deeper issues at Krispy Kreme that deserved scrutiny?

2.What is the source of intrinsic investment value in this company? Does this source appear on the financial statements

View the videos from the Films On Demand database.

Research dollars are scarce, and it is always controversial how best to spend them. Imagine you are the chair of the budget committee for a large non-profit organization who specializes in mental health-related research. You are in control of deciding how to allocate the research budget for the upcoming year. Address the following as you respond:

oWhich psychological disorder (select one) would you choose to receive the most funding for research?

oWhich psychological disorder (select one) would you choose to receive the fewest research dollars?

oExplain your reasoning for these decisions.

oDescribe abnormal behavior in general as well as each of the disorders you have selected.

Your initial post must be a minimum of 200 words and utilize at least one scholarly source.

2.Homelessness

Thousands of men, women, and children are without a home each night in the United States and around the World. This is a complex issue with a number of contributing factors, but one primary issue is that of mental illness. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s fact sheet titled Current statistics on the prevalence and characteristics of people experiencing homelessness in the United States (2011), on a given night in January of 2010, 26.2% of all sheltered persons who were homeless had a severe mental illness and 34.7% had chronic substance use issues (p.2).

Review the fact sheet. Assume you are altruistic (self-sacrificing with a desire to engage in helpful behavior) and have unlimited resources. Describe what you would do to combat the issue of homelessness. How would you close the revolving door of people in and out of treatment and shelters? Indicate how your plan is truly altruistic.

Your initial post must be a minimum of 200 words and utilize at least one scholarly source.

Prepare a brief paragraph on the impact of Sputnik and “A Nation at Risk’ on public education ( treat separately ).
Expound on the statement that education is an investment in “Human Capital”
What vehicle is used to transfer private sector profits to the public sector?
Provide a brief definition of the following:
Equity
Equality
Cost-benefit
Cost-quality

Define and explain the impact of “Marginal Dollar Principal” and “Point of Diminishing Returns” on the financing of public education.
In what way is the U.S. a world leader in public education? In what way are we not?
What are the elements of an economic good? In what way is education unique?
What are a few of the non-economic benefits of public education?

Assignment 2

School expenditures are constantly increasing. What past and current factors have driven costs up?
What economic impact does the lack of education pose on the individual and society as a whole?

Assignment 3

Provide a brief overview regarding equity in the financing of public education as it relates to:
The varying needs of students
At the school level (school comparison)
For taxpayers

Briefly explain the statement “Fairness of taxation is increased when more kinds of wealth are included”.
Trace the history of educational funding from it’s inception to present. There are 4 to 5 identifiable eras depending on the author.( Found in chapter 7 0f text)

Federal Program Summary

Based on your selected federal education program for the final capstone project, in a three-page paper, address the following:

Identify and summarize the purpose and mission of a selected federal program.
Describe the population served by the program (example: preschool-age children, adolescents, community college students etc.).
Analyze program effectiveness in meeting the needs of the intended program recipients.

Two other references, in addition to the course text, are required. Remember to cite all sources using APA style.

Please reference this Week Five Pape

Important Financial Documents (3:19)

Description: This video looks at the fundamental financial documents every company needs, including the balance sheet, income statement and statement of cash flow.

In your post, choose one of the financial statements and explain how a manager would use the statement to drive financial analysis and decision-making. Your post should be 200-250 words in length.

DQ 2

Summarize the role of management as it relates to finance in a corporation. In your post, address the following:

Indicate the various aspects of finance that management must understand.
Describe why a manager needs to understand the characteristics and importance of financial markets including risk and efficiency.
Describe why cash flow is more important than sales in a business.
Discuss what could happen if management does not fulfill responsibilities related to finance. If you have one, share a real world example from your own professional experience or from an external source

). In “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” George Kennan (under the alias “X”) argues that the United States was fundamentally challenged as a nation-state by the Soviet Union. In trying to account for Soviet conduct, Kennan says a lot about the nature of the United States and its role in the world. Indeed, at the end of the essay he implies that the U.S. holds a moral and political leadership over the rest of the world. Kennan’s view of the U.S. is both popular within U.S. politics and as relevant today as it was in the 1947. What can we draw from Kennan to better understand the U.S. role in the world today; and what elements of Kennan’s analysis pose challenges to global governance?

2). “As we face up to the costs both of fundamentalist terrorism and of fighting it, must we not ask ourselves how it is that when we see religion colonize every other realm of human life we call it theocracy and turn up our noses at the odor of tyranny; and when we see politics colonize every other realm of human life we call it absolutism and tremble at the prospect of totalitarianism; but when we see market relations and commercial consumerism try to colonize every other realm of human life we call it liberty and celebrate its triumph? There are too many John Walkers who begin by seeking a refuge from the aggressive secularist materialism of their suburban lives and end up slipping into someone else’s dark conspiracy to rid the earth of materialism’s infidels. If such men are impoverished and without hope as well, they become prime recruits for jihad.”
First, does a market based society alienate those marginalized from it; and if so, then is this a sufficient condition to foment terrorism, whether based on Islam or more domestic variants found in the U.S.?

3). Huntington writes, “It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerflil actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.