Brandon was back from spring break today with a brand new set of classes! We reviewed the syllabi for each course, making sure that we scheduled enough time to tackle each individual class. Brandon posted the introductions to each course, and we then began the lecture materials for his Human Resource Management class. In both courses, he has major papers due, but after the last semester, Brandon is feeling food about being able to handle the crazy workload.

Brandon and I created an outline and an introduction for his Business Dynamics paper. He had to do a lot of research on Apple in order to support the need for the product he wishes to introduce to the public (wireless charger for the Macbook). He began writing and got most of it done today in class.

Brandon's Business Dynamics final paper was due today, so we set out to finish it by doing most of the research on the financial backing for his product the iCharger. Brandon found that Apple has billions of dollars in assets, but only uses about 23% less than their competitors on research and development. In lieu of this, Brandon proposed that Apple increase its R&D budget to phase out the old Macbook Charger and introduce the iCharger to the market. After adding his conclusion, Brandon completed his bibliography and submitted the paper. We then started reading the rest of the final paper readings assigned by Brandon's Civ. instructor.

Brandon spent some time working on the next section of his business dynamics paper: marketing for the iCharger and the particular demographics of the target market. He indicated that his marketing plan would be consistent with Apple's minimalist advertising, where only one specific product feature is discussed. He also presented data on the target audience, millennials, saying that they were the major purchasers of Apple products.

Brandon continued working on his business dynamics paper, outlining the problem with the current Macbook charger and providing an overview of wireless chargers that are currently leading the market. He then outlined how his iCharger would improve/ameliorate the current Macbook charger problems while competing with the leading wireless marketing products. We spent a lot of time gathering research, and Brandon was able to add 2 full pages to the paper. We then transitioned to his Civ. course and continued writing about Cardinal Richelieu and his centralization of French power to the monarchy.

Brandon has two final papers due this week, so we got right to work on each, planning and then implementing our goals. He discussed piloting an Apple wireless charger, so we did some research on market trends for this specific industry and found that there was certainly a lack of products available on the wireless charger front, even from Apple. For this assignment, he needs to recommend a new product to market and promote, and he decided to go in this direction. Brandon then worked on his Civ. paper, starting the first body paragraph and supporting his points with our prepared outline. He wrote 1.5 pages for each class, so we are off to a nice start.

To get ahead for next week, Brandon completed the discussion board post for week 6 of Business Dynamics and then the News Article review for week 5. He will complete the News Article review for Week 6 tomorrow, and then we will work on formal outlines for the papers due next week.

Brandon worked on the textbook assignments in his Business Dynamics class and completed the subsequent quiz. He then moved on to the quiz for ITC and finished that with little problems. He responded to two of his peers for the discussion post and then he continued working on his assignment for ITC. We had about 30 minutes left, so we began reading an article on which his Civilizations paper is based.

Next week is Brandon's finals week, so we are strategizing how he can get ahead this week to prepare for the workload next week. We decided to get all of his discussion posts out of the way in Dynamics and ITC, and then Brandon completed all of his ITC homework for the week. Tomorrow we plan on finishing most of the work for Business Dynamics so that we can start outlining the two papers that he has due next week. Busy, busy, busy.

Brandon and I compiled a list of assignments due this week (our "Weekly Overview") and decided which would be the best to tackle early. We decided to start the readings for his Civilizations course, which sometimes total between 40-50 pages per document. We began this, and then watched one of the required videos and Brandon took the subsequent quiz.