Course Syllabus

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CMGT 4305: Health and Safety Planning and Management

3 credits

Fully Online

Instructor Information

A comprehensive study of the essential components needed in developing an effective safety planning and management system. Examines the cultural aspects of integrating total safety planning and management into all levels of an operation..

This course serves as a required course in the BAS Construction Management, Environmental Health & Safety Track Professional Studies program. It can also be used as an elective undergraduate/ graduate course.

Degree and non-degree seeking students from both within and outside the department are eligible to register and complete the certificate.

The construction industry has one of the highest morbidity and mortality rates among professions. In addition to the harm to life, there is also an economical implication. Companies can reduce the risk of injuries, diseases, and death due to environmental hazards by implementing an appropriate health and safety plan. Plans must be continually reviewed to ensure they are current with new products, scientific evidence, legal parameters, and cultural changes.

The Safety Professional Handbook: Management Applications, ASSE, 2nd Edition by Joel M. Haight; Adele L. Abrams; Dennis R. Andrews; Michael Behm; James D. Ramsay; Brent A. Altermose; ISBN 9781885581600, 18885581602.

Check to see if your text includes a pass code for accessing supplemental materials that must be downloaded from the publisher's website. Note that these codes may provide only limited or one-time access to the supplemental materials, so read the instructions carefully.

The Library Course Page in the Canvas navigation menu provides resources through the UMN libraries.

The Course Resources page provides resources pertinent to the entire course.

Student Help provides links to important resources for academic and technology support, career research, and services for dealing with stress, time management, and other student counseling offices.

You will need to use a browser as your primary method of accessing this course. The Canvas mobile apps should only be used as a supplement. To learn about browser compatibility with Canvas, visit the Supported Browsers (Links to an external site.)  page.

You will need a functional webcam for video conferencing and a headset-microphone to assure good audio quality.

  1. Develop effective safety management policy statements, goals, and objectives.
  2. Examine the components of an effective hazard prevention and control system.
  3. Apply risk management principles to reduce the impact of workplace hazards.
  4. Relate continuous improvement principles to safety management concepts
  5. Examine management tools necessary to implement effective safety management systems.
  6. Describe the four phases of emergency management and the role each of them plays in managing and mitigating a disaster.
  7. Demonstrate how to perform a risk analysis.
  8. Describe the effective way to make decisions and problem solve during an emergency.

We surveyed our industry constituents and determined their views on writing within the profession, who responded that the following forms of writing, in order of importance and frequency, were most important with the industry:

  • Correspondence: letters, memoranda, emails, etc. (98%)
  • Proposals, presentations, or feasibility studies (92%)
  • Reports: observation, recordkeeping, or minutes (82%)
  • Budgets or cost delivery (71%)
  • Interpretations of sketches, graphics, or technical drawings (49%)
  • Technical documents: specifications, lab reports (16%)
  • Procedures or manuals (16%)
  • Schedules, written or graphic (16%)
  • Industry-standard contract documents and forms (CO, COR, PR, RFI) (16%).

The Construction Management Program is grounded in and informed by industry expectations and recognizes that students are best served when instruction focuses on developing these particular forms of writing. CMgt therefore participates in the University of Minnesota’s Writing Enriched Curriculum (WEC) program, the purpose of which is to promote discipline-specific writing instruction, both within each individual CMgt course and across the entire CMgt curriculum. CMgt students will focus primarily on those forms of writing crucial to success in the construction management field.

The program’s writing plan Links to an external site. identifies six competencies that each student in the Construction Management program will develop by graduation. The table below maps the writing abilities students develop alongside how these abilities are assessed and what genre (form of writing) typically represents this ability:

 

Ability

Assessment Qualities

Genre Used

Communicate clearly: Articulate problems, proposals, procedures, and policies using concrete, unambiguous language.
  • Correct grammar and punctuation
  • Accurately presented▫
  • Clear, concise, correct

Use evidence: Habitually maintain and comprehensively recall, recite, and apply documents, records, notes, data, and independent research in support of critical thinking.
  • Maintain notes
  • Data and research adequately cited
  • Data and research applied to analyze and solve problems
  • Arguments supported by logic

Communicate about problems and conflicts: Objectively analyze, recite, assess, evaluate, interpret, and communicate issues, problems, conflicts and their solutions.
  • Stakeholder perspectives presented, compared and contrasted
  • Clear and bias-free restatement of problems

Understand and address stakeholder concerns: Inspire confidence using language, tone, authentic voice, and technical detail appropriate to the stakeholder perspective and ability to comprehend.
  • Audience is consistently addressed in a clear way
  • Appropriate tone is used
  • Anticipate audience objections
  • Portrayed in writer's own voice

Correctly use industry-standard documents: Read, create, modify, and interpret drawings, forms, and other industry-standard documents.
  • Correct application and timing of documents
  • Correct description and application and citation of drawings

Interpret technical material: Demonstrate mastery and proper application of technical terminology, tools, jargon, and software.
  • Integrate properly captioned graphic and written content
  • Effective use of trade software to communicate message

Oral communication skills are a huge aspect of professional success. The introductory discussion and the final presentation are the oral communication elements of this class. Of course, your workplace presents the ultimate environment for practicing your communication skills.

Presentations are a core component of communication in our industry, and knowledge about their creation and use is critical to a successful presentation.

Detailed Assignment Guidelines are located in the assignment tools on your Canvas course site. 

Using a "deeper dive" principle, as an individual or group of two students, prepare and present online cross-sections of a health and safety management plan relevant to the construction profession. A summary and presentation will be required to be posted on the forum such as identifying budget, stakeholders, hazards, training, compliance, mitigation, etc.

Research study regarding a real case scenario involving a summary of the situation, analysis, and problem-solving by applying emergency management principles learned in the course.

Completion of a series of online modules providing a review of the national incident management system, four phases of emergency management, and characteristics and roles of public and private sectors. 

Prepare a quiz related to emergency management course materials and applying course principles to assess program improvement and learning outcomes. 

Weekly discussions on short scenarios related to the modular subject, designed to engage thinking rather than problem solving, as a preparation for the weeks modular topic.  These forums require student response prior to being able to see other students' responses, and then requiring at least one feedback comment on two or more student’s post.

You will also have the opportunity to reflect on how well you are doing on your discussion assignments. These are quizzes that allow you to state how you are doing with discussion postings and responses. 

Short quizzes regarding modular lecture and/or assigned reading content.

Your grades are calculated using weighted assignment groups, not using total points earned.  However, there is no need to try to calculate your grade by hand. Use Canvas' What-If Grades feature Links to an external site. to approximate your grade.

Grading and Transcripts: Twin Cities, Crookston, Morris, Rochester

Grade Percentage
A 100% to 93%
A- < 93% to 90%
B+ <90% to 87%
B < 87% to 83%
B- < 83% to 80%
C+ < 80% to 77%
C < 77% to 73%
C- < 73% to 70%
D+ < 70% to 67%
D < 67% to 60%
F < 60% to 0%
Grade Percentage
S 100% to 70%
N < 70% to 0%

Late work will only be accepted with prior approval from the instructor.

Please follow the protocols listed in Face Covering Protocol.

Students will not be penalized for absence during the semester due to unavoidable or legitimate circumstances. The UMN Policy on Makeup Work allows for circumstances such as: verified illness, participation in intercollegiate athletic events, subpoenas, jury duty, military service, bereavement, and religious observances. Such circumstances do not include voting in local, state, or national elections. You are responsible for informing your instructor as soon as possible of missed classes and provide documentation of the reason for absence.

Incompletes require a written agreement between instructor and student. The student must initiate the e-form, which is available on the One Stop website Forms page. For more information, see Grading and Transcripts: Twin Cities, Crookston, Morris, Rochester.

For details check the Cancel/add & refund deadlines page and step -by-step guide to drop a class.

UMN defines one undergraduate credit as equivalent to 42-45 hours of learning effort distributed across a semester (including all classroom and outside activities). Please review the UMN Policy on Expected Student Academic Work per Credit.

Here is a link for Academic Policies and Accommodations Links to an external site.

Veterans and active duty military personnel with special circumstances (e.g., upcoming deployments, drill requirements, disabilities) are welcome and encouraged to communicate these, in advance if possible, to the instructor.

Course content is divided into modules that run from Monday at 12:01am through Sunday at 11:59pm US Central Time (UTC-06:00). Due dates are communicated within each Assignment tool.

Changes to the course schedule may occur and will automatically be reflected in the Course Summary section below.

Course Summary:

Date Details Due