Course Syllabus
Welcome to PRDV224: Leadership and Teams
Specific information about this course and its requirements can be found below. For more general information about taking Saylor Academy courses, including information about Community and Academic Codes of Conduct, please read the Student Handbook.
Course Description
Explore topics including the leadership and management skills necessary in the different stages of group development, how to create an effective team, and how to harness a team's strengths.
Course Introduction
Good leaders know that being a good manager helps in getting a lot accomplished. Managers must collaborate with employees so people with different skills from different parts of a company can successfully contribute to projects. The concept of collaboration has evolved into the practice of creating teams with specific individuals with complementary skills who gather around a common purpose. This purpose might include accomplishing a specific task, addressing a particular problem, revising an internal company process, etc.
The term "team" is used so frequently today that the meaning of this concept is often diluted. Modern organizations rely on the efforts of different kinds of teams and pull together teams with members scattered over multiple geographic locations (including multiple countries) to bring together the skills and competencies needed to address tasks.
Some key roles all managers have is to establish goals and purposes with a team and make sure they select the right team members. So, what does a successful team look like? Even the best teams experience conflict, which actually can be a productive force in generating new ideas and multiple options for consideration. The important thing for keeping your organization healthy is to learn to avoid letting professional conflict harm personal relationships.
In this course, you will look at the leadership and management skills necessary in helping you understand the different stages of group development, how to create an effective team, and how to harness the talent of your team's strengths.
This course includes the following units:
- Unit 1: Leadership
- Unit 2: Teams
- Unit 3: Team Management
Course Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
- explain and analyze the key elements of leadership skills, power, and politics;
- discuss the stages of team development and the dynamics of managing teams; and
- apply these concepts to a specific example.
Throughout this course, you will also see learning outcomes in each unit. You can use those learning outcomes to help organize your studies and gauge your progress.
Course Materials
The primary learning materials for this course are articles, lectures, and videos.
All course materials are free to access and can be found in each unit of the course. Pay close attention to the notes that accompany these course materials, as they will tell you what to focus on in each resource, and will help you to understand how the learning materials fit into the course as a whole. You can also see a list of all the learning materials in this course by clicking on Resources in the navigation bar.
Evaluation and Minimum Passing Score
Only the final exam is considered when awarding you a grade for this course. In order to pass this course, you will need to earn a 70% or higher on the final exam. Your score on the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you may take it again as many times as you want, with a 7-day waiting period between each attempt. Once you have successfully passed the final exam you will be awarded a free Course Completion Certificate.
Tips for Success
PRDV224: Leadership and Teams is a self-paced course, which means that you can decide when you will start and when you will complete the course. There is no instructor or an assigned schedule to follow. We estimate that the "average" student will take 7 hours to complete this course. We recommend that you work through the course at a pace that is comfortable for you and allows you to make regular progress. It's a good idea to also schedule your study time in advance and try as best as you can to stick to that schedule.
Learning new material can be challenging, so we've compiled a few study strategies to help you succeed:
- Take notes on the various terms, practices, and theories that you come across. This can help you put each concept into context, and will create a refresher that you can use as you study later on.
- As you work through the materials, take some time to test yourself on what you remember and how well you understand the concepts. Reflecting on what you've learned is important for your long-term memory, and will make you more likely to retain information over time.
Technical Requirements
This course is delivered entirely online. You will be required to have access to a computer or web-capable mobile device and have consistent access to the internet to either view or download the necessary course resources and to attempt any auto-graded course assessments and the final exam.
- To access the full course including assessments and the final exam, you will need to be logged into your Saylor Academy account and enrolled in the course. If you do not already have an account, you may create one for free here. Although you can access some of the course without logging in to your account, you should log in to maximize your course experience. For example, you cannot take assessments or track your progress unless you are logged in.
For additional guidance, check out Saylor Academy's FAQ.
Fees
This course is entirely free to enroll in and to access. Everything linked in the course, including textbooks, videos, webpages, and activities, is available for no charge. This course also contains a free final exam and course completion certificate.