Learning Contract

MGMT-470: Business Management Capstone

Track 1 Learning Contract

Directions for Students

· Complete all demographic information on the form.

· Use your project proposal to build and expand on the required fields

· Look at the Essential Competencies list (included) and consider which you and your mentor believe you will work on during the fieldwork experience. You must choose at least 5.

· You must sign the completed Learning Contract.

· Send the completed Learning Contract to your MGMT-470 instructor by the end of the second week of instruction.

· The MGMT-470 instructor will review, provide feedback is necessary, sign, and return a countersigned copy for your own records.

Track 1: Independent Learning Activity is a flexible learning experience that allows students considerable latitude to design a significant project that meets their unique aspirations and needs. It is appropriate for students who have a special professional interest that they want to pursue, or career interest they want to develop outside the confines of an existing organization . Typically, this will involve conducting field-based research.

For example, you might want to prepare a comprehensive business plan for a new start-up venture; perhaps there is a new product idea you want to develop for patent; or maybe there is an independent training program you want to pursue to achieve professional certification. One tangible outcome of this effort will be a well-documented professional report that describes your work and documents the results. A template is provided in the course for you to use, if you choose this option.

Another common alternative within this track is the completion of a research paper. This would be ideal for students who have identified a very specific, focused aspect of business they would like to explore more deeply, and are confident in their own writing and research skills. Research paper topics are expected to have a practical, applied focus and not just an abstract, theoretical one. Perhaps you want to know more about the real challenges Vermont companies face when they try to enter global markets; maybe you are curious to know what economic benefits come to the state from cheese manufacturing; or, perhaps you want to trace the history and evolution of small country stores. Using sound primary and secondary research methods, you will investigate your topic and prepare a fully documented, comprehensive, APA-formatted, detailed research paper in the range of 30-40 total body pages. A template is provided in the course for you to use, if you choose this option.

How to Use This Learning Contract

For Track 1, a learning contract is a written document that is developed by the student in conjunction with his/her MGMT-470 instructor. The contract is based on the performance objectives developed by College, but allows the student to individualize his/her learning program by:

1. identifying his/her own competencies;

2. identifying resources and a game plan for achieving the competencies;

3. identifying a timeline for completing the project;

The student chooses his/her objectives once he/she has spent approximately a week conducting independent research and knows what learning opportunities should be focused on. The student then chooses at least 5 specific competencies (located below) and completes the rest of the contract. The student discusses and edits the contract with his/her instructor until the contract is mutually satisfying. The student and instructor sign the contract. The contract, once written, should not be viewed as a static document, but instead used flexibly to allow for changes as competencies are met.

Ten Essential Capstone Competencies

You are required to match your capstone project effort with at least 5 of the following competencies. We do this so evidence of your learning can be associated with the learning competencies of this course. In other words - I need to know that you learned something as a result of your independent effort. That learning is measured by your ability to describe your experience in the capstone as it related to the list of competencies below.

A full description of each is located in the MGMT-470 Canvas course, and in the Ten Essential Capstone Competencies document.

1. Functional Area Expertise & General Business Integration

2. Advanced Numeric Proficiency

3. Written/Oral Communication Proficiency

4. Technological Competence

5. Teamwork, Human Relations & Organizational Effectiveness

6. Information and Advanced Literacy

7. Problem Solving & Decision Making Proficiency

8. Global Awareness & Multi-Cultural Empathy

9. Capacity for Lifelong Learning

10. Complementary Personal Attitudes, Values, and Traits

Learning Contract | MGMT-470: Business Management Capstone

Student Information

Full Name

College Email

Preferred Phone Number

Capstone Project Semester, Year, Session

Examples: Fall 2019, Session A | Spring 2020, Session B | Summer 2020, Session A

Business Program Concentration / Focus

Examples: Human Resource Management, Accounting, Supply Chain Management, Project Management, etc. If you didn't choose a concentration, which field of business did you gravitate toward during your time in the business management program?

Competency | Objective | Strategy | Evidence | Evaluation

Essential Competency	Learning Objective (what, specifically, do I want to learn?)	Strategies & Resources Required to Meet Competencies (how will I learn?)	Evidence (how will I demonstrate that I have learned?)	Criteria for Evaluation & Means of Validation (how do I want to be evaluated?)
Example: 1. Advanced Literacy & Numeric Proficiency	Example: To investigate how ethics is accounted for in the formulation and balancing of accounts for X-Corp.	Example: 1. Create a concise hypothesis based on a researchable practice problem (be specific and include the hypothesis) 2. Create a detailed problem statement, statement of purpose, and research questions (be specific and list your problem statement, statement of purpose, and research questions) 4. Perform review of peer reviewed literature on balance, sheets, income statements, multinational corporations, and accounting ethics. (be specific on the topics you need to cover in your Lit Review).	Example: 1. Provide a set of analyses based on a hypothesis, and detailed review of literature (be specific on your anticipated outcomes)	Example: Feedback from professor in regard to: 1. Appropriate formulation of hypothesis and problem statement 2. Quality of resources used 3. Analyses drawn from research

Schedule of Deliverables

You will be expected to adhere to this schedule, so please fill it in carefully. How long do you expect each section or major milestone of your project to take? Use the capstone templates to help you with this. Remember - MGMT-470 is a 7 week course.

Capstone Section or Major Milestone	Start and End Date

Signatures

This contract has been read, discussed, and edits have been made by the student, and/or fieldwork mentor, and/or MGMT-470 instructor. The undersigned student agrees to perform all preliminary, primary, and secondary student actions as outlined in the MGMT-470 online course materials. The undersigned Fieldwork Mentor agrees to consistently provide weekly one-on-one supervision meetings to provide instruction, facilitate the development of necessary skills and knowledge, and enhance the personal and professional growth of the student. All Parties agree to fulfill this Learning Contract.

Student

Date

Fieldwork Mentor

Date

MGMT-470 Instructor

Date