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AFM 111 — Professional Pathways and Problem-Solving

The five-stage problem-solving process, the writing genres, and the rubrics made explicit — 82 lessons

AFM 111 has no final exam: it is graded on a short ethics test and on rubric-graded writing, and its students say the rubrics are the hard part to find. This course makes them explicit. The professional learner and the metacognition cycle; academic integrity under Policy 71 and professional integrity under the CPA Code; the five-stage SAF problem-solving process taught one stage at a time on a single running case, each stage ending in the exercise the real assessment asks for; the email and memorandum genres with their marking criteria; two full worked cases and a peer-feedback cycle; and the pathways module — designations, co-op, SMART goals and STAR stories. Every written item is graded against the named rubric it mirrors, with a full-marks model answer shown after you commit.

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How AFM 111 Is Graded, and How to Learn a Course With No Exam

29 cards
  1. No exam, no textbook: the grading scheme 7 min ◈ 5
  2. The 3 Ps: Prepare, Participate, Practice 7 min ◈ 4
  3. The metacognition cycle: plan, monitor, evaluate 8 min ◈ 5
  4. Rubric literacy: reading a criterion as a line 8 min ◈ 4
  5. Feedback and the Kritik cycle 8 min ◈ 6
  6. Writing a reflection a rubric can score 9 min ◈ 5

Academic Integrity: the Six Values, Plagiarism, and Policy 71

41 cards
  1. Integrity defined, and why one standard 7 min ◈ 4
  2. The six fundamental values 8 min ◈ 7
  3. Plagiarism: what counts, and how it is caught 8 min ◈ 5
  4. Policy 71: what it is, and its list of offences 9 min ◈ 7
  5. Unauthorized aids, generative AI, and collaboration 8 min ◈ 5
  6. Penalties and escalation 8 min ◈ 5
  7. Quote, paraphrase, summarise — and cite in APA 9 min ◈ 8

Professional Integrity: Ethics Lenses, the CPA Code, and Value Conflicts

48 cards
  1. Ethics, law, and the three lenses 9 min ◈ 6
  2. Eight ways business conduct goes wrong 8 min ◈ 5
  3. Conflict of interest and confidentiality 9 min ◈ 6
  4. What a professional code is for, and the five principles 9 min ◈ 7
  5. Professional behaviour, due care, competence, and the duty to report 9 min ◈ 7
  6. What a value conflict is, and the decision ladder 10 min ◈ 6
  7. Responding to a value conflict at work 10 min ◈ 5
  8. Whistleblowing and honest persuasion 9 min ◈ 6

PSP Stage 1: Assess the Situation

30 cards
  1. The five stages in one picture 8 min ◈ 7
  2. Reading the case for role and task 8 min ◈ 5
  3. Who counts as a stakeholder, and how to rank them 9 min ◈ 5
  4. Objectives become criteria, and context in three facts 8 min ◈ 4
  5. Choosing the analysis, and stating assumptions 8 min ◈ 4
  6. Stage-1 exercise: Lakeshore Print Co. 11 min ◈ 5

PSP Stage 2: Identify and Analyse the Issues — and Find the Evidence

40 cards
  1. Symptom, problem, cause 8 min ◈ 5
  2. Arguments, explanations, and standard form 8 min ◈ 5
  3. Defining the problem with numbers and boundaries 8 min ◈ 4
  4. Finding the best explanation 10 min ◈ 5
  5. Facts, opinions, samples, and ranking the issues 9 min ◈ 5
  6. From information need to a search line 8 min ◈ 5
  7. Evaluating a source 10 min ◈ 6
  8. Stage-2 exercise: Lakeshore Print Co. 11 min ◈ 5

PSP Stage 3: Develop and Analyse Alternatives

44 cards
  1. Stage-3 outputs, and generating real alternatives 8 min ◈ 5
  2. Criteria before solutions — qualitative and quantitative 9 min ◈ 6
  3. Weighting and the decision matrix 11 min ◈ 8
  4. Sensitivity — does the answer move? 9 min ◈ 5
  5. Bias check I — assumptions and informal fallacies 9 min ◈ 5
  6. Bias check II — fallacies of relevance 8 min ◈ 5
  7. Bias check III — decision biases and statistical traps 9 min ◈ 5
  8. Team analysis, and the stage-3 exercise: Lakeshore Print Co. 11 min ◈ 5

PSP Stage 4: Decide and Recommend

29 cards
  1. One recommendation, even when the analysis is inconclusive 9 min ◈ 5
  2. Honest hedging — guarding vs assuring language 8 min ◈ 5
  3. Revisit the goals and values — the ethical element 9 min ◈ 5
  4. Risks and mitigations in one table 8 min ◈ 5
  5. Next steps with owners, dates and a checkpoint 7 min ◈ 4
  6. The stage-4 exercise: Lakeshore Print Co. 11 min ◈ 5

PSP Stage 5: Communicate — the Writing Process

32 cards
  1. Purpose, audience, channel 9 min ◈ 6
  2. Direct vs indirect, and the first-screen test 9 min ◈ 7
  3. FAST, the 6 Cs, and plain language 9 min ◈ 6
  4. Formality, tone, and objectivity 8 min ◈ 4
  5. Paragraphs, headings, and scannable documents 7 min ◈ 4
  6. Three-pass editing, and the stage-5 plan 10 min ◈ 5

The Email Genre

36 cards
  1. Email as the default record, and its norms 8 min ◈ 5
  2. The email rubric — subject, salutation, recipients 10 min ◈ 7
  3. Opening, body, closing, sign-off, attachments 10 min ◈ 5
  4. Information shares and replies 8 min ◈ 4
  5. Bad-news and refusal emails 10 min ◈ 5
  6. Email to a professor or superior 8 min ◈ 5
  7. The value-conflict email 11 min ◈ 5

The Memo Genre: Building a Memorandum

32 cards
  1. What a memo is, and when it is the wrong genre 8 min ◈ 6
  2. The memo header 7 min ◈ 6
  3. The four moves — purpose line and recommendation first 9 min ◈ 6
  4. Analysis organised by criteria, with the matrix 10 min ◈ 5
  5. Next steps, length, layout and file conventions 7 min ◈ 4
  6. The memo assessment — Lakeshore Print Co. 12 min ◈ 5

The Full Case: Kestrel Outdoor Co. Worked, Harrow & Pell Practised

29 cards
  1. Reading a case — role, task, exhibits, planted issues 9 min ◈ 5
  2. Kestrel — stages 1 and 2 12 min ◈ 4
  3. Kestrel — stages 3 and 4 12 min ◈ 5
  4. Kestrel — stage 5, the memo 12 min ◈ 3
  5. Group case mechanics and team conflict 9 min ◈ 6
  6. Practice case — Harrow & Pell, and peer review 12 min ◈ 6

Pathways: Professions, Designations, Co-op, SMART, STAR, Reflection

45 cards
  1. The accounting and finance professions map 8 min ◈ 4
  2. Designations — CPA, CFA, CBV 9 min ◈ 7
  3. The CPA Way and where the PSP leads 8 min ◈ 5
  4. Independence, audit reform and ethical leadership 8 min ◈ 4
  5. Co-op timeline, WaterlooWorks and your first posting 9 min ◈ 5
  6. SMART goals from a reflection 10 min ◈ 7
  7. STAR stories for behavioural questions 10 min ◈ 7
  8. Follow-up, presence and the end-of-term reflection 11 min ◈ 6
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