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Business Law Syllabus |
Welcome to Business Law (BUS-10-EN1) Online at Chabot College for Spring 2008! In this syllabus, you will find a course overview, your class calendar--including assignments and key dates, the course grading structure, and information about your textbook.
Course Overview
Businesses operate within a clear but quite complex legal environment. To become an effective business leader or small business owner, you need to understand that environment. In this course, you'll be introduced to the important concepts of torts, contracts, agency, business structures, and much more. You'll develop legal research and reasoning skills, and a solid appreciation for the benefits and constraints of our legal system.
You'll learn the basics of court and trial procedure. You'll also learn how to minimize your business' legal risks, and how to maximize your legal protections.
You'll learn all of this by studying case law, by analyzing cases and preparing legal plans, by debating legal issues with your classmates. We'll compare the legal system as popularized by movies and television to the real legal system you'll encounter as a business leader. You'll research a legal topic of your choice in depth to build your legal analysis skills.
This course is entirely online. You do not need to come to campus. The class is, however, very interactive. You'll engage in discussions with your classmates each week, and you'll have assignments due to your instructor every week. This will be a fast-paced, intensive, interesting class. Since this is a late start class, we'll be covering 18 weeks of material in only 13 weeks, so plan to invest a significant amount of time to study for this course.
You've made a good decision to focus on building your knowledge of business law. Let's make that happen, and have some fun while we're at it!
Course Communications
You can reach me at:
- jnovak@chabotcollege.edu
- 510/723-6690 (office)
- 925/314-9657 (fax)
- Office: 1536 (building 1500)
- Office hours:
- Mondays, 2:00-2:45 p.m
- Tuesdays, 9:00-9:45 a.m.
- Wednesdays, 11:00-11:45 a.m.
- and by appointment
I am always in my office during office hours, and you can call me there if stopping by is inconvenient. I'm also there many other times, so just call. I check my email often, and this is the best way to reach me. Also, remember to check this course website often for course materials and news.
Course Calendar and Assignments
More detail on weekly assignments is in each week's learning module.
| WEEK | DATES | TOPICS | ASSIGNMENTS |
| 1 | 2/25-3/2 |
Course Overview Introduction to the Law |
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| 2 | 3/3-3/9 |
Courts Alternative Dispute Resolution Court Procedure |
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| 3 | 3/10-3/16 |
Intentional Torts Negligence and Strict Liability |
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| 4 | 3/17-3/23 |
Product Liability Intellectual Property Legal Research Project Overview |
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| 3/24-3/30 | SPRING BREAK! |
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| 5 | 3/31-4/6 |
Introduction to Contracts Agreement Consideration |
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| 6 | 4/7-4/13 |
Capacity & Legality Genuineness of Assent Statute of Frauds |
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| 7 | 4/14-4/20 |
Third Party Rights Exam #1 |
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| 8 | 4/21-4/27 |
Performance & Discharge Breach of Contract & Remedies |
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| 9 | 4/28-5/4 |
Agency Law |
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| 10 | 5/5-5/11 |
Employment Law |
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| 11 | 5/12-5/18 |
Business Organization Overview Sole Proprietorships, Partnerships, LLPs & LLCs |
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| 12 | 5/19-5/25 |
Corporations |
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| 13 | 5/26-5/29 |
Exam #2 Course Wrap-Up |
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Other key dates include:
- March 14th: Last day to add or DROP a course if course is not to appear on transcript
- May 6th: Last day to drop a course with a "W" on your transcript.
Grading Structure
Your grade will be determined as follows:
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Class participation via the Discussion Board: 12 postings. A posting consists of your original comment and a response to at least two of your classmates' comments. Each discussion is worth either 10 or 20 points, depending on the complexity of the assignment. |
200 points |
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Syllabus quiz |
20 points |
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Quizzes: 4 @ 50 points each. |
200 points |
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Chapter questions: 2 sets @ 50 points each. |
100 points |
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Assignments: Course goals memo: 20 points |
190 points |
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Exams: 2 @ 150 points. |
300 points |
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TOTAL |
1010 POINTS |
You may also earn up to 35 extra credit points. If you look in each week's learning module carefully, you will find four extra credit opportunities worth 5 points each. You can earn 20 extra credit points by completing the Information Literacy extra credit project. You can also earn 10 extra credit points for working with 1-2 of your classmates to submit a team legal research project (vs. an individual project). You can earn a maximum of 35 extra credit points throughout the semester.
A = 900 -1035 points
B = 800 - 899 points
C = 700 - 799 points
D = 600 - 699 points
F = less than 600 points
Textbook/Required Resources
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This photo is of the standard edition. Our custom edition has a soft cover, and says "Custom Edition Prepared Exclusively for Chabot College". |
Required Course Text: West’s Business Law, 10th Edition, by Clarkson, Miller, Jentz & Cross, Thomson/South-Western, 2006, Custom Edition for Chabot only, ISBN 0324627817. This custom version contains only the chapters we cover in this course. It is far less expensive and lighter weight than a new copy of the standard edition, but can only be purchased and resold at the Chabot bookstore. You can also use the standard edition, which includes 22 additional chapters that we don't study in this course (the ISBN for the standard version is 0324303904). Please do NOT purchase the 9th edition of the book, as there have been very substantial changes in the new edition. Strongly Recommended: A college-level dictionary. Recommended: West's Business Law Study Guide, 10th edition, by Hollowell and Miller, Thomson/South-Western, 2006, ISBN 0-324-40196-5. Some of the material in this study guide is available on the course website, but the guide contains chapter quizzes and additional study materials not found on our course website. System Requirements: Internet access via a web browser (Microsoft IE 6.0 or later), 350 MHz Intel Pentium II or equivalent PC, 64MB or more of RAM (128MB on Windows XP), 1 G of free disk space, 56Kbps or better modem, Windows 98SE, ME, 2000 with Service Pack 2 or later, or XP. Java and cookies must be enabled. If using a Mac, you'll need Mac OS 9 or OS X, 64MB of RAM, Virtual Memory turned on (set to 128), G3 233 or faster PowerPC, 56Kbps or better Internet connection. Note to AOL users: You must minimize the AOL browser and use Internet Explorer or Netscape to work with Blackboard. |
Learner Accommodation Needs
If you are a disabled student and need special accommodations this semester, please let me know. For more information, visit the Chabot Disabled Student Resource Center.
Academic Integrity
Teamwork is encouraged in this course, but cheating and plagiarism won't be tolerated. Unless otherwise directed, your work should be original and the product of your OWN hard work and intellect. Please refer to the handout on academic integrity in the Week 1 Learning Module for more information. If cheating or plagiarism is detected on any quiz, exam, or other assignment, you will, at minimum, receive a zero on that assignment. Note that Blackboard has tools that make it fairly easy to detect cheating.
Note
This syllabus is subject to change throughout the semester. Any changes will be announced on the course website, and the syllabus posted on the website will always be the most current version.
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"Live as if you will die tomorrow. Learn as if you will live forever." Gandhi |