Administrative Assistant Applications

Gain the skills you need for success as a Certified Administrative Professional. This course will not only give you the ability to perform daily administrative tasks, but will also give you an inside view into how a professional organization's different departments work together to make or break a company.

6 Weeks / 24 Course Hrs

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Florida International University

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Learning method

Self-Guided

$129

No instructor. Study on your own schedule

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Instructor-Moderated

$129

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Starting September 11 | October 16

Details + Objectives

Course code: aaa

Discover how time management, accounting, business law, organizational behavior, and management affect administrative assistant responsibilities and activities. Learn the basics of accounting, including the general ledger and key accounting terms, and see how financial statements and controls help keep your organization moving in a positive direction. Understand the fundamentals of business law, contracts, and the principal-agency relationship; discover ethics and organizational politics; and understand the basics of human resources management.

Also, discover key management functions such as planning, control, motivation, and organization, discover how to increase creativity. Plus, find out how marketing differs from sales and learn the basics of operations management. This course may help you prepare for the internationally-recognized Certified Administrative Professional® (CAP®) exam offered by the International Association of Administrative Professionals® (IAAP®).

Note: This course is not affiliated with, nor has it been endorsed by, the International Association of Administrative Professionals® (IAAP®).

What you will learn

Learn the basics of accounting and key accounting terms
Understand how financial statements and controls help keep your organization moving in a positive direction
Learn the fundamentals of business law, contracts, and the principal-agency relationship
Discover ethics and organizational politics
Understand the basics of human resources management

How you will benefit

Understand how all areas of a business can affect your administrative assistant responsibilities and activities
Become more valuable to your organization as you familiarize yourself with all of its moving parts
Open the door to new opportunities as an administrative assistant

How the course is taught

Instructor-Moderated or Self-Guided online course
6 Weeks or 3 Months access
24 course hours

Outline

This lesson will discuss why change is so important, review why people are reluctant to change, and explore strategies that can help you overcome resistance to change. It'll help you establish a winning team and lead you through the stages of recruiting, evaluating, and selecting team members. You'll explore the concepts of a core team, extended team, and the overly important team. The lesson will finish up by discussing the complete performance planning process, including how to address performance problems and how to make reviews more meaningful.

In this lesson and the one that follows, you'll learn accounting and financial concepts and fundamentals to help you increase your readiness to use financial information. You'll gain a strong foundation by learning about the general ledger, by seeing the difference between accounting and bookkeeping, and by investigating the different types of accounting. The lesson will demystify debits and credits and present the accounting equation as a cornerstone of all modern accounting systems.

Now that you've absorbed the basics of accounting, it's time to learn how to apply financial information. You'll start off by reviewing two vital financial statements that you will find at nearly every organization—the balance sheet and the income statement. Next, you'll find out how to account for inventories and then discover the significance of cash flow. By the end of the lesson, you'll clearly understand how sound cash management helps companies stay on the right path.

Administrative assistants need to know the basics of business law. You'll need to have a good grasp of key legal concepts, such as the principal-agency relationship and the basics of contracts. The lesson will start things off by looking at the idea of law, going through an overview of the legal system, and discussing the essence of commercial law. It'll tackle the essentials of contracts, such as the elements and the various types, and finish up by discussing Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code.

In this lesson, you'll examine the four most popular organizational forms: sole proprietorship, general partnership, limited partnership, and corporation. You'll learn all about organizational politics, and see that wherever people work together, you'll find politics. The lesson will also touch on business ethics, a critical concept that has received much attention in recent years.

In this lesson you'll take a look at human resources management. It's possible that your job responsibilities as an administrative assistant will encompass many or all of the aspects of human resources. Even if you don't have this as a direct responsibility, you may have to interface with or be indirectly involved in aspects of human resources management, working with your company's HR manager. You'll explore employee relations, guidelines for documentation in human resources, and the staffing process. You'll also review conflict resolution, how to hire the right person, and much, much more.

Life is filled with opportunities, problems, and choices. When you effectively plan and control your activities, and also make timely decisions and solve problems, you become a valued asset. You'll look at the ins and outs of planning because just about everything you do begins with a plan. The lesson will help you learn about the counterpart of planning: control. By the time you finish it, you'll know all about problem solving and be able to apply a model of decision making.

Organizing is a critical topic that many companies struggle with. In this lesson, you'll discover how resources are organized so employees can productively perform job duties and complete tasks. You'll begin by studying the purpose of organization and examining several coordinating principles, including authority, power, and span of control. You'll learn the purpose of the staffing function and how to evaluate such key elements as recruitment, selection, appraisal, and development. The lesson will conclude by looking at six different forms of organizational charts.

It's often said that motivation and leadership are two sides of the same coin. It's difficult to have one and not the other. This lesson will begin by defining motivation and exploring four theories of motivation, and then move into leadership. You'll learn about the different types of leadership and discover the difference between delegation and empowerment. You'll also examine creativity and see how you can increase your creativity levels.

Most people believe that marketing is either advertising or selling. The primary objective of this lesson is to make sure that you clearly understand the distinction between marketing, advertising, and sales. You'll discover what it means to be consumer oriented and learn how to apply the four Ps (product, place, price, promotion) and see how these variables work together to form marketing strategies.

Operations management is one of the unheralded activities at a company. The folks that work in this area don't receive much credit and don't lead a glamorous life. They're the behind-the-scenes people that keep the ball rolling so that customers are happy and the company makes profits. In this lesson, you'll explore the diverse nature of operations management and see how selecting, designing, operating, controlling, and updating play an important role in all operating systems. Along the way, you'll learn about the importance of key concepts like forecasting, capacity, and make-or-buy analysis.

You've probably heard the saying "time is money." How you manage your time is the key to your success. Time management is one of the most important skills you as an administrative assistant can develop. If you don't learn how to manage your time, you will not be as effective and efficient and you run the risk of letting down those people who rely on you. In this lesson, you'll learn about the importance of time management and how it can benefit you in your role as an administrative assistant. The lesson will examine the benefits of time management and identify tools and techniques to help you free up more time for work and outside interests.

Instructors & Support

Becky Swaim

Becky Swaim has taught since 2000, focusing on Administrative Assistant Fundamentals, Administrative Assistant Applications, and Individual Excellence. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication from California State University, Long Beach. Her experience includes managing large staff in medical billing and collections and as a program manager to various medical practices.

Tony Swaim

Tony Swaim has helped many clients, colleagues, and students reach their professional and personal goals. He has been an online instructor since 1998 and has taught at colleges and universities across the United States since 1981. His focus areas are project management, Six Sigma, and supply chain management. Tony manages a successful consulting firm, and his industry experience includes 20 years of supply chain management. He earned a Doctorate in Business Administration from Kennesaw State University and holds professional certifications in six disciplines, including the Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI)® and Certified Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB)® from the American Society for Quality (ASQ)®.

Instructor Interaction: The instructor looks forward to interacting with learners in the online moderated discussion area to share their expertise and answer any questions you may have on the course content.

Requirements

Prerequisites:

Completion of the Administrative Assistant Fundamentals course (or equivalent experience).

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

PC: Windows 8 or later.
Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

FAQ

Instructor-Moderated: A new session of each course begins each month. Please refer to the session start dates for scheduling.

Self-Guided: Your course begins immediately after you enroll.

Instructor-Moderated: Once a course session starts, two lessons will be released each week for the 6 week duration of your course. You will have access to all previously released lessons until the course ends. You will interact with the instructor through the online discussion area. There are no live sessions or online meetings with the instructor.

Self-Guided: You have 3 months of access to the course. After enrolling, you can learn and complete the course at your own pace, within the allotted access period. You will have the opportunity to interact with other students in the online discussion area.

Instructor-Moderated: The interactive discussion area for each lesson automatically closes two weeks after each lesson is released, so you're encouraged to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release. However, you will have access to all lessons from the time they are released until the course ends.

Self-Guided: There is no time limit to complete each lesson, other than completing all lessons within the allotted access period. Discussion areas for each lesson are open for the entire duration of the course.

Instructor-Moderated: Students enrolled in a six-week online class benefit from a one-time, 10-day extension for each course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.

Self-Guided: Because this course is self-guided, no extensions will be granted after the start of your enrollment.

Reviews

I enjoyed the course, learned a lot, and felt it was presented well.

I feel that he course and instructors were completely in line with my expectations and were very "user friendly" in each section of this course!

I felt the course had many avenues of information and gave me a well rounded experience and will be very useful.

I found that I could take any subject from the lessons and apply it to my tasks at work or knew of a situation where the subject applied; it was fascinating to look at things in a new way and understand why managers/supervisors operate the way they do.

I found the class to be very informative and helped me to see a lot of things in my day to day work in a new light. I beleive this class will not only help me to understand my office better but also help me in my goal to seek out new adventures in a different job.

I really enjoyed this course, actually the series of courses and feel as though I can use this information on the job. Thanks so much.

Recently I took a test for a position as a senior purchasing clerk for the school district here. On the test were several questions regarding leadership theory and practices, as well as general office procedures. I just wanted to say that for the most part, the questions asked fell right in line with what you presented in this class, and the previous fundamentals class. The material fell right in line with the real life scenarios that were presented on the test, and the actions that were expected as a supervisor. Kudos to you.

This course gave me insight to the business world. Thank you for presening the material in such an enjoyable and easy to understand format.

This was a very informative and useful course for any person who owns a business or works in a business environment.

This was my first time taking an online course and I have to admit I really enjoyed it. I had to get used to reading from the computer and making sure I completed th assignments on time, but it was great. I know that I will be taking more online courses.