HMG 6257 – Hospitality and Tourism Industry Research Analysis offers students an opportunity to explore the major emerging issues or problems that impact the domestic and global hospitality and tourism industry.  Students will learn to use content analysis and other methodologies to identify and analyze relevant industry problems and issues facing management and personnel in the global and domestic hospitality and tourism industry.

At the end of this course students will be able to perform each of the following activities with an accuracy of 73 percent or higher:

• Evaluate the meaning and importance of the environment through the use of conceptual frameworks.
• Analyze the environmental dynamics of the U.S. and international hospitality and tourism industry.
• Assess content analysis, survey and think tank methodologies and computer data based systems to develop and analyze trends.
• Analyze and discuss the major trends in categories of the industry environment.

Interpret trends in terms of their likely impact and generate future trends scenarios.

Please review the FIU's Policies webpage. The policies webpage contains essential information regarding guidelines relevant to all courses at FIU, as well as additional information about acceptable netiquette for online courses. For additional information, please visit FIU's Policy and Procedure Library.

 As a member of the FIU community you are expected to be knowledgeable about the behavioral expectations set forth in the FIU Student Conduct and Honor Code.

One of the greatest barriers to taking an online course is a lack of basic computer literacy. By computer literacy, we mean being able to manage and organize computer files efficiently and learning to use your computer's operating system and software quickly and easily. Keep in mind that this is not a computer literacy course, but students enrolled in online courses are expected to have moderate proficiency using a computer. Please go to the What's Required webpage to find out more information on this subject.

Privacy Policy Statements for Partners and Vendors

• Canvas
• Microsoft
• Adobe
• Google
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• ProctorU
• HonorLock
• Turnitin
• OpenStax
• Zoom
• Respondus LockDown Browser

Please visit our Technical Requirements webpage for additional information.

The Disability Resource Center collaborates with students, faculty, staff, and community members to create diverse learning environments that are usable, equitable, inclusive, and sustainable. The DRC provides FIU students with disabilities the necessary support to successfully complete their education and participate in activities available to all students. If you have a diagnosed disability and plan to utilize academic accommodations, please contact the Center at 305-348-3532 or visit them at the Graham Center GC 190.

For additional assistance please contact FIU's Disability Resource Center.

Web Accessibility Statements for Partners and Vendors 

• Canvas
• Microsoft
• Adobe
• Google
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• ProctorU
• HonorLock
• Turnitin
• OpenStax
• Zoom
• Respondus LockDown Browser

Please visit our ADA Compliance webpage for additional information about accessibility involving the tools used in this course.

Florida International University is a community dedicated to generating and imparting knowledge through excellent teaching and research, the rigorous and respectful exchange of ideas, and community service. All students should respect the right of others to have an equitable opportunity to learn and honestly demonstrate the quality of their learning. Therefore, all students are expected to adhere to a standard of academic conduct, which demonstrates respect for themselves, their fellow students, and the educational mission of the University. All students are deemed by the University to understand that if they are found responsible for academic misconduct, they will be subject to the Academic Misconduct procedures and sanctions, as outlined in the Student Conduct and Honor Code. Academic Misconduct includes:

Cheating

• The unauthorized use of any materials, information, study aids or assistance from another person on any academic assignment or exercise, unless explicitly authorized by the course Instructor; 
• Assisting another student in the unauthorized use of any materials, information, study aids, unless explicitly authorized by the Instructor; and 
• Having a substitute complete any academic assignment or completing an academic assignment for someone else, either paid or unpaid; and

Plagiarism

• The deliberate use and appropriation of another are work without any indication of the source and the representation of such work as the Student's own.
• Assisting another student in the deliberate use and appropriation of another’s work without any indication of the source and the representation of such work as the student’s own. 

Learn more about the academic integrity policies and procedures as well as student resources that can help you prepare for a successful semester.

If you are looking for help for yourself or a fellow classmate, Panthers Care encourages you to express any concerns you may come across as it relates to any personal behavior concerns or worries you have, for the classmate’s well-being or yours; you are encouraged to share your concerns with FIU’s Panthers Care website.

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) offers free and confidential help for anxiety, depression, stress, and other concerns that life brings. Professional counselors are available for same-day appointments. Don’t wait to call (305) 348-2277 to set up a time to talk or visit the online self-help portal.

This course will serve to embrace the diversity and inclusivity found within Florida International University. We appreciate and respect diversity, equality, equity, cooperativeness, community, and sustainability within our online courses. We are committed to the ongoing education of our students and their participation within the course regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, geographical location, religion, and disability. We strive in encouraging collaboration by preparing our students to value the differences in others. At the core of our intentions is the encouragement of acceptance and appreciation of differences within our student population and community.

There are no prerequisites for this course.

This is an online course, which means most (if not all) of the course work will be conducted online. Expectations for performance in an online course are the same for a traditional course. In fact, online courses require a degree of self-motivation, self-discipline, and technology skills which can make these courses more demanding for some students.

This course is developed to acquaint the student with the major trends occurring in the global and domestic hospitality and tourism industry and to develop the analytical skills required to interpret them. This interpretation consists of:

• the identification of trends;
• their timing;
• the causal effects they have on organizations; and
• the actual probability of their occurrence.

To accomplish this objective, two major themes will be explored:

• the concept of the environment and environmental scanning and, major qualitative trends affecting the general, task, industry segment and functional environments of hospitality and tourism organizations.

Students are expected to check emails regularly for course-related messages or announcements.  Any email communication sent to the professor should be professional in nature, and include the student’s name, the course in which they are enrolled, a salutation and closing, and clear and concise message content.  More information on writing professional emails, including examples, can be found here: http://syntaxis.com/files/bk-excerpt-email.pdf  Students should expect a reply response from the professor within 24 hours, unless a situation arises that prevents this opportunity.  

Class Participation and Discussion   
Active, quality class participation is required. Participation will be evaluated based on the quality and quantity of student discussion board postings. A quality discussion contribution consists of thoughtful feedback, versus a simple, superficial remark such as “I agree” or “I like this”. A quality discussion contribution will explain WHY you agree or WHY you like something. Adequate participation will involve posting contributions to every week, AS WELL AS responding to the contributions of other students per discussion forum. There will be a discussion forum for each week/topic, as well as discussion forms for each presentation. Discussion contributions MUST be posted before Monday of the next week/topic session, with the first posting made by Wednesday of that week (so as to give others time to respond).  You can monitor your credit for each discussion by referring to the Canvas course “Grades” area – this is strongly recommended.

The following rubric provides a guideline for what discussion/participation contributions would be considered quality contributions:

Full points require:

• Answering the main questions in required discussion areas. 
• Responding to at least two others in these same discussion areas. 
• Posting on at least two different days of the week in each required discussion area – FIRST POST MUST BE COMPLETED BY WEDNESDAY OF THAT WEEK. 
• Monitoring your personal posted topic, if appropriate. 

Partial or no points:

• Quality or length of post is too short and/or does not stimulate learning or questions of others
• Posted fewer than two days of the week
• Did not respond to the posts of other
• Did not provide a response to the main discussion topic.

Hint:
By checking our Discussion area often, you will become more engaged in the conversation – have time to ask and answer questions of your classmates.

 This is Step One to getting the most from the course content, developing relationships and understanding the process of discussion dialogue, facilitation and assessment.

Academic Journal (8 each)

Students should complete an academic journal entry for each of the 8 class modules, in which they describe what information they have acquired from topics discussed, and how they feel they might apply this knowledge during their careers in Hospitality.  This is a graded assignment that should be completed each week. 

Note: This is meant as a "tool" not just a "task."  The idea behind the Academic Journal assignments is for students to capture, in their own words, what they feel was important from each week of class – much like a diary.  It is intended to be free-form and informal.  Because students lose access to the Canvas courses once the course ends, the Academic Journal allows you to capture information that you feel is important both for self-reflection and possible use in future courses.

Students should complete this using the "Academic Journal" link in Canvas.  Keep in mind that your login information is your FIU username and your password will be your date of birth (ex. 01Jan1990).   

NOTE: Because some students have encountered technical difficulty in the past, it is advised that you also save all journal submissions to a Word or other text document, for your records.  

Final Exam
There will be one comprehensive final exam.

Zoom is a video conference tool that you can use to interact with your professor and fellow students by sharing screens, chatting, broadcasting live video/audio, and taking part in other interactive online activities. We will be utilizing this tool as needed.

Zoom meetings can be accessed via the Zoom link in the course navigation menu. Once you click on the Zoom link, it will route you to join the meeting for the respective class session. You will also be able to view upcoming meetings, previous meetings that you have already joined, and meeting recordings. Before joining an actual class session:

• Reference the Zoom Student Tutorials to learn about the tool, how to access your meeting room, and share your screen.
• Access the Zoom Test Meeting Room to test out the software before joining an actual session.

If you encounter any technical difficulties, please contact the FIU Canvas Help Team. Please ensure you contact support immediately upon the issue occurring.

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