Online Fashion Merchandising Degree

The Fashion Merchandising Associate's Degree program prepares students for an entry-level position in the field of fashion merchandising and can also be used to prepare for future studies.

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Demonstrate effective written and interpersonal communication skills
• Demonstrate a high level of inquiry, analytical, and problem-solving skills
• Demonstrate effective quantitative skills
• Demonstrate computer and information literacy
• Demonstrate an understanding of the liberal arts, natural sciences, and social sciences
• Discuss how the business of fashion works from concept to the consumer
• Apply knowledge of fabrics, embellishments, colors, and style for each garment or accessory to the fashion decision process
• Describe the processes and factors involved in fashion designing, production of textile materials, and purchasing materials from suppliers
• Discuss the importance and methods of marketing and promotion in the fashion industry
• Demonstrate understanding and the use of company financial reports and reports associated with planning, buying and selling fashion merchandise
• Describe the operations of retail stores that sell fashion merchandise

All degree applicants are required to complete two Basic Skills Assessments, one in reading and one in math, to determine their level of readiness for beginning their selected program. Additional studies may be required.

Get better at finding and using information!

Objectives:

• Search the Internet more effectively.
• Get tips about search engines and reliable websites.
• Learn how to search libraries and other information centers for important, useful information.

This course will allow you to build your computer skills through a combination of reading and hands-on practice. You will navigate popular software tools such as Windows® and Microsoft® Office.

Objectives:

• Create, edit, and illustrate Microsoft® Word™ documents.
• Apply formulas and functions to large data sets in Microsoft® Excel.®
• Incorporate useful charts and graphs to summarize date.
• Add, delete, sort, and lay out table data.
• Create presentations in Microsoft® PowerPoint® using advanced tools, tables, and charts.

SCI120-Introduction to Biology

This course will allow you to explore the origin of life and the relationships among all living things.

Objectives:

• Explain how organisms are structured and how they work.
• Discuss the various forms of life and their processes.

Textbook: Essentials of Biology

SCI140-Nutrition

This course will allow you to develop a healthier lifestyle by making smarter nutritional decisions.

Objectives:

• Explain the various components of nutrition as a science.
• Describe nutrition from a global viewpoint.
• Understand the importance of water and exercise.
• Identify the basics of human growth and aging.
• Discuss food safety procedures.

Textbook: Personal Nutrition

SCI110-Earth Science

This course will allow you to learn about planet Earth and the various aspects of the environment.

Objectives:

• Describe specific characteristics of Earth.
• Describe different types of rocks and minerals.
• Discuss the various components of our solar system.
• Explain the components of weather and climates.

Textbook: Earth Science

Study the relationship between biology and behavior.

Objectives:

• Identify major psychological theories.
• Learn about consciousness, memory, thought and language.
• Define intelligence, personality, and stress.
• Examine the concept of gender and its role in psychology.
• Get the basics on how community influences behavior.

Textbook: Psychology and Your Life

HUM102-Art Appreciation

This course will provide you with the foundational knowledge needed to critique a variety of artwork.

Objectives:

• Understand artistic media.
• Identify historical periods and artistic movements.
• Explain the roles of the artist and the viewer.

Textbook: The Power of Art

HUM104-Music Appreciation

This course will allow you to understand and appreciate the art of music.

Objectives:

• Explain the roles of the composer and the listener.
• Describe music theory, instrumentation, and historical periods.
• Distinguish various styles of music.

Textbook: Listen to This

Get the skills and techniques you need to develop, draft, and revise college-level essays.

Objectives:

• Identify your purpose and audience.
• Read actively and critically.
• Edit for standard written conventions.
• Submit three essays (process analysis, causal analysis, and argumentation) and a course journal.

Textbook: Successful College Writing

Supplement: The Little, Brown Essential Handbook

You will be required to complete a proctored exam on selected courses each semester. These assessments will evaluate the knowledge and skills that you learned during the semester. You choose the time, the location, and the qualified exam supervisor.

Fashion trends may come and go, but certain principles underlying the fashion industry change very little over time.

Objectives:

• Discover the history of fashion and identify historical fashion influences.
• Review the fashion cycle.
• Learn how to determine a consumer target market and analyze buyer motivation and acceptance.
• Examine the production process, from fiber to fabric, and the garment production process.
• Evaluate design principles and elements.
• Explore fashion merchandising, marketing, and advertising techniques.

Textbook: Fashion: From Concept to Consumer

Explore the components of light and the importance of color as an aspect of light.

Objectives:

• Discover different systems for organizing colors.
• Learn how to incorporate a balanced use of color in your work by understanding the basics of color theory.

Textbook: Color Basics

Learn the theories on the origins of fashion.

Objectives:

• Examine the themes and details of time-period specific costumes for men and women.
• Explore the role and influence of fashion in the context of society.
• Discover the geographic and ecological factors that affect clothing choice.
• Review how the ideals of human beauty change with time.
• Compare and contrast the costumes of each Western civilization.
• Analyze the value of costume preferences by specific civilizations.

Textbook: Survey of Historic Costume

This course will offer you an overview of macroeconomics and the modern market economy.

Objectives:

• Identify the basic function of economics in our society
• Examine various economic tradeoffs that people face
• Explain the laws of supply and demand
• Use the concept of elasticity to explain changes in a market
• Discuss the pros and cons of trade restrictions
• Calculate and interpret the unemployment rate and the labor-force participation rate
• Describe the notion of deadweight loss and its relevance to taxes
• Draw and interpret short-run and long-run Phillips curves
• Explain why economists focus on GDP, inflation, and unemployment when assessing economic health
• Describe how comparative advantage and specialization affect international trade
• Describe how differences between world prices and domestic prices prompt exports and imports
• Describe how changes in income affect consumption and saving

Textbook: Macroeconomics

This course introduces basic algebraic concepts that you'll need to be successful in your career.

Objectives:

• Understand the systems of equations, polynomials, and radicals.
• Factor polynomial expressions.
• Simplify rational expressions.

Additional Course Material:
Textbook: Intermediate Algebra

You will be required to complete a proctored exam on selected courses each semester. These assessments will evaluate the knowledge and skills that you learned during the semester. You choose the time, the location, and the qualified exam supervisor.

This course meets the needs of students who want to understand accounting language but aren’t planning to become accountants.

Objectives:

• Learn what accounting information is, what it means, and how it’s used.
• Examine financial statements, return on investment, bookkeeping process, cost accounting, and report systems.

Textbook: Accounting: What the Numbers Mean

Learn the laws and regulations for the textile industry.

Objectives:

• Evaluate fibers, yarn formation, and fabric structure.
• Explore the impact of coloration and finishes on final products.
• Identify performance characteristics for different textiles.
• Discover how to select textile products based on end use and care.
• Analyze the relationship among production processes, selection criteria, cost, and consumer satisfaction.

Textbook: Textiles: Concepts and Principles

Marketing is fundamental to the success of any business.

Objectives:

• Analyze the concept of marketing in a societal and global sense.
• Learn the four areas of strategy in marketing.
• Identify the principles of product, price, promotion, and distribution by considering interesting examples of real organizations.
• Explore how environmental factors affect designing strategies for marketing.

Textbook: Marketing

Learn how to write business and technical documents for more effective communication.

Objectives:

• Organize your material logically and systematically.
• Use action verbs effectively and construct paragraphs.
• Conduct research and document sources.

Explore the four essential conditions that must exist to influence consumer behavior.

Objectives:

• Examine the consumer decision making process.
• Analyze individual differences in consumer behavior and explain how these differences affect research and marketing.
• Discover factors that shape consumer behavior and motivation.
• Identify the various environmental influences on purchase and consumption decisions.
• Learn how research has affected retailing and the infusion of innovations in global marketing strategies.

Textbook: Consumer Behavior

Learn the concepts of profit and the calculation, interpretation, and analysis of a profit-loss statement.

Objectives:

• Examine pricing factors used in buying decisions and the calculations used when pricing and/or repricing retail merchandise.
• Use the calculations of the various types of markup.
• Learn the procedure of determining the total value of the stock-on-hand and shortages.
• Explore the planning and control of stocks and purchases, as well as invoice mathematics.

Textbook: Mathematics for Retail Buying

You will be required to complete a proctored exam on selected courses each semester. These assessments will evaluate the knowledge and skills that you learned during the semester. You choose the time, the location, and the qualified exam supervisor.

Explore the methods, practices, and operations conducted to promote and sustain certain categories of commercial activity.

Objectives:

• Learn the principles and procedures used in planning, selecting, pricing, and selling goods in retail stores.
• Examine domestic and foreign market purchasing.
• Learn how to assess product needs. Learn about merchandising systems, assortment plans, and inventory control methods.

Textbook: Retail Buying

Learn the basic concepts and key motivators of electronic commerce.

Objectives:

• Contrast E-commerce with traditional commerce.
• Identify major market and enterprise issues that impact electronic commerce.
• Explore how firms conduct business on the Internet, including their selling and marketing strategies.
• Examine legal and ethical challenges that are unique to E-commerce.
• Discover the major steps in implementing an E-commerce venture.

Textbook: Complete B2B Online Marketing

Analyze strategic planning in successful retail management.

Objectives:

• Explore changes and key trends in the retail environment.
• Examine the concept of competition among retailers.
• Discover how the law and government affect retail operations.
• Learn merchandising and pricing theories and techniques.

Textbook: Retailing

Examine the process of promotion and the tools available for creating successful campaigns.

Objectives:

• Explore the changing nature of promotion in a global marketplace.
• Learn personal and non-personal promotion strategies and techniques.
• Get an overview of the role and organizational structure of promotion and advertising and the creative elements involved.

Textbook: Promotion in the Merchandising Environment

Explore the four essential conditions that must exist to influence consumer behavior.

Objectives:

• Learn how to coordinate planning, forecasting, fabricating, developing silhouettes and specifications, pricing, and sourcing.
• Examine the evolving partnerships among textile suppliers, product developers, manufacturers, and retailers.

Textbook: Beyond Design: The Synergy of Apparel Product Development

You will be required to complete a proctored exam on selected courses each semester. These assessments will evaluate the knowledge and skills that you learned during the semester. You choose the time, the location, and the qualified exam supervisor.