William G Nickels,
University of Maryland James M McHugh,
St. Louis Community College at Forest Park Susan M McHugh,
Applied Learning Systems
ISBN: 0072538767 Copyright year: 2005
Popular Features
· Users of Understanding Business have always appreciated the currency of the material as well as the large number of examples from companies of all sizes and industries (e.g., service, manufacturing, profit and non-profit)—in the United States and around the world.
· The introductory material, Getting Ready for Prime Time, opens the text. Coverage includes a unique and popular business etiquette discussion, study skills and time management guidance, a primer to surfing the internet, and advice on how to get a rewarding job that will lead to a successful career. This section also contains a corresponding video and video case on HotJobs.com.
· The Business Week connection, a highly praised feature of past editions, has been retained in the revision. In addition to an available Business Week Edition, the authors excerpt material from the magazine in the form of boxes throughout the text, to emphasize the importance of reading and staying current through business periodicals.
· The critical themes of the revision remain tried and true to our past editions: ecommerce, small business and entrepreneurship, global business, technology and change, customer focus, ethics and social responsibility, teams and teamwork, quality, cultural diversity, The authors continue to feature boxes titled “Spotlight on Small Business,” Making Ethical Decisions,” “Legal Briefcase,” and “Reaching Beyond our Borders” in every chapter.
· The emphasis on entrepreneurship continues to be a hallmark of the 7th Edition. There is an Entrepreneurship Readiness Questionnaire as well as an entire chapter on subject, Entrepreneurship and Starting a Small Business. This emphasis exists because the vast majority of students taking this course currently works in, or ultimately will work in, small companies. There is more coverage of entrepreneurship and starting a small business in Understanding Business 7th Edition than in any other introduction to business text on the market.
· Tied directly to the summaries at the end of the chapter and to the test questions, learning goals help students preview what they are supposed to know after reading the chapter, and then test that knowledge by answering the questions in the summary. The study guide is also closely linked to the learning goals as part of the total integrated teaching, learning, and testing system. The Test Bank also includes a test table that organizes the questions in the TB by learning objective.
· “Getting to Know Business Professionals” Each chapter begins with a story about a person whose career illustrates an important point covered in the chapter. Not all the personalities are famous since many of them work in small businesses and nonprofit organizations. These profiles provide a transition between chapters and a good introduction to the text material.
· Throughout the chapters there are “Progress Assessments” that ask students to assess their understanding of what they have just read. If students are not understanding and retaining the material, the Progress Assessments will stop them and show them that they need to review before proceeding.
· Unique inserts called “Critical Thinking Questions” are found throughout each chapter, and ask students to pause and think about how the material they are reading applies to their own lives. This device is an excellent tool for linking the text material to the student’s past experience to enhance retention. It greatly increases student involvement in the text and course as recommended by SCANS.
· Key terms are developed and reinforced through a three-tiered system. They are introduced in boldface, repeated and defined in the margin, listed at the end of each chapter with page references, and defined in a glossary at the end of the text. The glossary also contains American slang expressions used in the text, which provides students from other countries in particular some help in translating, since the expressions are not found in most dictionaries (slang terms and definitions are provided in italics).
· The cross-reference system, unique to this text, refers students back to the primary discussion and examples of all key concepts. A specific page reference appears when a key concept occurs in a chapter subsequent to its original discussion. This feature allows students to quickly review that concept (if necessary) in context in order to improve their comprehension of the material. It also eliminates the need to continuously revisit and restate key concepts, thus reducing overall text length.
· Interactive Summaries. The end-of-chapter summaries are directly tied with the learning goals and are written in a unique question and answer format. Answering the questions and getting immediate feedback helps prepare students for quizzes and exams. Students are extremely positive about this format.
· Optional “Taking It to the Net” Exercises at the end of every chapter allow students to research topics and issues on the Web. (The URL’s for these exercises are updated as needed on the text OLC.)
· The Developing Workplace Skills section has activities designed to increase student involvement in the learning process. Some of these mini-projects require library or Internet searches, but many of them involve talking with people to obtain their reactions and advice on certain subjects. These assignments are appropriate for individual or team-oriented assignments. These are the type of learning experiences that facilitate the SCANS competencies.
· Each chapter concludes by referencing a short practice case that can be found at the text OLC (“Casing the Web”). These cases allow students to practice managerial decision-making. They are intentionally brief and meant to be discussion starters rather than take up the entire class period. The answers to the cases are in the instructor’s manual. These examples of real-world problem solving help students achieve the SCANS competencies.
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2005 McGraw-Hill Higher Education