Course Descriptions BSID

Course Descriptions

Earn a degree that delivers skills to build a great career

Our online bachelor’s in industrial distribution is designed to help you expand your knowledge and prepare for a bright future in a growing field. Begin your path to professional fulfillment by exploring our 100% online curriculum below.

Foundation Courses

BUS 102 — Business Foundations — 2 hours
Explore the types of business careers available in today’s job market, various functions of businesses around the globe, and international business culture.

BUS 110 — Essentials of Financial Literacy — 3 hours
Examine the mathematics of money and financial literacy. This course will cover such topics as simple and complex interest, taxes, consumer finance, retirement plans, insurance and risk management, cash flows, payroll and inventory.

Lower Level Core

AC 200 — Principles of Accounting I — 3 hours
Focus on how accounting events affect financial statements. Learn about preparation and use of external financial reports, accrual versus cash, long-term operational assets, long-term liabilities, stockholders’ equity, recording procedures, and financial statement analysis.

AC 201 — Principles of Accounting II — 3 hours
Study the basic concepts associated with internal reporting, such as the use of relevant information for planning, control, and decision making. Examine cost behavior, cost allocation, product costing, budgeting, responsibility accounting, and capital budgeting.

EC 210 — Principles of Microeconomics — 3 hours
Theory of production and value, including the problems of monopoly, oligopoly, and distribution of income.

EC 211 — Principles of Macroeconomics — 3 hours
Study economic analysis and its use in dealing with business and governmental problems. Cover topics such as national income, price-level, employment, governmental fiscal policies, and international economics.

LS 246 — Legal Environment of Business — 3 hours
Build your general knowledge of the legal environment of business and the basic principles of contracts, property, business organizations, bankruptcy, employment, ethical reasoning and decision-making. Acquire an understanding of the role and value of diversity in the workplace through study of equal employment opportunity and other laws.

QM 214 — Quantitative Analysis I — 3 hours
Examine basic statistical concepts applied to issues in today’s business world. Explore descriptive statistics, index numbers, basic probability, sampling, statistical inference, distributions, and estimation.

QM 215 — Quantitative Analysis II — 3 hours
Explore hypothesis testing, Chi-square distribution, simple regression, multiple regression, analysis of variance, time series, nonparametric statistics and quality control.

Upper Level Core

MG 302 — Management Processes and Behavior — 3 hours
Examine ethical decision-making processes, leadership, contemporary management issues, and communication within organizations. Learn about motivation, job attitudes, diversity, and performance evaluation. Ethics and civic responsibility are significant components of this course.

IS 303 — Information Systems — 3 hours
Theory and application of management information systems. Planning, design, development, and implementation of and strategic issues in information systems. Learn about the World Wide Web, Internet, and knowledge-based systems.

MK 303 — Basic Marketing — 3 hours
Survey course of modern business processes and the planning, distribution, promoting, and pricing of products for domestic and international organizations.

FN 310 — Fundamentals of Financial Management — 3 hours
Introduction to the basic principles of financial management emphasizing quantitative and qualitative analysis of time value of money, stock and bond valuation, capital budgeting, risk/return analysis, cost of capital, capital structure, and cash flow analysis.

BUS 350 — Business Communications — 3 hours
Review of grammar and organization with emphasis on conventions, formats, and style of written business communication. Relies on class writing assignments, research methods and analysis, and collaborative writing.

MK 416 — International Marketing — 3 hours
International marketing activities, including environmental issues, marketing strategy and tactical considerations in entering foreign markets.

BUS 305 – Professional Development – 1 hour
This course prepares students for experiential learning and internship opportunities. Students will gain an understanding of networking, personal branding, career planning, strategic career search, interviewing techniques, salary negotiation, and professional etiquette in today’s global workplace.

*Experiential Requirement – All business majors are required to participate in experiential education. This requirement may carry 0-3 credit hours.

Industrial Distribution Engineering Core

ME 103 Drawing, Design + Measurement for ID (3 credit hours)
Learn to effectively read technical sketches, engineering drawings, and analyze and critique manufacturing processes. This course is designed for non-engineering majors and is not available for credit toward the engineering major.

Learning outcome
Engineering and technical literacy can help you effectively communicate with engineers and customers while maximizing worker performance in your workplace.

ME 302 Overview of Mechanical Components (3 credit hours)
Get a broad view of mechanical engineering concepts as they relate to manufacturers and industrial distributors, including energy transformation, thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluid mechanics. Approach various subjects, such as statics, dynamics, and engineering design, with expert guidance. This course is designed for non-engineering majors and is not available for credit toward the engineering major.

Learning outcome
Develop real-world knowledge applicable from day one in an industrial distribution or manufacturing role.

EE 305 Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering (3 credit hours)
Explore a wide range of core topics in electrical engineering and develop a basic understanding of electrical products and engineering concepts. This course is designed for non-engineering majors and is not available for credit toward the engineering major.

Learning outcome
Develop the knowledge you need to communicate product benefits and help customers make informed selections.

MSE 350 Introduction to Materials (3 credit hours)
Explore a fundamental aspect of industrial distribution — material structures. Start with industry-relevant concepts and applications, analyze the crystal structure of materials and formation of microstructures, and examine various structure-property relationships. This course is designed for non-engineering majors and is not available for credit toward the engineering major.

Learning outcome
Get an in-depth view of the history of material processes and find out what influences the material’s structure and performance. Use this knowledge to advise about product selection in the marketplace.

DB 320 Industrial Distribution Management (3 credit hours)
As the first distribution course in our program, this course is designed to give you a broad look at yesterday’s, today’s, and tomorrow’s industrial distribution management practices.

Learning outcome
Get educated in the evolution industrial distribution. Your knowledge about past and present concepts, issues, and practices can help you stand apart in the industry, make informed decisions in your current role, and give you the foundation you need to manage a profitable distribution company.

MK 330 Professional Selling (3 credit hours)
Are you ready to combine personal selling theory with hands-on practice? Learn how to give impactful sales presentations, effectively interact with professional sales representatives, analyze cases, and master both written and oral business communication.

Learning outcome
Apply strategic methods and persuasive techniques in your role to help secure customer business and increase your bottom line.

DB 430 Industrial Distribution Operations (3 credit hours)
Explore distributor operation concepts, including profitability, inventory management, scheduling, decision support systems, facilities, and warehouse operations integrated with financial control of distributor operations, examine case studies, and listen to industry expert guest lecturers.

Learning outcome
An in-depth view of distributor operation concepts can help you understand how distributors efficiently and profitably manage their operations. Learn to use various inventory management tools used in distribution, price products according to financial performance, and use financial analysis tools to evaluate distributor performance.

DB 435 Industrial Distribution Policies and Quality Issues (3 credit hours)
Strategy is an important aspect of industrial distribution. This course is designed to help you better understand B2B e-commerce strategy and applications as well as industrial distribution best practices. Take a look at distributor go-to-market channel strategies and management and strategic account management processes and systems.

Learning outcome
With this course you can learn to prioritize B2B customers and market segments, analyze customer sales data for strategic decision-making, understand the drivers of customer loyalty, and calculate the impact of customer retention on customer lifetime value and profits.

DB 495 Industrial Distribution Directed Studies / Practicum (3 credit hours)
Pursue real expertise with an experiential internship course. Work alongside distributors and manufacturers and examine current and future distribution issues. Explore issues in managing distributors, both as suppliers for and customers of manufacturers and other businesses in a real-world setting.

Learning outcome
Learn through hands-on internship experiences and develop connections with industry professionals. Find out how your course material applies to real-world situations and help improve a real company’s channel management strategies.

Medical Equipment and Supplies Core

Learning outcome
Get educated in the evolution industrial distribution. Your knowledge about past and present concepts, issues, and practices can help you stand apart in the industry, make informed decisions in your current role, and give you the foundation you need to manage a profitable distribution company.

Learning outcome
An in-depth view of distributor operation concepts can help you understand how distributors efficiently and profitably manage their operations. Learn to use various inventory management tools used in distribution, price products according to financial performance, and use financial analysis tools to evaluate distributor performance.

Learning outcome
With this course you can learn to prioritize B2B customers and market segments, analyze customer sales data for strategic decision-making, understand the drivers of customer loyalty, and calculate the impact of customer retention on customer lifetime value and profits.

Learning outcome
Learn through hands-on internship experiences and develop connections with industry professionals. Find out how your course material applies to real-world situations and help improve a real company’s channel management strategies.

Learning outcome
Apply strategic methods and persuasive techniques in your role to help secure customer business and increase your bottom line.

Elective Options

HCM 330 Overview of Health Care Systems (3 credit hours)
Any business professional in health care should be knowledgeable about today’s governmental health care policies and their implications for health care providers. This course provides you with an overview of U.S. health care system and an introduction to health care financing.

Learning outcome
Develop the skills you need to analyze financial strategies within health care organizations and foresee effects of environmental trends and health policies and create solutions.

EC 306 Health Care Economics (3 credit hours)
Learn to apply economic analysis to issues in health care. Explore evolving trends and institutional features in the health care industry and use in-class lessons to address real-world health care issues from an economic perspective.

Learning outcome
Develop a new way of thinking through economic analysis. This course can help you understand the supply and demand for health care, hospitals, insurance and managed care, health labor markets, chronic disease, prescription drugs, and government policy and apply them today and tomorrow.

MK 471 Health Care Marketing (3 credit hours)
Get a comprehensive overview of the marketing fundamentals in the health care environment and explore the special challenges of implementing marketing strategies in health care.

Learning outcome
Students can learn about the complexities of selling to the health care market and should be able to identify and segment hospitals and other medical providers.

AHS 350 Medical Terminology for Health Professionals (3 credit hours)
For distributors and manufacturers working with health professionals, knowledge of medical terminology is vital. This course focuses on constructing, understanding, and using medical terms effectively to describe diagnostic and clinical procedures and treatment modalities to health care providers.

Learning outcome
The ability to accurately describe product and treatment options when advising health care providers is a critical aspect of distributor and manufacturer duties. With this course, you can learn the appropriate terminology and develop the knowledge to communicate with health care providers.