Course Syllabus
Employability Skills: Personal and Career Readiness

Description

This one semester course is designed to prepare students to enter the workforce by teaching transferable soft skills such as critical thinking and problem solving, goal setting, professionalism, digital citizenship, and social and diversity awareness. Students will participate in activities based on real-life, workplace scenarios and learn the skills and mindsets that employers look for. This course employs a competency-based design, in which students can be awarded up to eight badges representing successful demonstration of key traits, behaviors and skills desired by 21st century employers, including adaptability, critical thinking and problem solving, teamwork, communication, digital citizenship, relationship building, self-awareness and professionalism, and social / diversity awareness. Prerequisites:  None

Course Objectives: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to...

• Recognize the need for lifelong learning in a rapidly changing job market.
• Demonstrate presentation skills using a variety of media.
• Solve a work-related problem as a member of a team.
• Take a written position on a topic and use correct grammar to defend it.
• Demonstrate the ability to utilize technology to locate information accurately.
• Use correct terminology to clarify a problem or issue to be negotiated.
• Apply technology to workplace or career situations.
• Identify solutions to workplace problems that show sensitivity to others' thoughts and opinions.
• Demonstrate appropriate personal expression in a workplace setting.
• Explain why being sensitive to & honoring diversity in the workplace is important.

Course Outline:

Module 1: Adaptability

Module 2: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

Module 3: Teamwork

Module 4: Communication

Module 5: Digital Citizenship

Module 6: Relationship Building

Module 7: Self-Awareness and Professionalism

Module 8: Social and Diversity Awareness

Resources Included: Online lesson instruction and activities, opportunities to engage with a certified, online instructor and classmates, when appropriate, and online assessments to measure student performance of course objectives and readiness for subsequent academic pursuits.

Additional Costs: None

Scoring System: Michigan Virtual does not assign letter grades, grant credit for courses, nor issue diplomas. A final score out of total points earned will be submitted to your school mentor for conversion to their own letter grading system.

Time Commitment: Semester sessions are 18-weeks long: Students must be able to spend 1 or more hours per day in the course to be successful. Summer sessions are 10 weeks long: Students must be able to spend a minimum of 2 or more hours per day, or about 90 hours during the summer, for the student to be successful in any course. Trimester sessions are 12-weeks long: Students must be able to spend 1.5 or more hours per day in the course to be successful.

Technology Requirements: Students will require a computer device with headphones, a microphone, webcam, up-to-date Chrome Web Browser, and access to YouTube.

Please review the Michigan Virtual Technology Requirements: https://michiganvirtual.org/about/support/knowledge-base/technical-requirements/

Instructor Support System: For technical issues within your course, contact the Customer Care Center by email at CustomerCare@michiganvirtual.org or by phone at (888) 889-2840.

Instructor Contact Expectations: Students can use email or the private message system within the Student Learning Portal to access highly qualified teachers when they need instructor assistance. Students will also receive feedback on their work inside the learning management system. The Instructor Info area of their course may describe additional communication options.

Academic Support Available: In addition to access to a highly qualified, Michigan certified teacher, students have access to academic videos and outside resources verified by Michigan Virtual. For technical issues within the course, students can contact the Michigan Virtual Customer Care by email at customercare@michiganvirtual.org or by phone at (888) 889-2840.

Required Assessment: Online assessments consist of formative and summative assessments represented by computer-graded multiple choice, instructor-graded writing assignments including hands-on projects, model building and other forms of authentic assessments.

Technical Skills Needed: Basic technology skills necessary to locate and share information and files as well as interact with others in a Learning Management System (LMS), include the ability to:

• Download, edit, save, convert, and upload files
• Download and install software
• Use a messaging service similar to email
• Communicate with others in online discussion or message boards, following basic rules of netiquette
• Open attachments shared in messages
• Create, save, and submit files in commonly used word processing program formats and as a PDF
• Edit file share settings in cloud-based applications, such as Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides
• Save a file as a .pdf
• Copy and paste and format text using your mouse, keyboard, or an html editor’s toolbar menu
• Insert images or links into a file or html editor
• Search for information within a document using Ctrl+F or Command+F keyboard shortcuts
• Work in multiple browser windows and tabs simultaneously
• Activate a microphone or webcam on your device, and record and upload or link audio and/or video files
• Use presentation and graphics programs
• Follow an online pacing guide or calendar of due dates
• Use spell-check, citation editors, and tools commonly provided in word processing tool menus
• Create and maintain usernames and passwords

Additional Information: None