IUMX-620 Introduction to Business Negotiations (3T2020)

● Self-paced course available from Nov. 24, 2020 – May 7, 2021

Description
If you negotiate, or are interested in learning about negotiations, this class will provide you
with useful tools, context and instruction to further your negotiation skills. Whether you are
pursuing law, business, engineering, government, diplomatic service, or any other profession which
engages in negotiations, you will derive insights and benefits from this class. This class provides a
practical framework combined with focused guidance and skills for understanding and conducting
negotiations, achieving objectives, and creating successful agreements. The class is delivered using
an experience-oriented teaching approach.
This program is divided into two parts. Using a practice-oriented approach, Part I of this
program (Introduction to Business Negotiations) explores the process of negotiations, focusing on
the key legal and business issues necessary to understand and prepare for the negotiation of a
complex business transaction. Part II (Applied Business Negotiations) enables students to apply the
lessons and concepts from Part I by engaging in a multi-session negotiation of the simulated
business transaction that is utilized to illustrate the lessons studied in Part I.

Faculty
Jay Gary Finkelstein
Partner, DLA Piper & Adjunct Faculty, Indiana University Maurer School of Law

Communicating with Your Facilitators

If you need help with something in the course, please post to the Course Community forums.
More information on using those forums is under Communication Tools. Course facilitators will
monitor the community regularly. Please be aware that although our course is accessed from all
over the world, your facilitators are in the continental United States time zones, and may not be able
to answer your query immediately.
Communication Tools

Learner Community – Part of the Course Upgrade

This course uses Inscribe, a learning community tool that connects students and instructors.
Whenever you see the widget, you can click on it to ask and answer questions of your instructor and
fellow classmates related to course content. (NOTE: This community is available to Verified
learners only as part of their course upgrade benefit.)
You can post a question or share something in the community. A share could be a link to an
interesting article you read related to course content. A question might be asking for clarification
around a confusing topic. When you post, be sure to select an appropriate topic to associate with
your post. There is already one topic created for each week of the course.
If you need to ask a faculty-specific question that you don’t want classmates to see, you can
also choose the visibility of your posting: All Members of the community (learners and faculty), or
Moderators only (faculty facilitators).

Please take the time to introduce yourself to classmates in our learner community!

Learning Goals
Through participation in the program, learners will:
● Consider the basics of transactional law and explore the sequential development of a
business transaction over an extended negotiation
● Examine the business and legal issues and apply strategies that impact transactional
negotiation
● Comprehend the dynamics of negotiating, structuring, and drafting agreements for business
transactions
● Understand the role that lawyers and law play in these negotiations
● Consider the ethics of negotiations
● Devise and produce communications documents
 ● Develop your position and test your negotiation skills in a simulated negotiation

Prerequisites
None. Enrollment in Course II: Applied Business Negotiations requires successful completion
of Course I.
All materials are presented in English, with English transcripts.

Learner Time Commitment

You should expect to spend 4-6 hours per week on this course, including accessing course
materials and completing graded assignments. This course is asynchronous, self-paced, and all
content is immediately available.

Getting Started and Getting Help

● Get help with course content – audit learners: We can often learn best as a community. If
you are running into difficulty, it’s possible other students have the same question. Go to the
Course Discussions tab at the top of any page and post in the edX Discussions area.
● Get help with course content –verified learners: If you have purchased a course upgrade
in order to earn a Verified certificate, you have access to a special help community. Launch
the course community from any weekly Overview page, then post your question -- or see if
someone else (or a course facilitator) has already answered it. The course community is
powered by Inscribe.
● Get help with technical problems: If you run into a challenge with the edX platform, such
as needing to change your password or wanting to know how to update your profile picture,
you can visit edX support. This link can also be accessed by looking for “Help” when you
are in the edX platform.
● Learn how to use edX: If you are new to the edX platform, you may want to enroll in
DemoX. DemoX is a brief course provided by edX to introduce you to how the platform
works and let you practice course navigation and other activities.

Textbook Resources
The required text for the course is Negotiating Business Transactions, 2d Ed. (Wolters Kluwer,
2018). An eText copy of the book is included in the registration cost for the course. Verified
learners can access the eText in edX by clicking on the “eTextbook: Negotiating Business
Transactions” unit.
Assignments and Grading
Graded activities are available to Verified Learners only. You must verify before the cutoff
date of April 27, 2021, at 20:00 UTC in order to achieve a Verified Certificate. You must earn a
total score of 80% or above in order to earn the certificate. There are no dropped scores in this
course.

About Due Dates:

All assessments are due before the course end date and can be completed at your own pace. To help
you stay on track, the edX system will generate suggested due dates based on when you enroll in the
course. You can shift these due dates if you miss a deadline and need more time.

Assessments:
The following assessment types can be found in this course:

Assessment Type Description

Quizzes These untimed quizzes are intended to allow you to practice and
demonstrate your understanding of the course content. You may view
instructor feedback and answer each question as many times as you
need to.

Reflections These open-ended questions are designed to help you apply the
knowledge and skills you have learned in the course to situations you
have experienced, or to imagined scenarios. Once you have submitted
an answer, you will have the opportunity to read fellow learners’
responses and they will have the opportunity to read yours.
Completing a reflection gives full credit for the assessment.

Suggested Course Schedule

This is a self-paced course; however a suggested weekly schedule is provided here.
Week 1: Welcome and Session 1
Week 2: Session 2
Week 3: Session 3
Week 4: Session 4
Week 5: Session 5
Week 6: Session 6, Session 7, Session 8
Week 7: Session 9, Session 10, Session 11
Week 8: Session 12, Session 13
Week 9: Session 14, Summary and Conclusions
Etiquette - Interacting with Your Fellow Learners
The major ways that you will communicate with your classmates and with your facilitators is
through discussions in either the edX Discussion boards (audit learners) or the Inscribe course
community (Verified learners only). As a member of a learning community, you should familiarize
yourself with best practices for virtual course communication.
Here are a few guidelines for using the Inscribe course community:
● Before you post a question, see if someone else has already asked it. This helps avoid
redundancy.
● Do not post answers to quiz questions or to assignments. If have a question about a specific
quiz or exam question, please post your question to be viewed by “moderator only.”

● Provide feedback. If a classmate asked a good question or a resource is helpful, use the
“upvote” button.
● Be courteous. Imagine yourself in a room with your classmates. Would you speak aloud
what you are about to say? Think of ways to disagree with constructive criticism and
evidence-based arguments. Don’t use personal attacks.
● Use common writing practices for digital communication:
○ Review your writing for grammatical and spelling errors before you post.
○ Avoid typing in ALL CAPS. This is considered shouting. It’s also hard to read.
○ Recognize that humor or sarcasm can be easily misunderstood in text-based
communication. You may want to avoid it.

Third-Party Tools Statement

This course is hosted in the edX platform and is designed to ensure a robust learning
experience. You may be asked to complete assignments using recommended tools beyond the edX
platform. If you have legitimate reasons for not using a recommended tool, you should contact the
instructors about alternate ways to complete the assignment.

Accessibility Statement
You can review the edX Website Accessibility policy. Contact finkelj@iu.edu if you have
accessibility questions, concerns or feedback related to this course.