Carnegie Mellon University

Eberly Center

Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation

Heinz College of Public Policy and Management – Learning Objectives Samples

90-743 Urban and Regional Economic Development (Jerry Paytas) (complete set)

  • Explain key concepts, theories and methods in the pursuit of regional economic development.
  • Critique the theories and methods of regional economic development in their application to a region.
  • Examine a regional economy using critical analytical methods like shift share, location quotients, and comparative analysis.
  • Recommend a regional development strategy based on your theoretical critique and economic analysis.

90-747 Cost-Benefit Analysis (Tiong Kiong Lim) (complete set)

  • Determine when a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) may be performed in a meaningful way;
  • Perform the analysis as completely as possible, given relevant modeling assumptions or approximations;
  • Identify limitations in modeling assumptions, data or political concerns that may compromise the validity of the study; and
  • Communicate the results of the CBA to stakeholders in such a way as to facilitate political or administrative processes.

90-822 Immigration Policy Analysis (Brian Kovac) (complete set)

This course prepares students to understand, interpret, and critique existing research relating to immigration policy topics. The course focuses on the development of three essential skills for policy analysts:

  1. Read and interpret empirical results in published research.
  2. Identify the assumptions needed to infer causal relationships and assess their plausibility.
  3. Recognize common problems in policy research, including reverse causality, omitted variables, measurement error, etc., and use graphical methods to determine the direction of the resulting statistical bias.  

91-800 Organizational Management Systems (David Lassman) (excerpt)

  1. Identify and clearly define a problem/issue;
  2. Analyze and question data and information in a rigorous manner;
  3. Generate and organize qualitative and qualitative evidence to support arguments and recommendations;
  4. Make decisions with imperfect/incomplete data within a clearly defined timeframe (which is typically shorter than desired);

93-716 Human Resources Management in Creative Enterprises (Eileen Meddis) (complete set)

  • Identify and apply fundamental U.S. fair employment laws and regulations.
  • Recommend protocols for legal and effective hiring, motivating, and terminating employees.
  • Summarize and apply the fundamentals of wage and hour regulations.
  • Describe the labor relations and collective bargaining process.
  • Recognize and appropriately respond to emerging social issues in HR management, such as religious discrimination, workplace harassment, family and medical leave issues and disability discrimination.

95-822 Technology Consulting in the Community (Joe Mertz)

  • Establish a professional working relationship
  • Quickly assess a complex technical environment and identify problem areas
  • Systematically bring structure to unstructured problems
  • Negotiate with the client acceptable deliverables for the consulting period
  • Develop and execute a work plan
  • Use writing skills to maintain working documents that describe, plan, persuade, and coordinate work with others