Retail Management Associate Degree - Curriculum

Program Goal and Outcomes

Program Goal

The Retail Management Associate's Degree program prepares students for an entry-level position in the field of retail management.

Program Outcomes

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 topics such as budgets and develop an understanding of financial statements
Understand and apply development of pricing strategies for products or services marketed to the target customers of a firm
Discuss the management function and application to the business organization and develop problem solving skills needed for management
Apply the factors affecting marketing plans to promote the business's products or services through an understanding of marketing principles, consumer buying habits, and advertising strategies
Demonstrate an understanding of the principles and processes involved in the functional areas and the need for collaboration among the different functions
Demonstrate an understanding of macroeconomics as well as the modern market economy

Semester 1

Basic Skills Assessment

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.

Business Orientation (1 credit)

Succeed by learning how to use your Penn Foster program, and learn how to effectively manage your time, talents, and resources in your personal life, academics, and in your career.

Objectives:

Understand how to use your Student Portal.
Access the Penn Foster Community and use it to find answers.
Connect with Penn Foster on various social media sites.
Examine your individual life goals and the steps needed to fulfill them.
Recognize how your personal financial goals mirror that of most businesses.
Use time management skills to make the most of your day.
Determine personal financial goals.
Set up a typical budget.
Explain why creative thinking, research, planning, gathering resources, and production and marketing are vital for the start-up and maintenance of a business.

Information Literacy (1 credit)

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.

Introduction to Business (3 credits)

This course is designed to introduce you to basic business concepts, theories, and perspectives. It will serve as a basis for further learning in your program.

Objectives:

Understand the principles of business ethics and basic economics.
Compare the different types of business ownership.
Describe the basics of organizational structure.
Identify the differences between management and leadership.
Understand the importance of information technology in today’s business environments.

Principles of Management (3 credits)

This course familiarizes the student with both the business environment and the manager's role within it. It covers decision making, planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, as well as developing an ethical perspective.

Objectives:

Summarize the functions of management and the basic steps in various planning processes
Explain how to make effective decisions as a manager and a leader
Describe the fundamental elements of an organization's structure and the components of an organization's competitive environment
Explain principles for setting goals that motivate employees, why companies develop control systems, and why teamwork is beneficial
Analyze why diversity is a critical organizational issue, the criteria for technology decisions, and managing change

Textbook: Management, 5th Edition

Mathematics for Business and Finance (3 credits)

This course will hone your math skills so you are able to successfully use them in business and finance industries.

Objectives:

Use percentages, discounts, and interest formulas effectively.
Analyze present worth and sinking funds.
Understand how to buy in installments and price merchandise.
Explain depreciation, insurance, equations, and formulas.
Discuss investments and statistics.

Textbook: Practical Business Math Procedures

Art Appreciation (3 credits)

In this course, you will gain an understanding of artistic media, historical periods and artistic movements, the roles of the artist and the viewer, and the principles of art criticism.

Objectives:

Define the language, visual elements, and principles of design of art
Identify two-dimensional media
Identify three-dimensional media
Explain the evolution of art from ancient Mediterranean cultures through eighteenth century Europe
Identify features and popular examples of art throughout the history of African, Asian, Pacific, and American cultures
Compare the genres of the Modern and Postmodern eras of art from around the world

Additional Course Material:
Textbook: Living with Art, 11th Edition

Proctored Examination

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.

Semester 2

Marketing (3 credits)

Marketing is fundamental to the success of any business. Analyze the concept of marketing in a societal and global sense. Learn the four areas of strategy in marketing.

Objectives:

Identify the principles of product, price, promotion, and distribution by studying real world examples.
Explore how environmental factors affect designing strategies for marketing.

Textbook: Marketing

Computer Applications (3 credits)

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 data.
Add, delete, sort, and lay out table data.
Create presentations in Microsoft® PowerPoint® using advanced tools, tables, and charts.

English Composition (3 credits)

This course teaches the skills and techniques of effectively developing, drafting, and revising college-level essays toward a specific purpose and audience: active reading, prewriting strategies, sentence and paragraph structure, thesis statements, varied patterns of development (e.g., illustration, comparison and contrast, classification), critical reading toward revision of structure and organization, editing for standard written conventions, use and documentation of outside sources. Students submit two prewriting assignments, and three essays (process analysis, classification and division, argumentation).

Objectives:

Use writing skills to construct well-written sentences and active reading skills to understand and analyze text
Develop paragraphs using topic sentences, adequate detail, supporting evidence, and transitions
Describe the revision, editing, and proofreading steps of the writing process
Distinguish between different patterns of development
Use prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing to write a formal, college-level essay
Recognize how to determine the reliability of secondary sources and to give proper credit to sources referenced in an essay
Use prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing to write a formal, college-level essay
Use techniques of drafting, evaluating, and creating a sound written argument

Essentials of Psychology (3 credits)

This course covers the psychology of biology and behavior, consciousness, memory, thought and language, intelligence, personality and gender, stress, and community influences.

Objectives:

Describe the science of psychology, basic structure and function of the human nervous system, and basic structure and function of the sensory system
Explain various states of consciousness, learning theories, and thought processes and development
Summarize the nature of human motivation and development, the human development cycle, and approaches to understanding and assessing personality
Prepare an essay on the topic of conditioning, memory, or motivation and emotion
Recognize psychological disorders and available treatments
Explain social psychology as it relates to attitudes, influences, behaviors, and stress
Use critical thinking skills to determine the likely causes of behaviors of individuals and groups discussed in case studies

Economics 1 (3 credits)

This course will provide an overview of macroeconomics and the modern market economy. Law of supply and demand, the cost of living, monetary systems, international factors, and short-run economic fluctuations will be examined and discussed.

Objectives:

Explain the economic systems and the economic perspective
Identify the key factors in macroeconomics and how economists study the economy as a whole
Explain the macroeconomic models and fiscal policies
Explain money, banking, and financial policy
Explain extending analysis of aggregate supply, current issues in theory and policy, and international economics
Analyze foreign exchange and investment and the effects each nation’s economy has on another nation’s economy

Textbook: Macro Economics

Internet Marketing and E-Commerce (3 credits)

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

Proctored Examination

Semester 3

Intermediate Algebra (3 credits)

Study basic algebraic concepts. Review the systems of equations, polynomials, and radicals. Learn how to factor polynomial expressions and simplify rational expressions.

Objectives:

Explain basic algebraic concepts
Solve and graph linear equations and inequalities
Analyze relations, functionality, and systems of linear equations
Prepare algebraic operations on polynomial and rational expressions and equations
Solve problems involving radicals and complex numbers

Additional Course Material:
Textbook: Intermediate Algebra

Business and Technical Writing (3 credits)

This course provides an introduction to the various methods of organizing material for a professional setting. Students will compose business documents using the ABC method. These include memos, emails, outlines, reports and proposals, descriptions, and organizing materials. Students also work on honing their grammar skills.

Objectives:

Describe the basics of the writing process and the ABC method of organizing material for a document
Identify the parts of speech in a sentence
Demonstrate correct pronoun use
Choose proper and effective words for writing documents
Identify the elements of a well-written sentence
Demonstrate how to use length, directness, emphasis, and variety to craft impactful sentences
Explain how to construct a coherent paragraph
Describe how to write an effective cover letter and resume
Format and write an interoffice memorandum, a routine business letter, and an effective email
Identify the different ways to write for blogs, the Internet, and social media
Describe how to create an organized formal outline
Identify the types of research and methods of documentation used in business and technical writing
Explain how to create visual interest and clarity in reports with illustrations, tables, graphs, charts, and overall design
Explain the purpose and importance of various types of informal reports
Describe the nature of formal reports and identify their components
Differentiate among external, internal, informal, and formal proposals
Describe an object or a process and prepare a set of instructions
Describe the preparation and submission of professional and technical articles and manuals

Financial Accounting (3 credits)

This course will provide students with a basic understanding of the principles of financial accounting. Topics covered include analyzing transactions; completing the accounting cycle; merchandising businesses; inventories, assets, and liabilities; and corporations, stocks, bonds, and cash flow.

Objectives:

Solve important accounting principles and concepts by creating four common types of financial statements: balance sheet, income statement, statement of retained earnings, and statement of cash flows
Explain inventory systems, the inventory process, and the role of ethics in accounting
Explain cash and receivables, assets, current liabilities, and debt
Analyze stocks and the statement of cash flows and financial statements that are used to assess the value of a business

Consumer Behavior (3 credits)

This course will teach you the principles involved in how and why consumers make decisions. Topics covered include influencing consumer behavior, consumer decision making, effects on research and marketing, factors that affect purchasing behavior, and consumer acceptance of products.

Objectives:

Define consumer behavior, segmentation, targeting, and positioning
Explain how individual influences, such as perception, memory, attitudes, emotions, lifestyles, and decision-making processes, all influence consumer behavior
Describe how different social and cultural groups, roles, and expectations impact consumer behavior

Business Statistics (3 credits)

This course will provide you the opportunity to explore statistics and how they affect business.

Objectives:

Interpret and present data.
Analyze frequency distribution, averages, dispersion, and index numbers.
Conduct time series analysis.
Forecast business.
Apply the theory of probability and statistical inference.

Textbook: Statistics for Business and Economics

General Education Electives (3 credits)

Choose one...

HUM104-Music Appreciation

In this course, you'll understand how to appreciate music by learning about the roles of the composer and the listener, the principles of music theory and instrumentation, musically significant historical periods, and varying styles of music.

Objectives:

Identify the building blocks of music a composer can use to create a piece, such as rhythm, melody, harmony, texture, form, and timbre
Explain the evolution of Western music through history, from the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century
Differentiate between the music of the baroque era and the musical styles of previous time periods
Recognize the major characteristics of classical music, including form, melody, and instrumentation
Discuss the musical trends and innovations that occurred during the romantic era
Trace the evolution of American popular music in the twentieth century
Recognize the influence of world music on modern Western composition

Additional Course Material:
Textbook: Experience Music, Fourth Edition

ENG115 - Introduction to Literature

This course will allow you to develop your critical thinking skills and broaden your knowledge of the main genres of literature — fiction, poetry, and drama.

Objectives:

Explain how to effectively read fiction for both knowledge and enjoyment
Identify different styles and forms of poetry
Use what you've learned in this course to discuss, write about, and understand literature
Prepare a critical interpretation of fiction or poetry based on what you've learned in this course
Discuss how literary dramas differ from fiction and poetry
Identify different strategies of critical literary analysis

Proctored Examination

Semester 4

Retail Management (3 credits)

This course is designed to introduce students to retailing in a rapidly changing environment. Topics covered include organization of retail stores, basics of retailing, management of a successful retail business, and merchandising principles.

Objectives:

Describe the functions retailers perform and the variety of decisions they make to satisfy customer’s needs
Describe the different types of food, merchandise, and service retailers; and their ownership structures
Examine how retailers use and coordinate multiple selling channels—stores, the Internet, catalogs, and so on to — interact with their customers
Discuss the process that consumers go through when choosing retail outlets and buying merchandise and how retailers can affect this buying process
Describe the development of retail market strategy
Examine the financial strategy associated with the market strategy
Describe the types of retail locations available to retailers
Identify the factors considered during the site selection process
Look at the firm’s organization and human resource strategies
Examine systems used to control the flow of information and merchandise
Detail approaches that retailers take to manage relationships with their customers
Provide an overview of how retailers manage their merchandise inventory
Explore how retailers buy merchandise from vendors—their branding options, negotiating processes, and vendor relationship-building activities
Address the question of how retailers set and adjust prices for the merchandise and services they offer
Look at the approaches that retailers take to build their brand image and communicate with their customers
Describe how to improve the ability of workers through efficient recruiting, socializing, and training
Explain how retailers can create a more appealing shopping experience by taking into account the store’s layout and design and visual merchandising
Identify how retailers can build a competitive advantage through customer service

Textbook: Retailing Management

Merchandising, Planning and Buying (3 credits)

This course will teach you the pros and cons of merchandising and retail buying.

Objectives:

Merchandising and retail buying involve domestic as well as global markets, various ethnicities, and the everyday tasks of working with wholesalers and the consumer market.
Discover buying for off-price and off-site retail operations, the buyer’s role, buying for various retail operations, multiculturalism, and merchandising policies.
Learn how to make purchases, including foreign market purchases.
Get important business etiquette tips for traveling abroad, purchasing on the Internet, and negotiating the purchase price and amount of products.

Textbook: Retail Buying

Speech (3 credits)

This course provides students with a foundation in the basic concepts of public speaking. Students will learn how to research, organize and write effective speeches, incorporate presentation aids, and rehearse and deliver speeches effectively. Students will prepare, rehearse, record and submit speeches in a number of rhetorical styles to be graded.

Objectives:

Describe how to effectively use of the 10 necessary steps to preparing and presenting a public speech
Demonstrate effective delivery and presentation techniques through practice and rehearsal
Show how to effectively organize and present a narrative/personal experience speech
Make effective presentation aids to enhance your public speaking
Produce a speech to inform your audience of a product or service
Prepare a speech to persuade your audience on a topic in which you are personally invested
Demonstrate the key elements of public speaking through a variety of formats and occasions

Marketing Research (3 credits)

This course will help you understand the nature and scope of marketing research.

Objectives:

Learn about sampling and sampling methods.
Use primary and secondary data sources and questionnaire scales.
Analyze data.
Develop summary statistics.

Textbook: Basic Marketing Research

General Education Electives (3 credits)

Choose one...

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: Nutrition for Life

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

Supply Chain Management (3 credits)

This course teaches the planning and the control of materials that move into, through, and out of stores. It covers transportation planning, inventory control, warehouse management, development of customer service standards, as well as the design and operation of supply and distribution systems. The course also discusses how the Internet and information systems support the previous activities.

Objectives:

Identify the principles, strategies, and goals of supply chain management
Outline the inventory and logistics considerations involved in the supply chain process
Describe how to manage a global supply chain using responsible practices and the latest technology

Textbook: The Essentials of Supply Chain Management

Proctored Examination

Retail Management Associate Degree Program Details

Program Goal and Outcomes

Semester 1

Semester 2

Semester 3

Semester 4

Additional Details

Penn Foster College Accreditation & Licensing Details

Surround Sound Support

Progress Tracking and Goal Setting Tools

Student Community

Sample Retail Management Lesson