The Syllabus area of the myCourses course template is organized into the following sections:

1. Course Information and Expectations
2. Instructor Contact Information
3. Course Requirements and Resources
4. Activities and Assignments
5. Assessment and Grading
6. Course Policies
7. Course Schedule

Much of the information needed for the Course Information and Expectations section—particularly the all-important learning outcomes and assessment methods—should be taken directly from the official Course Outline Form for your assigned course(s). Your department chair or program head can provide you with the form(s) and guidance on what is and is not modifiable in the transition to a course syllabus. If you are designing a new course, however, you will need to successfully complete the RIT course proposal process. 

Before completing the Course Policies section, we encourage you to first consult our companion webpage, RIT Policies for Your Syllabus. The External Resources section (below) provides helpful information, advice, and examples for developing the remaining sections of your syllabus.

Regardless of where you are in the syllabus-design process, you can always request one-on-one consultations with an Instructional Design Researcher and Consultant.

• Employees who pursue professional development in their careers tend to have higher productivity and job satisfaction.
• Employers should create opportunities for formal and informal professional development.
• Some professional development programs include “lunch and learns,” internal mentorships, company or industry expert speakers, and online programs.
• This article is for small business owners, HR managers, and team leaders who want professional development ideas to help employees learn and grow.

As the worldwide business landscape evolves, responding to the whims of technology and increased competition, so does the importance of professional development programs. Designed to arm employees with new resources to succeed in their positions, even preparing them to accept additional duties within the company, these programs are gaining in popularity, complexity and necessity.

According to Steve Hawter, vice president of learning and development at The Learning Experience, professional development “controls an employee’s readiness for contributing to a company in new ways, whether the company adopts a new strategy, expands or needs change.”

To keep up with the rapid pace of change in the business world, employees must be encouraged and supported to seek refresher courses and accept new challenges.

“It is less important to learn a Topic or skill than to be able to adapt to new and evolving workplace challenges,” Nanette Miner, Ed.D., owner of The Training Doctor, told Business News Daily. “It is important not to remain a dinosaur in your industry to keep your job and remain valuable.”

Training vs. professional development

There are definite differences between training and professional development, said Hawter. “Training fills in a gap, but development looks to the future and growth of the company and employee.”

Professional development begins on day one of a new job, in Miner’s opinion. “For company longevity, there should be a clear career path,” she said.

Conversely, training is based on the needs of the organization at the time. While employees can co-train on a mutually agreed topic, professional development budgets have shrunk in the past few years.

“Companies are not investing in their talent,” Miner said. “My overarching belief is that more money has to be invested in self-management, ethics, communication (written and verbal) and leadership skills.”

Key takeaway: Training fills a gap, whereas professional development focuses on employee and company growth.

Importance of professional development programs

Many employers shy away from professional development programs, thinking they are unnecessary. However, there are several ways these programs can benefit not just your employees, but also your business.

Employee knowledge and advancement

Beyond the benefits of supplemental training for one’s job, professional development enhances an employee’s value and ensures they remain relevant in their career field, said Steve Smith, founder and CEO of GrowthSource Coaching. Professional development can also involve an employee becoming certified in a field complementary to their current position.

Development certification is one way for staffers to demonstrate they can perform bigger and better things, upping their value to their employers and the workforce in general.

“Becoming irrelevant is the fastest way to lose your job or, if [you own] a company, have your business decline,” Smith said.

Employee job satisfaction

According to Smith, many people pursue professional development to bolster their confidence in what they do at work, “which is a noble reason to continue to develop yourself.” This confidence can translate into higher overall job satisfaction, which in turn increases employee performance, productivity and morale.

Employee retention

Businesses that do not offer career-building educational opportunities for their staff tend to see greater employee turnover than those that do provide those resources. Miner said that disinterest correlates to “why companies are finding hiring and retention so hard. They are not investing in professional development, and employees leave.”

Interesting, challenging and career-enhancing education is becoming an employee “expectation,” said Hawter. Companies that don’t invest in a culture that prioritizes educational training programs for their staff run the risk of losing them to employers that do.

Key takeaway: Professional development programs Excellerate employees’ knowledge, skill sets and job satisfaction, resulting in higher employee retention.

Foundations of a strong professional development program

Even the most impressive professional development program is destined to fail if a participant does not “buy into” the initiative, said Hawter. These are the two pillars of a viable professional development program:

1. It must offer continual development.
2. It must allow staffers to determine the pace of their enrichment, giving them control over their educational path.

Continued micro-learning opportunities

According to Hawter, “micro-learning” is a big buzzword in the learning and development universe. Micro-learning means an educational opportunity that focuses on small concepts.

One example of this niche learning is teaching a staffer how to connect with the mobile generation. That knowledge in particular is all the more important since an ever-increasing number of millennials and Gen Zers work remotely. Because the modern workforce comprises three or four generations, a one-size-fits-all approach to employee enrichment is simply outdated, Hawter said.

Formal and informal learning opportunities

The availability of both formal and informal professional development opportunities is imperative in today’s modern workforce. Webinars and podcasts are examples of informal learning that gives the participant total control over when they seek assistance. That is partly why informal professional development programs are more impactful when combined with formal offerings.

The best professional development programs are overseen by professional organizations, such as Dale Carnegie Training, because those workshops “focus on leadership,” said Smith. “Those programs are designed to teach new things but also provide game plans to help [companies] implement professional development in the workplace.”

Program follow-ups

Even companies that start with the best of intentions might stop fully supporting learning and development efforts over the long term, Smith said. Regular follow-ups are necessary to ensure employees are using everything they have learned to Excellerate their performance.

Hawter urges companies not to minimize the importance of employee development, largely because “PD ensures employees know of the company’s investment in them and demonstrates the company’s real concern” for their welfare.

Key takeaway: A strong professional development program should offer continual formal and informal employee development opportunities that match the employees’ needs.

Employee professional development ideas

As team members, your employees can work both individually and together to reach a common goal. The personal growth of each employee contributes to the success of the entire business.

According to Adrian Ridner, CEO and co-founder of Study.com, the acknowledgment of an employee’s talents and successes in fulfilling their job responsibilities builds their confidence, which increases employee retention and morale.

An Akumina study showed that millennials tend to favor moving from one job to another. Empowering employees, especially younger workers susceptible to job hopping, to succeed in their current roles and ultimately move up could reduce this turnover.

There are numerous ways for employees to pursue professional development. Follow these steps to find the program – or combination of programs – that works best for your team.

1. Consult employees about their developmental needs.

Addressing skill gaps among employees is essential for business owners and managers. You and your team managers or HR representatives should meet with your employees regularly to discuss each one’s job performance and areas where professional development would benefit them and the company. The conversation should include suggestions for improvement, showing the employee the company cares about them and their future.

Additionally, bouncing professional development ideas around the office empowers employees to play an important role in the program while encouraging personal and professional growth.

“Creating a culture of learning in the workplace is a shared responsibility,” Ridner said. He added that employees should feel free to suggest academic or professional development programs.

2. Form partnerships with other companies and industry speakers.

Businesses should consider forming partnerships or provide access to workplace education, like online lessons and in-house training sessions, Ridner said. You could also turn to online industry offerings or connect with experts in your field.

3. Use technology to your advantage.

It’s crucial for employees to keep pace with societal and technological developments. Since rapid technology advancements impact most industries, professionals armed with diverse skills and abilities offer more flexibility and value to employers than those whose learning has stagnated.

“With the advent of technology and online learning, it’s easier and more inexpensive than ever to foster a culture of learning in the workplace,” Ridner said.

4. Create an internal mentorship program.

According to Ridner, employers should arrange brainstorming groups or mentorship programs to help staffers connect with one another. For example, Study.com organizes 24-hour “Rockethons,” during which the company forms small teams to discuss ideas, create prototypes, Excellerate tools and more. [Read related article: How to Find a Mentor]

5. Start an ongoing lunch-and-learn program.

Get an expert speaker or knowledgeable team member to teach your employees in an informal lunch setting. The expert can present to the team, and then employees can engage in a creative discussion with the expert, gaining front-row knowledge on a specific topic. This is a great monthly event that can help educate employees without taking up too much of their time. Many companies pay for lunch for the employees to eat while listening to the speakers, which gives staff an incentive to come and an even more positive association with the sessions.

7. Encourage active participation.

While some staffers welcome professional development opportunities, others might be reluctant. As an employer, you should encourage educational pursuits in and out of the workplace. You could also organize initiatives to stimulate new ideas.

Key takeaway: Consult your employees on which professional development programs sound most helpful to them. Some ideas are lunch-and-learns, industry expert speakers, online courses, and/or internal mentorships.

Sammi Caramela and Skye Schooley contributed to the reporting and writing in this article. Some source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.

Thimble Insurance offers affordable and flexible professional liability insurance, which is ideal for small businesses that have changing coverage needs.

Thimble Insurance is the best choice for small business professional liability insurance. The coverage is affordable, you can choose how often you want to pay, and the application process is quick and easy. As your company scales, you can easily adjust your coverage through the online customer portal.

Professional liability insurance from Thimble is available for individuals in many different professions, including pet sitters, freelancers, event managers, beauty professionals, fitness professionals, and more. 

One of the best features of Thimble is the flexibility it provides in policy terms and payment options. You can buy annual coverage, or purchase insurance for individual projects that only last a few days or weeks, so you’re not paying for coverage you don’t need.

Thimble’s professional liability insurance policies start at just $36 a month, and instead of paying your premium in one lump sum, you can opt to pay monthly instead.

Thimble sells several other types of business insurance, including general liability insurance, equipment insurance, business owner’s policies, workers’ compensation insurance, and even hard-to-find policies, like drone insurance and event insurance.

According to one of the company's pages, the professional liability policies are available in all states. However, you should check with a representative because another page notes that the professional liability policies are not available in Washington or New York.

Three weeks ago, panic swept across some corners of the security world after researchers discovered a breakthrough that, at long last, put the cracking of the widely used RSA encryption scheme within reach by using quantum computing.

Scientists and cryptographers have known for two decades that a factorization method known as Shor’s algorithm makes it theoretically possible for a quantum computer with sufficient resources to break RSA. That’s because the secret prime numbers that underpin the security of an RSA key are easy to calculate using Shor’s algorithm. Computing the same primes using classical computing takes billions of years.

The only thing holding back this doomsday scenario is the massive amount of computing resources required for Shor’s algorithm to break RSA keys of sufficient size. The current estimate is that breaking a 1,024-bit or 2,048-bit RSA key requires a quantum computer with vast resources. Specifically, those resources are about 20 million qubits and about eight hours of them running in superposition. (A qubit is a basic unit of quantum computing, analogous to the binary bit in classical computing. But whereas a classic binary bit can represent only a single binary value such as a 0 or 1, a qubit is represented by a superposition of multiple possible states.)

The paper, published three weeks ago by a team of researchers in China, reported finding a factorization method that could break a 2,048-bit RSA key using a quantum system with just 372 qubits when it operated using thousands of operation steps. The finding, if true, would have meant that the fall of RSA encryption to quantum computing could come much sooner than most people believed.

RSA’s demise is greatly exaggerated

At the Enigma 2023 Conference in Santa Clara, California, on Tuesday, computer scientist and security and privacy expert Simson Garfinkel assured researchers that the demise of RSA was greatly exaggerated. For the time being, he said, quantum computing has few, if any, practical applications.

“In the near term, quantum computers are good for one thing, and that is getting papers published in prestigious journals,” Garfinkel, co-author with Chris Hoofnagle of the 2021 book Law and Policy for the Quantum Age, told the audience. “The second thing they are reasonably good at, but we don’t know for how much longer, is they’re reasonably good at getting funding.”

Even when quantum computing becomes advanced enough to provide useful applications, the applications are likely for simulating physics and chemistry, and performing computer optimizations that don’t work well with classical computing. Garfinkel said that the dearth of useful applications in the foreseeable future might bring on a “quantum winter,” similar to the multiple rounds of artificial intelligence winters before AI finally took off.

The problem with the paper published earlier this month was its reliance on Schnorr's algorithm (not to be confused with Shor’s algorithm), which was developed in 1994. Schnorr’s algorithm is a classical computation based on lattices, which are mathematical structures that have many applications in constructive cryptography and cryptanalysis. The authors who devised Schnorr’s algorithm said it could enhance the use of the heuristic quantum optimization method called QAOA.

Within short order, a host of researchers pointed out fatal flaws in Schnorr’s algorithm that have all but debunked it. Specifically, critics said there was no evidence supporting the authors’ claims of Schnorr’s algorithm achieving polynomial time, as opposed to the exponential time achieved with classical algorithms.

The research paper from three weeks ago seemed to take Schnorr's algorithm at face value. Even when it’s supposedly enhanced using QAOA—something there’s currently no support for—it’s questionable whether it provides any performance boost.

“All told, this is one of the most actively misleading quantum computing papers I’ve seen in 25 years, and I’ve seen … many,” Scott Aaronson, a computer scientist at the University of Texas at Austin and director of its Quantum Information Center, wrote. “Having said that, this actually isn’t the first time I’ve encountered the strange idea that the exponential quantum speedup for factoring integers, which we know about from Shor’s algorithm, should somehow ‘rub off’ onto quantum optimization heuristics that embody none of the genuine insights of Shor’s algorithm, as if by sympathetic magic.”

Jan 18 (Reuters) - RSA Security LLC, the former cyber security division of Dell Technologies Inc (DELL.N), is exploring a sale of its risk and compliance software unit Archer for more than $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

RSA is working with investment banks Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) on an auction for Archer, which has attracted interest from other companies and buyout firms, the sources said.

Archer generated $220 million in revenue last year and is growing profitably, added the sources, who requested anonymity because the matter is confidential.

Spokespeople for Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs declined to comment, while RSA did not respond to a request for comment.

The potential sale represents the latest in a string of deals involving RSA. Private equity firm Symphony Technology Group (STG), Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, and Carlyle Group Inc's (CG.O) investment arm AlpInvest Partners acquired the company from Dell for $2.075 billion in 2020.

Clearlake Capital, another private equity firm, invested in RSA the following year.

In 2021, RSA cut a deal with Reed Taussig, the head of its fraud prevention software business Outseer, to spin it off as an independent company. Last year, RSA sold a majority stake in its events business, RSA Conference, to private equity firm Crosspoint Capital Partners for an undisclosed amount.

Archer, headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts, is a governance, risk and compliance software platform with over 15,000 users globally. RSA's other business divisions include identity and access management platform SecureID and threat detection and response software platform NetWitness.

Archer is not the only risk management software vendor up for sale in the United States. Reuters reported last month that private equity firm BC Partners is exploring the sale of a stake in Navex Global Inc that could value the company at more than $3 billion.

Reporting by Milana Vinn in New York Editing by Matthew Lewis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Modern encryption algorithms like RSA 2048 will remain safe from decryption by quantum computers for the foreseeable future, according to scientists from Fujitsu.

The researchers used the company’s Fugaku supercomputer and its 39 bit quantum simulator to simulate a quantum-based attack on RSA using Shor’s algorithm.

They found that to factor a composite number of 2048 bits would require around 10,000 qubits, 2.23 trillion quantum gates, and “a quantum circuit depth of 1.8 trillion”, Fujitsu said in a statement.

The researchers also found a sufficiently-large fault-tolerant quantum computer would need 104 days to crack RSA.

While warning against complacency, senior director of data and security research at Fujitsu Dr Tetsuya Izu said: “Our research demonstrates that quantum computing doesn’t pose an immediate threat to existing cryptographic methods”.

US academic Peter Shor proposed his algorithm for using quantum computers to attack cryptography in 1994.

Fujitsu was able to factor RSA-type integers from 15 to 511.

The researchers then generated quantum circuits to factor composite numbers from 10 bits to 25 bits, and used the results to estimate what would be needed to factor a 2048 bit composite number.

The research is to be presented at this week’s 2023 Symposium on Cryptography and Information Security (SCIS 2023) in Kitakyushu City in southern Japan.