Online Degree Programs

Mathematics (MATH) 244
Business Mathematics (Revision 4)

Mathematics Diagnostic Assessment. This online test contains 70 questions that will help you assess your mathematical skills. Based on your score we will recommend which Athabasca University mathematics course you are likely ready to take successfully.

Delivery mode: Individualized study.

Credits: 3 - Science

Prerequisite: None.

Centre: Centre for Science

MATH 244 has a Challenge for Credit option.

Overview

MATH 244 is designed to introduce the basic mathematical skills needed to understand, analyse, and solve mathematical problems encountered in business and finance, and in investment decision making. There are no prerequisites for MATH 244; however, students are expected to be able to perform the basic arithmetic operations—addition, subtraction, multiplication and division—with ease, and to have some familiarity with fractions, with algebraic operations, and with some basic mathematical principles.
Outline

The course covers the following twelve topics.

Unit 1: Mathematical Operations

Unit 2: Basic Algebra

Unit 3: Ratios, Proportions, and Percentages

Unit 4: Marketing Mathematics

Unit 5: Graphical Techniques to Problem Solving

Unit 6: Data Analysis and Statistics

Unit 7: Principles of Simple Interest

Unit 8: Principles of Compound Interest

Unit 9: Annuities

Unit 10: Loans and Mortgages

Unit 11: Bonds and Sinking Funds

Unit 12: Investment Decisions

Undergraduate Course> Athabasca University

Mathematics (MATH) 100
Developmental Mathematics (Revision 1)

Mathematics Diagnostic Assessment. This online test contains 70 questions that will help you assess your mathematical skills. Based on your score we will recommend which Athabasca University mathematics course you are likely ready to take successfully.

Delivery mode: Individualized study.

Credits: 0 - Science

Prerequisite: None. Students are expected to be able to perform basic arithmetic operations with ease—addition, subtraction, multiplication and division—and have some familiarity with fractions and algebraic operations

Overview

This course is intended as a review of basic mathematics. It is recommended for students who need to develop a mathematical background before taking university level mathematics courses. The course is not given for university credit.

Material covered includes basics of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division; fractions and decimals; ratios, proportions and percentages; basic algebra; solution of simple linear equations; graphing of equations; factoring; progressions and logarithms; basic ideas of sets; inequalities; basics of geometry and trigonometry; basics of probability.
Outline

Unit 1: Mathematical Operations: Numbers, Fractions and Decimals
Unit 2: Ratio, Proportion and Percentage
Unit 3: Basic Algebra
Unit 4: Linear Equations and Graphing
Unit 5: Algebraic Factoring and Fractions
Unit 6: Progressions and Logarithms
Unit 7: Sets and Inequalities
Unit 8: Geometry
Unit 9: Trigonometry
Unit 10: Probability, Data Analysis and Statistics

Undergraduate Course> Athabasca University

Industrial Relations (IDRL) 305
Collective Bargaining (Revision 3)

View previous syllabus.

Delivery mode: Individualized study online.

Credits: 3 - Applied Studies (Business and Administrative Studies). IDRL 305 can also be used to fulfill the Social Science area of study (credential students only).

Prerequisite: None. IDRL 312 is strongly recommended.

Centre: School of Business

IDRL 305 has a Challenge for Credit option.

Overview

IDRL 305 is designed to satisfy the needs of both trade unionists and human resource managers who are or might be involved in collective bargaining, as well as students who simply want a better understanding of this important Canadian institution. The course presents collective bargaining within a theoretical framework that highlights some of its historical and legal underpinnings and aspects of industrial relations theory. In addition, it provides practical skills and knowledge related to negotiation and interpretation of collective agreements that will prove useful if planning to practice in the field: insight into some of the main approaches to bargaining and the major principles that guide interpretation; an understanding of selected technical aspects of the process; and an appreciation of the manner in which the institution is being affected by changes in the workplace, society, and our global environment.
Outline

Unit 1: Winners and Losers in Collective Bargaining
Lesson 1: Institutional Approach to Collective Bargaining
Lesson 2: Collective Bargaining in Real Life
Lesson 3: Conflict and Cooperation in the Workplace
Lesson 4: The Collective Bargaining Environment

Unit 2: Parties to Collective Bargaining
Lesson 5: Understanding Management: The Employer
Lesson 6: Employees and Trade Unions in the Bargaining Relationship
Lesson 7: Negotiating the Deal
Lesson 8: Essential Features of Collective Bargaining

Unit 3: Legal and Political Aspects of Collective Bargaining
Lesson 9: State Involvement in Collective Bargaining: Historical Roots
Lesson 10: PC 1003 and the Post-War Compromise
Lesson 11: Legal Framework for Bargaining: The Employment Contract and the Collective Agreement
Lesson 12: The State in Industrial Relations: Theoretical Approaches
Lesson 13: Public Sector Bargaining

Unit 4: Collective Bargaining Outcomes: The Agreement
Lesson 14: The Content of the Collective Agreement
Lesson 15: Drafting and Interpreting Contract Clauses
Lesson 16: Grievance Arbitration: Its Role in Contract Design and Interpretation

Unit 5: The Bargaining Process
Lesson 17: Bargaining Preparation and Techniques
Lesson 18: Strategic and Tactical Issues in Bargaining
Lesson 19: Legal Duties and Prohibitions on Collective Bargaining
Lesson 20: Industrial Disputes and Dispute Resolution
Lesson 21: Costing a Collective Agreement

Unit 6: Developments Affecting Collective Bargaining
Lesson 22: Changes Affecting the Institution of Collective Bargaining
Lesson 23: Challenges to the Legal Framework of Collective Bargaining
Lesson 24: Globalization, the “New Economy” and “New Industrial Relations”
Lesson 25: The Impact of New Technology
Lesson 26: The Future of Work . . . and Collective Bargaining

Undergraduate Course> Athabasca University

History (HIST) 404
Historical Foundations of Modern Science (Revision 1)

Delivery mode: Individualized study.

Credits: 3 - Humanities

Prerequisite: None. HUMN 202 is strongly recommended.

Precluded course: SCIE 350 (HIST 404 may not be taken for credit if credit has already been obtained for SCIE 350.)

Centre: Centre for Global and Social Analysis

HIST 404 has a Challenge for Credit option.

Overview

HIST 404 is a course designed for science students in the last year of their B.Sc. and for history students in the last year of their BA (History). In addition to employing certain standard textbooks on the subject, the course makes fairly extensive use of primary documents written by pioneer scientists and by their disciples. Although it is suitable for students with no prior knowledge of the history of science, students enrolling in the course must have good, university level, reading and writing skills.

Does modern science owe any intellectual debts to the philosopher-scientists of Classical or Hellenistic Greece? Did scientific thinking progress or regress during the Middle Ages? Were the foundations of the Scientific Revolution laid in the Renaissance? These are some of the questions addressed in the initial units of HIST 404 that survey the background and genesis of the Scientific Revolution. The course goes on to examine the work of Galileo Galilei and other pioneer scientists in the seventeenth century including Bacon, Gilbert, Harvey, and Descartes. Unit 3 focuses on the achievements of Sir Isaac Newton, and on the popularisation of Newtonianism as a scientific world view during the Enlightenment.

The second half of the course traces the broadening scope of science in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, examining important discoveries in the study of electricity and related phenomena as well as the “coming of age” of the disciplines of chemistry, geology, and biology. Lyell and Darwin are among the many thinkers whose work is explored in Unit 4 and Unit 5. The final unit of the course is devoted to an important issue which has proved very controversial among historians of science: the contribution of women to the evolution of scientific thought.
Outline

Unit 1: Science in the Ancient World and in the Middle Ages

Unit 2: The Beginnings of the Scientific Revolution

Unit 3: The Development of the Scientific Revolution

Unit 4: Enlightenment Science, the New Chemistry, and Classical Physics

Unit 5: Geology, Evolution, and Micro-Biology

Unit 6: Women in the History of Science

Undergraduate Course> Athabasca University

French (FREN) 201
First-Year University French II

Credits: 3 - Humanities
Prerequisite: FREN 200 or equivalent.
Precluded course: FREN 242 (FREN 201 cannot be taken for credit if credit has already been obtained for FREN 242).
Centre: Centre for Language and Literature
FREN 201 has a Challenge for Credit option.

Overview

FREN 201 further develops the ability to speak and write French, enabling students to use French in social situations and to talk about themselves, their opinions, and their experiences. In addition, the course leads the student through a major review of grammar and develops the student’s ability to understand and compose short passages.
Outline

Unit 1: Ensemble Grammaire en action, Chapter 7 : Mode et cuisine
Futur, Conditional, Pluperfect, Devoir
Activities Manual, 121-126

Unit 2: Ensemble Grammaire en action, Chapter 7
Activities Manual, 126-132
Assignment: Written exercise 1

Unit 3: Lectures diverses, « La France se fait bouffer », « La mode »
Assignment: Oral exercise 1

Unit 4: Ensemble Grammaire en action, Chapter 8 : Voyageurs et Touristes Relative Pronouns and Demonstratives
Activities Manual, 173-177

Unit 5: Ensemble Grammaire en action, Chapter 8
Activities Manual, 177-182
Assignment : Written exercise 2

Unit 6: Lectures diverses, « Xénophobie », « La machine àaméricain », « Du nord vers le sud »
Assignment : Oral exercise 2

Unit 7: Ensemble Grammaire en action, Chapter 9 : Langue et Communication
Subjunctive
Activities Manual, 193-197

Unit 8: Ensemble Grammaire en action, Chapter 9
Activities Manual, 198-199
Assignment : Written exercise 3

Unit 9: Lectures diverses, « Les tribulations d’un Québécois à Paris », « Le dictionnaire et la langue française »
Assignment : Oral exercise 3

Unit 10: Ensemble Grammaire en action, Chapter 10 : L’Art, la Scène et les Lettres
Possessives and Prepositions
Activities Manual, 205-208
Assignment : Composition 1 (based on Lectures diverses)

Unit 11: Ensemble Grammaire en action, Chapter 10
Activities Manual, 208-215
Assignment : Written exercise 4

Unit 12: Lectures diverses, « Le portrait »
Assignment : Oral exercise 4

Unit 13: Ensemble Grammaire en action, Chapter 11 : Musique, Cinéma et Sports
Passive Voice, Present Participle, Causative Construction
Activities Manual, 223-226

Unit 14: Ensemble Grammaire en action, Chapter 11
Activities Manual, 226-232
Assignment : Written exercise 5

Unit 15: Lectures diverses, « Ma contribution au baseball », « Le siècle du cinéma »
Assignment : Oral exercise 5

Unit 16: Revision
Assignment : Composition 2 (based on Lectures diverses)

Week 17: Examination week

Undergraduate Course> Athabasca University

French (FREN) 200
First-Year University French I

Credits: 3 - Humanities
Prerequisite: FREN 101 or equivalent. Students are advised not to take FREN 200 and FREN 201 simultaneously.
Precluded course: FREN 200 cannot be taken for credit if credit has already been obtained for FREN 242.
Centre: Centre for Language and Literature
FREN 200 has a Challenge for Credit option.

Overview

FREN 200 trains the student in spoken and written French as a continuation of FREN 100 and FREN 101. The course enables students to use French in social situations and to talk about themselves, their opinions, and their experiences.

In addition, FREN 200 leads the student through a major review of grammar and develops the student’s ability to understand and compose short passages.
Outline

Unit 1: Ensemble grammaire en action, Chapter 2 : La femme
Present tense, Imperative
Activities Manual, 23-27

Unit 2: Ensemble grammaire en action, Chapter 2
Personal Pronouns
Activities Manual, 28-35
Assignment: Written exercise 1

Unit 3: Lectures diverses, “Condamnation,” “Mme le Secrétaire”
Assignment: Oral Exercise 1

Unit 4: Ensemble grammaire en action, Chapter 3 : La famille
Nouns
Activities Manual, 43-47

Unit 5: Ensemble grammaire en action, Chapter 3
Articles
Activities Manual, 48-49
Assignment: Written exercise 2

Unit 6: Lectures diverses, “Les monopapas,” “La famille dans tous ses états”
Assignment: Oral exercise 2

Unit 7: Ensemble grammaire en action, Chapter 4 : Ville et campagne
Reflexives
Activities Manual, 57-61

Unit 8: Ensemble grammaire en action, Chapter 4
Passé composé and the Imperfect
Activities Manual, 62-67
Assignment: Written exercise 3

Unit 9: Lectures diverses, “L’anniversaire de Marie-Edwige,” “Le message,” “A Marie Hémon”
Assignment: Oral Exercise 3

Unit 10: Ensemble grammaire en action, Chapter 5 : La vie sociale interrogatives
Activities Manual, 81-85

Unit 11: Ensemble grammaire en action, Chapter 5
Negatives
Activities Manual, 86-92
Assignment: Written Exercise 4

Unit 12: Lectures diverses, “Le racisme expliqué à ma fille,”
“Qui a dit que la route?”
Assignment: Oral Exercise 4

Unit 13: Ensemble grammaire en action, Chapter 6 : La vie politique et économique Descriptive adjectives
Activities Manual, 101-104

Unit 14: Ensemble grammaire en action, Chapter 6
Adverbs
Activities Manual, 105-113
Assignment: Written Exercise 5

Unit 15: Lectures diverses, “La santé et l’environnement,”
“L’influence du tourisme.”
Assignment: Oral exercise 5

Unit 16: Revision
Assignment: Composition

Unit 17: Examination week

Undergraduate Course of e-Commerce > Athabasca University

e-Commerce (ECOM) 320
Overview of e-Commerce

Overview

ECOM 320: Overview of e-Commerce is a three-credit, senior-level course at Athabasca University. This foundational course focuses on principles of e-commerce from a business perspective. This course provides an overview of business and technology topics, business models, virtual value chain, and innovation and marketing strategies. In addition, some of the major issues associated with e-commerce—security, privacy, intellectual property rights, authentication, encryption, acceptable use policies, and legal liabilities—will be explored.
Outline

ECOM 320 consists of the following 11 lessons of study. Each lesson is designed to teach you the concepts, principles, and case-study skills that will enable you to learn the course objectives.

Lesson 1: Introduction to e-Commerce

Lesson 2: e-Commerce Infrastructure

Lesson 3: Business Models and e-Commerce

Lesson 4: e-Commerce Strategy

Lesson 5: Supply Chain Management and e-Commerce

Lesson 6: Marketing Strategies and e-Commerce

Lesson 7: e-Commerce Security and Controls

Lesson 8: Electronic Payment Systems

Lesson 9: Mobile Commerce and Pervasive Computing

Lesson 10: Legal and Ethical Issues in e-Commerce

Lesson 11: Global, Social, and Other Issues in e-Commerce

Undergraduate Course of Biology > Athabasca University

Biology (BIOL) 321
Wild Flowers

Overview

Wild Flowers (plant taxonomy) is the study of flowering plants and some of their nonflowering relatives such as ferns and conifers. Close attention is paid to reproductive structures, identification, classification, phylogenetic relationships, and plant habitats.

Wild Flowers is a field-oriented course and students must participate in a nine-day workshop held in June/July at the Kananaskis Field Station at Barrier Lake (70 km west of Calgary). Students are responsible for paying their own board and lodging (approximately $350) in addition to course tuition. Students must register in time for a June 1 start date. The course ends August 31 and students will have no option to extend. More information is listed in the workshop details.
Learning Objectives

When students have completed BIOL 321 they should be able to accomplish the following:
Describe the morphology and evolutionary trends of vegetative and reproductive parts of vascular plants.
Discuss various aspects of the scientific naming of plants.
Prepare dichotomous keys to identify plants.
Distinguish selected plant families, genera, and species from each other by using botanical keys.
Collect, identify, and prepare herbarium mounts of plants.
Draw floral diagrams and write floral formulae of flowering plants.
Describe various processes of classification, and discuss their strengths and weaknesses.
Compare different systems of classification of vascular plants.
Outline

The following topics discussed in the book by Dirk Walters and David Keil constitute the outline for this course.
Introduction to plant taxonomy
Botanical nomenclature and naming of plants
Morphology of vegetative and reproductive parts
Botanical descriptions and literature
Collecting and preserving plants
Taxonomic characters
Systems of classification: artificial, phenetic, phylogenetic, cladistic
Experimental plant systematics
Nature and use of botanical keys
Detailed study of selected plant families (this study will take place in the workshop)

RMC Timelines

Full-time students are expected to complete all four RMC modules in their first year of study. For part-time distance-learning students the RMC is designed to take place over two years, i.e. RMC Modules I & II have to be completed by the end of Year 1 and Modules III & IV by the end of Year 2. However, there is a possibility for part-timers to complete the RMC in less than two years, as they can chose to do Module III (or parts of it) and/or Module IV in Year 1 in addition to Modules I & II. These optional elements in Year 1 for part-timers are illustrated in italics in the following table.

School of Life and Health Sciences >MPharm Degree Course> Aston University

MPharm First Year

In your first year, you will develop your knowledge of the basic scientific principles that underpin Pharmacy (including chemistry, physiology, physical formulation and cell and molecular biology), and will begin to apply that knowledge in the dispensary and in patient based case studies. Right from the start you will develop patient centred skills: you will study the personal and professional skills and knowledge required to respond to symptoms in the Pharmacy. In addition, the core law relating to supply (including the preparation of extemporaneously prepared products) will be studies in theory and in practice in our dispensary. Our programme allows for differences in entry qualifications to smooth your transition to University life e.g. a course in quantitative methods for those without mathematics A level. You will also begin your professional studies complemented by courses on IT application and career skills.