Assignments and Exams
Assignments
Assignments for Waymaker Introduction to Business are closely aligned to learning outcomes and are designed to assess student performance and mastery of course material. The assignments include a range of written assignments, discussions, and in-class activities (to support hybrid or face-to-face classes). Because they are all openly licensed, you may use them as is or adapt them to fit your needs.
Salty Pawz Assignments and Discussions
Half of the written assignments and discussions (32 in total) are based on a case study, whose focus is a fictional dog-treats business called “Salty Pawz.” Many of these assignments take the form of asking students to give Wanda, the company’s inexperienced owner, advice about how she can run her business more effectively. Lighthearted in tone, the Salty Pawz case study and associated assignments create a common framework for applying knowledge and skills developed through the course, encouraging students to demonstrate mastery of the content through real-world tasks and work products.
Alternate Assignments and Discussions
The other half of the written assignments and discussions (32 in total) use a variety of approaches, depending on the subject and learning outcome being assessed; many ask students to go beyond course content to form connections between research topics and what they’ve learned in class.
Find and Use Them
All of the Salty Pawz and alternate written assignments and discussions (listed in the table, below,) are included with the course and should already appear in your LMS assignment tool, where you can modify, move, and/or hide them. We recommend assigning one discussion OR one assignment per module, rather than all of them. Some instructors prefer to stick with the Salty Pawz theme throughout the course; others like to use some of the alternates along the way.
| Module Title | Salty Pawz Assignments | Salty Pawz Discussions | Alternate Assignments | Alternate Discussions |
| Role of Business | What Does a Business Look Like | The Stakeholders of Salty Pawz | What Is Killing Our Business | External Factors = Internal Pressure |
| Economic Environment | Supply and Demand for Salty Pawz | Supply and Demand at Salty Pawz | Price Inelasticity of Demand | Supply & Demand in Your Life |
| Global Environment | Taking Salty Pawz to the Global Market | Sending Salty Pawz Global | We Do It Better Here | Made in America |
| Financial Markets & System | Show Wanda the Money | Why Wanda Cares About the Federal Reserve—or Does She? | The Most Powerful Person in the World | Do You Have Change for a $20? |
| Legal Environment | Your Dog Treats Made Fluffy Sick! | They Don’t Sue Dog-Treat Companies, Do They? | Who Is Suing Whom | The Product-Liability Debate |
| Business Ethics & CSR | What They Don’t Know Won’t Hurt Me | It’s Not Stealing if You Pay for It, Is It? | Corporate Social Responsibility | Are They Simply Guidelines? |
| Business Ownership | Wanda’s Business-Ownership Options | Business Structure Does Matter | Franchising—an Alternative to Start-up | Entrepreneurs and Business Ownership |
| Entrepreneurship | Dear Wanda’s Mom | Wanda’s Entrepreneurial Spirit | Today’s Hottest Entrepreneurs | Am I an Entrepreneur? |
| Management | One Owner, Many Hats | How Does Wanda Manage? | Are Leaders Born or Made? | How Great Leaders Inspire Action |
| Motivating Employees | Motivating with Dog Treats? | Why Isn’t Jamie More Motivated? | What’s Empowerment Got to Do with It? | Motivate Me! |
| Teamwork & Communication | Teamwork at Salty Pawz | What You Heard Was Not What I Meant | Multicultural Virtual Teams | The Ultimate Cost of Poor Communication |
| Managing Processes | From Kitchen Baker to Operations Manager | More Than Just Baking Treats | The Malcolm Baldridge Award | How Things Are Made |
| Marketing Function | Customers and Marketing at Salty Pawz | Customer Value Perception | Hit Your Target | Black Friday and Cyber Monday |
| Marketing Mix | The Four Ps of Gourmet Dog Treats | The Four Ps of the Competition | I Can See the Four Ps of Marketing | Marketing Mix |
| Human Resource Management | Wanda’s Hiring Process, or How to Be Sued in One Easy Lesson | People Won’t Work for Dog Treats! | Career Choices | Are Interviews a Waste of Time? |
| Accounting & Finance | Bison Are Biting into Wanda’s Break-Even Point | Cooking More Thank Dog Treats | Claire’s Cuttery | CPAs and Financial Crisis |
If you’d like to preview the resources above, you can download copies of them in Microsoft Word format:
Guidelines for Written Assignments
For faculty using the assignments included here, there is also a set of guidelines regarding length, formatting, and other mechanical submission requirements. Instructors may download and modify these guidelines or use their own.
In-Class Activities
A set of in-class activities is also available to support face-to-face and hybrid classes. These are not already built into the LMS assignment tool but can be downloaded for use or preview, below.
Midterm and Final Exams
A comprehensive set of short-answer questions has been provided for midterm and final exams. Two questions per module are included so that faculty can create two different exams without repeating questions. You can download the question set as a Microsoft Word document, below:
It is your responsibility to handle all assignments and exam materials appropriately and with proper security to prevent (where possible) worked solutions from becoming widely available and searchable via the Internet.