Open Pedagogy Assignments are assignments in which students use their agency and creativity to create knowledge artifacts that can support their own learning, their classmates’ learning, and the learning of students around the world. (See this peer-reviewed article for more details.) The assignment on this page is aligned to the learning outcomes of Introduction to Business and we’ve identified the module where the reading appears. All of the assignments can be created with a cell phone camera or any video recording device, Google or Word documents, and your learning management system. 

In the module on Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), there is a case study on TOMS shoes. For this assignment, you are going to work with a small group to hunt down useful links and resources for your fellow students about other businesses who may fit into the same CSR. This work will become a living document that future students will use.

Think of your audience as friends who have never heard of the company of your choice.

• In your own words, summarize the business’ mission statement. You can take a look at TOMS website as an example of what to look for in your research.
• Does your business of choice reflect the values of a social entrepreneur? If so, why? If not, why? Cite specifics from the business’ website.

A Note To Teachers: Use the case study in the course as a way to scaffold your students’ discussions and research. You may want to break your students into groups and let them work on their own document that you will eventually create into one document. Over time, it may be useful to have students check to see if businesses have changed their practices for better or for worse. We chose the TOMS example because they’ve changed their charitable focus as they’ve become more successful.