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Summary and Descriptive Statistics There is often the requirement to evaluate descriptive statistics for data within the organization or for health care information. Every year the National Cancer Institute collects and publishes data based on patient demographics. Understanding differences between the groups based upon the collected data often informs health care professionals towards research, treatment options, or patient education. Using the data on the “National Cancer Institute Data” Excel spreadsheet, calculate the descriptive statistics indicated below for each of the Race/Ethnicity groups. Refer to your textbook and the Topic Materials, as needed, for assistance in with creating Excel formulas. Provide the following descriptive statistics: Measures of Central Tendency: Mean, Median, and Mode Measures of Variation: Variance, Standard Deviation, and Range (a formula is not needed for Range). Once the data is calculated, provide a 150-250 word analysis of the descriptive statistics on the spreadsheet. This should include differences and health outcomes between groups. APA style is not required, but solid academic writing is expected. This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

What qualities do they possess that would make them successful? What qualities would make them unsuccessful? If you were their reporting manager, how would you correct and reward them and why did you choice those methods?

Think about a place where you have worked, or where someone you know works. Think both from an employees perspective and a leaders perspective.

Now that you are knowledgeable about the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory of leadership, what are the implications for you, or the person you know, as an employee of the organization? How is this new knowledge changing the way you see things? What are you looking for? What are you thinking about?

What are the implications for you, or the person you know, as a leader in the organization? What do you do with your newly acquired LMX knowledge?

What are the benefits of being in the in group for an employee? What are the benefits for the organization that is characterized by high-quality leader-member exchanges?

Embed course material concepts, principles, and theories (including supporting citations) along with at least one current, scholarly, peer-reviewed journal article. You may find that your discussion of leadership characteristics is easily supported with such current scholarly research, while the information about how your chosen leader exhibits those leadership characteristics is supported by popular research.

Two principle impediments to effective and lasting organizational change are structures and systems within the organization. In other words, for change to become a part of an organization, managers often have to change the formal and informal structures of an organization to better support the change initiative.

For this Discussion Question, find an organization in KSA that completed a change in their organization within the last three years. Discuss how they changed or modified their formal and informal structures and systems to ensure the intended change became a part of the organizations culture. Then discuss how the organization used structures and systems to deal with the uncertainty and complexity in the environment? Was this an appropriate response?

How could the existing structures and systems have been approached and used differently to advance the desired change? How did existing structures and systems affect the ability of the change leader to bring about the desired change?

DISCUSSION-1
Learning Objectives Covered
LO 01.04 – Discuss the relationship that the basic design principles and elements have with the foundations of graphic design
Career Relevancy
In this discussion, we will discuss the design principles and elements. This is relevant to your career as a professional graphic designer because all pieces you will create for clients will be composed of design elements and be arranged according to design principles. Indeed, the key to being a successful professional graphic designer is understanding first how to choose appropriate visual elements to communicate a unique message and next placing those elements within an appropriate layout and structure so the communication is clear.

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Graphic design is fundamentally about visual communication. Though to non-designers it may seem like design is magical in how a piece comes together, designers know that when you use the principles of design to guide how you are using the elements of design, creating a successful design piece is easy. Professional graphic designers will know how to do this intuitively. As a student, now is your chance to practice working with these things to ensure you too are successful.

Elements of Design
The elements of design refer to the visual elements within a design. They are the actual things you can see and are the building blocks of any design piece.

The following are considered to be elements of design:

Point
Line
Shape
Color
Texture
Type
You can find visual examples of each in this weeks Course Media reading materials.

Principles of Design

The principles of design refer to the ways the elements of design are actually used within a composition. They are the formula behind how you might choose to use the elements. The principles of design all tend to support one another in a collaborative relationship. Though any given piece may be more dominant in one particular principle or another, a successful piece of design tends to have all principles present to some degree.

The following are considered to be the principles of design:

Contrast
Repetition
Alignment
Proximity
As with the elements of design, you can find visual examples of each in this weeks Course Media reading materials. When understanding how the design elements and design principles relate, it is helpful to think in terms of cooking. The elements of design are the ingredients while the principles of design are the recipe itself. When you use the correct ingredients in the correct manner you are sure to have a tasty dish. The same is true with the elements of design and the principles of design.

Prompt
Imagine that you have recently redesigned the menu for your local coffee shop. The original menu was created by the owners themselves. The coffee shop owners wanted to keep everything in neutral shades of brown and decided to make all words the same size and use a different font for every drink because they thought this would make the menu feel friendly and casual. Instead, customers began complaining that the menu felt confusing and hard to read.

On your redesign, you used a simple contrasting color scheme, used differing weights of the same font, set up a clear grid layout, and grouped beverages together so that the menu is now easy to scan. Customers have already commented on the positive change.

In describing to the coffee shop owners what you did to redesign the menu, how would you explain design element and design principle usage?
How do the elements and principles relate?
What principles might have been lacking in the original menu and why might the design elements in the new menu now support the principles?
For your citation, you might use articles that show examples of how the elements and principles of design work. You can also find articles from experts that suggest what happens and what goes wrong when you are not conscious of the elements and principles of design.

Your initial and reply posts should work to develop a group understanding of this topic. Challenge each other. Build on each other. Always be respectful but discuss this and figure it out together.

DISCUSSION-2
Learning Objectives Covered
1. Discuss advertising as a form of communication

2. Explain Brand Advertising

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What is a Brand?
At the most basic level, a brand allows the organization to share the values and meaning of the product/services with the customers. A brand is the idea or image that represents a company or their products; its what people think of when they see the name, logo, slogan, or a particular design scheme. For customers, brands can simplify choice and give them confidence in the quality. Brands are built on the product or service itself and they can also show the organization their effectiveness in marketing efforts. The act of promoting the brand is called branding. Branding is how the brand is marketed to the public in order to separate a company or product/service from the competition.

Please review the videos below to learn more about brands and branding:

What is a Brand? (4:03 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQLlPC_alT (Links to an external site.)

What is branding? (4:50 minutes)
What is Branding? (Links to an external site.)
What is Branding?

Building a Strong Brand
One of the major questions that new business start-ups have is how can I create a successful brand? It is important that the business owner creates a core message for their brand. In 2017, Fortune Magazine featured Airbnb as what they considered to be one of the Breakthrough Brands of the year due to their success in growing the kind of recognition from consumers that historically has taken brands decades to create. Please read the article below about the process Airbnb went through when determining their core message and creating their brand.

Some questions to consider while you read could include:

What can happen to a brand if their core message doesnt resonate with potential customers?
Why is it crucial to ensure, as an owner, that you determine what your brand stands for?
How Airbnb Found a MissionAnd a Brand (2092 words) (scroll down past the video)

http://fortune.com/airbnb-travel-mission-brand/ (Links to an external site.)

Some strategies Airbnb used that helped them in building a strong brand included building their core message based off their purpose, conducting interviews and doing research to determine what was important to their target audience, bringing in experts who understood different aspects of their market, and creating opportunities for consumers to engage with their rebranding. You may want to keep strategies like these in mind when trying to create your own brand.

Communication Principles and Advertising Media
Communication through advertising could be described simply as a source, which relays a message via a medium to a receiver. In this case, the advertiser would be the source, the message is the advertisement, the medium would be the form of media used, and the receiver is the consumer. Something that can get in the way of this communication is noise. Noise refers to anything that interferes with the way the message is received and can include external sources like current consumer trends or internal sources like a consumers personal opinions. If noise gets in the way and the message is not received as it was intended, then the communication is considered ineffective.

As consumers, we look at different advertising and we have an instant reaction. Our initial reaction may persuade us to make a purchase, not purchase or investigate a little more. Advertising messages can be conveyed through a variety of media. Some of the main types of media in advertising are print, broadcast and outdoor advertising. Print advertising includes: magazines, brochures, newspapers and fliers. Broadcast advertising includes the Internet, radio and television. Outdoor advertising includes flags, banners, buildings and billboards. Television has long been the go-to advertising medium for many brands. Please review the below article and consider what you believe to be the most effective advertising medium.

Why TV Is Still the Most Effective Advertising Medium (774 words)

http://www.adweek.com/tv-video/why-tv-still-most-effective-advertising-medium-165247/ (Links to an external site.)

With advancements in technology, advertising has been required to change. The future of television advertising could be considered uncertain with the emergence of Netflix, Hulu and Amazon TV. Please read the below article and consider where you would advertise if you were looking to break into media marketing.

Dear TV: We Love You. You’re Perfect. Now Change. (But Not Too Much.) (375 words) Although you are encouraged to read the entire article, read at least until the heading “Data.”

http://adage.com/article/media/future-tv-advertising/303565/ (Links to an external site.)

Prompt
Assume that youre on the marketing team for a company that wants to manufacture running shoes. With so many similar products already out there, how will you make yours stand out? For this discussion, come up with a core message (like Airbnbs Belong Anywhere”) that you think would work well to reach consumers and make them interested in your product. In determining your message you may want to ask friends or family about what running shoes mean to them, look up other successful ad campaigns for inspiration, or try to draw off current social trends. Write down your thoughts about why you think your message would be successful and include your process for how you came up with it.

Dont forget to include citations to support your work.

Your initial and reply posts should work to develop a group understanding of this topic. Challenge each other. Build on each other. Always be respectful but discuss this and figure it out together.

Peruse the attached article. In 7-9 well-developed sentences decide what you think is missing from adult education and how adult needs are different from k-12. Support your opinion with prior knowledge and facts from the text. Be sure to include an opposing viewpoint
What Adult Learners Really Need (Hint: It’s Not Just Job Skills)
Anya KamenetzApril 18, 20186:36 AM ET

Jeannie Phan for NPR
More than 2 out of 3 college students today are not coming straight out of high school. Half are
financially independent from their parents, and 1 in 4 are parents themselves.
David Scobey says that, as an American studies and history professor at the University of Michigan
for decades, he was “clueless” about the needs of these adult students.
But then, in 2010, he became a dean at The New School, a private college in New York City, heading a
division that included a bachelor’s degree program designed specifically for adults and transfer
students.

David Scobey
Courtesy of David Scobey
“Those students schooled me about their needs and how poorly they were supported by higher ed,”
he says. “I was inspired by their resilience.”
You’ll hear a reasonable amount of discussion about “new traditional” students today. But the
common assumption in Washington at least seems to be that they require more vocational
education to fill a “skills gap,” particularly in STEM or technical fields. Or that they need quicker,
cheaper paths to a degree.
Scobey’s prescription is different. Since 2014, when he left The New School, he has been listening to
adult learners to find out their aspirations. And what they’ve told him is that they tend to thrive on
the same kinds of high-quality learning opportunities that all college students do: small seminars,
capstone projects, internships, a broad liberal arts curriculum.
He argues that teaching adults this way might be the most practical approach, and that they are
actually less expensive to serve than traditional students.
Now Scobey is helping to convene a national network of innovative colleges, both new and old, that
serve adult learners with much success: He calls it the Great Colleges for the New Majority.

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He spoke via email to NPR about where adult learners fit into “the democratic mission of higher
education,” and he included quotes from his ongoing interviews with some of these learners
themselves. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
President Trump doesn’t talk much about higher education, but when he does he endorses vocational
education. In the words of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, the field needs to evolve toward
“industry-recognized certificates, two-year degrees, stackable credits, credentials and licensures,
badges, micro-degrees, apprenticeships.”
What’s wrong with this thinking in your mind? What’s missing?
You’ve asked a complicated question here. Let me break it down into a couple of answers.
The first thing wrong with this thinking is that it prioritizes the (immediate, changing) needs of the
labor market over the needs and aspirations of adult students themselves. But if you ask incoming
adult community college students about their educational aspirations, more than 70 percent want to
get a bachelor’s or beyond.
But even setting aside the question of students’ aspirations, something else is wrong with the “skills
gap” model of workforce training.
The problem finding good hires is actually a jumble of different realities. In some sectors (for instance,
advanced, digitally driven manufacturing), innovation has outpaced training, and there is truly a
shortage of technically skilled workers. Higher ed needs to work with employers and government in
these targeted sectors to fill a real “skills gap.”
In other sectors, employers complain they can’t find workers with communications, problem-solving
and other soft skills. The solution to that is more liberal learning, not more technical workforce
training.
In still other sectors, employers can’t meet their needs because of wage stagnation, part-timing,
abusive scheduling and other workplace problems. Their “skills” gap is actually a “wage and
workplace gap.”

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And lurking over all of this is the ongoing juggernaut of automation. Many of the jobs for which
workplace training programs prepare adults will disappear in the next five to 10 years. Employers
will replace them as soon as it makes financial sense.
Often workers and adult learners understand this perfectly. One UAW veteran told me after
attaining his bachelor’s that most of the retraining programs were a scam: “They train union
members for fewer and fewer jobs. A couple years later, it’s the same thing all over again.”
You talk about a “narrative of personal transformation” that’s important to these students. Why?
As I noted above, job security and economic success are key goals of college for nearly all students,
young and old. But students also see college as a journey of personal growth, a way of laying claim to
their lives.
For most nontraditional students, this dimension of “self-authoring” (in the words of psychologist
Marcia Baxter Magolda) is not less crucial, but even more. They often feel that they have failed in
some way the customary narrative of high-school-to-college that defines successful adulthood.
“I always felt less-than,” I was told by Wendy, a returning student in Washington State and a staffer at
a wildlife center. “I feel like an impostor. Coming here has helped me find my voice. It helps me move
through the world.”
Melissa, a graduate of an adult bachelor’s program in Rhode Island, also stresses the journey of
personal transformation: “As a kid, no one ever even mentioned college in my world,” she told me in
an interview.
“… now I had my bachelor’s degree, and it was like, ‘Wow. Wait a minute. I have arrived.’ But then I
thought like, ‘What did I arrive to?’ This has been a lifelong journey for me. It was, like, to meet a
long-term goal, that had never happened to me before.”
What reasons do people give for returning to college or beginning as an adult?
Adult learners are incredibly diverse: the Iraq War veteran, the office worker breaking through a glass
ceiling, the 20-something barista or construction worker who wasn’t ready for college the first time.
The reasons they give are often a complicated mix.
Dorian, another Washington State adult student, told me:

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“I came back to college because I felt like an angry underling. I had a good job, but I didn’t get respect
at work. I felt slapped, like I didn’t amount to anything without that piece of paper. So I returned to
school because of career goals. But my parents are gone, and I also came back for them.”
Policy-makers often try to separate out these motivations and prioritize the economic ones: “So I
returned to school because of career goals.” But what matters is precisely the jumbled, human mixture
of motives.
Many of these narratives also have a redemptive arc. Talk about what some of the students you’ve
spoken with have told you about the obstacles they have overcome to give college another try.
Let me briefly describe some of The New School students who cured me of my cluelessness about the
nontraditional majority. There was Mui Ying, a 30-something from a Chinese immigrant family: She
paid the rent as a technician for a pharmaceutical lab, but she had started a swimwear design
business on the side, selling out of her car trunk while she finished school.
There was Dave, an African-American veteran who got a business degree in community college but
was committed to getting a liberal-arts BA. Jamara was a mom, a server at a restaurant and an
aspiring spoken-word poet.
The obstacles they face are as diverse as their lives. But here’s one key way of understanding what
they share: Adult, nontraditional students have to fit their studies into complex lives with multiple
roles and stressors, rather than being able to organize their work and social life around a central role
as a college student.
What are “Great Colleges for the New Majority”? What do they have in common?
The Great Colleges For the New Majority is a self-selected network of adult-serving bachelor’s
programs. They often have graduation rates of 80 percent or more. Their curricula have a wide range
of structures, but all of them offer an education that is transformative, that enables students to lay
claim to their own lives and define their own journey. All of them are characterized by cultures of
strong support both the “vertical support” of mentors, advisers and teachers, and the “horizontal
support” of strong peer community.
Why is that horizontal support so important?

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As I have learned in my research and teaching, peer support turns out to be part of the secret sauce
for adult success. The programs in the Great Colleges Network tend to nurture cultures of sustained

peer-to-peer help; students simply won’t let each other fail. This is a component of adult college-
going that mass online completion colleges have trouble replicating. It’s one reason for their lower

rates of completion.
What about the argument that colleges can’t afford to invest this much in adult learners?
Short answer No. 1: Adult learners are actually less expensive to educate, because they don’t need
many of the resources that late-adolescent, residential students require. Adults don’t need more
resources; they need colleges and universities to redesign their resources in ways that meet adult
students in their lives for instance, by offering more flexible academic calendars.
Short answer No. 2: Colleges understand that they cannot afford not to invest in adult learners.
Neither higher ed, nor the job market, nor our democracy can succeed if we don’t do a better job of
offering great, transformative opportunities to the millions of adults in college and the millions who
seek to return to college.
Short answer No. 3: Let’s not lowball the investment in adult students with cheap-and-dirty

workforce training. Adult learners shouldn’t be pushed to attain a credential simply to fulfill short-
term labor market gaps or to boost policy-makers’ completion goals. They should be educated

because they deserve a great education.

Argument Essays, Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing.
Research Requirement : As you read the chapter readings, note how the authors use researched material to support their arguments. To successfully complete your persuasive essay assignment, you must incorporate at least two sources (either credible online sources or library resources) within your work to support and advance your claims . DO NOT USE WIKIPEDIA. Any Persuasive Essay Final Draft that does not incorporate research from at least two “outside” sources (sources other than your course textbook) will receive a failing grade . Use the knowledge you gained from completing last week’s research and citation exercises to help you develop your essay.
Be sure to reference your Lectures – Week Six folder for helpful information on writing argumentation.

You are required to post to this discussion three times on TWO different days. You will create an initial post before Wednesday night and create a substantial response to two classmates’ posts before Sunday night. Note: Please be certain to read the entire discussion assignment since in some cases there is more than one question you need to discuss, respond to, or address. Be sure that you have answered all of the questions!

Post 1: Initial Post

This posting should be a minimum of one short paragraph and a maximum of two paragraphs. Word totals for this post should be in the 200300-word range. Whether you agree or disagree, explain why with supporting evidence and concepts from the readings or a related experience. Include a reference, link, or citation when appropriate.

Scenario

You have a friend who is interested in becoming a property manager. He comes to you for advice because he knows you are a licensed real estate agent. He is unsure about what he needs to know, what he needs to tell his clients, and if he even needs to be licensed. Help your friend by answering the questions below.

For Discussion

What are the three most important things your friend should know about becoming a property manager in California?
Does your friend need to be licensed in California to manage properties?
Explain the rights and obligations of the landlord and tenant to your friend.
Posts 2 and 3: Respond to Classmates Posts

Instructions

After you have created your initial post, look over the discussion posts of your classmates and give at least two thoughtful responses to two different classmates (one per classmate).

A response posting should be a minimum of one short paragraph. Word totals for these posts should be in the 75100-word range. Whether you agree or disagree, explain why with supporting evidence and concepts from the readings or a related experience. Include a reference, link, or citation when appropriate. The goal of your response posts is to extend discussions already taking place or pose new possibilities or opinions not previously voiced. Your goal should be to motivate the group discussion and present a creative approach to the topic.

Cite your sources and don’t plagiarize.

Introductory chapter giving a general overview of oil, coal, natural gas and electricity markets, divided in:
1) A small introduction to the different types of contracts (spot, futures, forwards, etc.), difference between prices on exchanges and OTC, and price formation mechanisms.

2) An overall view of the global oil markets (including major producers and consumers) and major benchmarks (WTI, Brent, Dubai). How have prices evolved since 2012 and what major factors affect oil prices (including major economic and geopolitical events that affected oil prices during this period, such as the shale revolution, the increase of American production, OPEC negotiations, etc.).

3) An overall view of the global natural gas markets (including major producers and consumers), with a focus on the most liquid trading hubs in Europe (TTF, NBP, ZEE..) and how are prices formed there. How have prices evolved since 2012 (again, focusing on Europe) and how the markets have evolved, and the major causes for that evolution (impact of LNG on the global markets, the situation of pipelines in Europe, etc.). This part should also talk about the relationship between oil and natural gas (here a small introduction about how oil and natural gas are related in reservoirs and at extraction level should also be included), and the impact of shale gas.

4) An overall view of the global coal markets (including major producers and consumers), and the most liquid markets and how are prices formed there. How have prices evolved in the most liquid markets since 2012 (with a focus on the API2 in Europe), major economic and geopolitical events that have affected coal prices during this period such as the Chinese overproduction, and the relationship of oil, coal and natural gas (their complementarity, how coal and natural gas can be substitutes, etc.).

5) An overall view of the European electricity markets and how have they evolved since 2012. This part should refer the electrical interconnection between the EU countries and how it has evolved, and a particular focus should be given to the price formations mechanisms in markets with a diversified energy mix (it should refer the merit order principle and how renewables shift the supply curve, market coupling between strongly interconnected markets, etc.). A special focus should be given to the electricity exchanges of Germany (EPEX DE, EEX DE), France (EPEX FR, EEX FR) and Iberia (OMEL) and how those prices have evolved since 2012. The energy mix, and its evolution since 2012, of Germany, France, Spain and Portugal should also be referred as it impacts the respective electricity prices.

2.1 How are the 2 plans similar?
2.2 Other than geography, how are they different?
2.3 Based on your review and what you have learned in the Dal BCD program to date, do you think planning will be effective in protecting the natural environment while at the same time providing for population growth and urban development over the next 20 or more years? Why or why not? (note – you can take either position)