This course includes many interactive opportunities where students can strengthen their knowledge and practice using the concepts taught in the course. Research has shown that this type of learn-by-doing approach has a significant positive impact on learning. Interactive opportunities come in multiple forms:
Practice Questions
Practice questions appear on most pages in the course, embedded in the main text of the page. The purpose of these questions is different than questions on self-checks or quizzes, which are designed to see if the student has mastered the concept. Instead, practice questions allow students to learn by interacting with the concepts they are learning about. For example, a practice question might present a student with a scenario and ask them to apply the concept that they have just read about.
These practice questions do not count for a grade, and getting the answer “wrong” can be just as valuable to the learning process as answering correctly, as practice questions often address common student misconceptions and give students immediate feedback intended to correct those misconceptions.
Activities
In addition to practice questions, the course contains select opportunities for additional learning by doing in the form of more extensive interactive activities. These often occur at places in the course where instructors report that students tend to struggle, or where data shows that students need extra support.
Examples of interactive activities in the Human Resources Management course include:
- Module 1: The Role of Human Resources
- Getting a Job in Human Resources. Follow Petra, who is considering a career in Human Resources, as she considers what steps to take to follow this new career path. You will help her make the best decisions she can as she explores new ideas.
- Module 2: Human Resource Strategy and Planning
- Creating an HR Department. Help Freedom Inc., a small company that has just taken off and needs to rapidly grow their workforce. You will help them come up with a comprehensive strategy for the first time, including staffing not only a full slate of executives but people at all levels handling sales, marketing, product development, and manufacturing.
- Module 4: Diversity in the Workplace
- Making HR Decisions. Now that you’ve learned EEO compliance best practices, let’s check your instincts and take a look at a few HR situations. You will answer questions about discrete scenarios and how each should best be handled.
- Module 10: Building Positive Employee Relations
- Building Engagement in a Dissatisfied Workforce. Help SewCool, a company suffering from high turnover, figure out why their employees are disengaged—then help them establish practices to create an engaged workforce.
- Module 11: Employee Termination
- Navigating Employee Termination. Help BookShip, a distribution company, figure out how to get their company back on track. It looks like they’re suffering from overstaffing, which is always tricky to navigate. You will take a close look at the situation and see if downsizing is necessary—and if it is, determine the best way to do so.
- Module 12: Employee Rights and Responsibilities
- Formalizing Behavior Standards, Consequences, and Procedures. Let’s revisit Freedom, Inc. Now that the company has gone through a period of rapid growth, their HR team is working to formalize company policies. You will help them recognize problem behaviors in their employees, as well as help them establish procedure to correct such behavior.
- Module 14: Safety, Health, and Risk Management
- OSHA State Plans. Every state has their own (or federal) OSHA coverage. Check out this map to see what kind of OSHA coverage your state has.
- Module 15: Corporate Social Responsibility
- Embracing Corporate Social Responsibility. Technodyne is struggling with public perception and is having difficulty making entry-level hires. You will help the consultant team figure out Technodyne’s problems and propose solutions that the rather old-school management team will be willing to adopt.
