|
Instructor: |
KRISTYN BROWN |
|
1205 Round
Rock Campus |
Or Adjunct
offices, Rio Grande Campus courtyard |
Messages:
Voice mail: 223-1790 box
22645#
E-mail: kbrown@austincc.edu
Blackboard:
Blackboard is an on-line classroom management tool.
It includes a gradebook, an announcements page, and a facility for administering
on-line tests and quizzes.
Course Announcements will be
posted to Blackboard; midterm exams will be administered through Blackboard;
and your course grades can be accessed through Blackboard. In addition,
Blackboard has its own email system. Be sure you have entered your correct
email address into your Personal Information on Blackboard, or I will not be
able to respond to emails you send me.
Blackboard's URL is http://acconline.austincc.edu. This
is the URL for ACC's Blackboard site. Do not go to blackboard.com, the
company's own site.
DON’T HAVE A USERNAME AND PASSWORD
YET?
If you have not created your new ACC Username or Password through ACCeID
Manager, then please go to this link: https://acceid.austincc.edu/idm/user/login.jsp.
Do not fill in your Username and Password on this page, since you do not
have either yet. DO CLICK on “First-Time Login.”
Your ACCeID will be the first letter of your legal, given, first name and
your seven digit ACC ID number. For example, fictional student Adam Smith might
have this Username a0067701.
Once you submit this Username,
just follow the instructions.
Please make sure that your
correct email address is listed on Blackboard.
Helpful Hint: Once you are logged into ACC's Blackboard site, the easiest
way to navigate the this course's Blackboard content is by first clicking on
the "Courses" tab in the upper left hand corner of the first
Blackboard page that comes up. Then click on the name of the course. You are
then taken to the course's main Blackboard page. It is much easier to find the "User
Tools" button and the "Assignments" button, where the links to
the on-line exams can be found, than if you try to navigate from the very first
page that comes up when you log onto Blackboard
The purpose of this course is to
familiarize the student with the generally accepted principles of
macroeconomics. Though ultimately based on the actions of individual households
and business firms, macroeconomics deals with aggregates--i.e., consumers as a
whole, producers as a whole, exporters and importers as a whole, the effects of
government spending and taxation, and the monetary policy of the central bank.
Macroeconomics is concerned with such things as unemployment, inflation, and
the business cycle.
Departmental Course Description,
Rationale, Common Course Objectives/Student Outcomes, and Departmental
Quiz
1. Course
Description- Principles of Macroeconomics deals with consumers as a whole, producers
as a whole, the effects of government spending and taxation policies and the
effects of the monetary policy carried out by the Federal Reserve Bank.
Macroeconomics is concerned with unemployment, inflation, and the business
cycle.
2. Course
Rationale- This course is meant to give students insight into the dynamics of
our national economy. The knowledge gained in the course will make students
better informed citizens and allow them to follow the debates over national
economic policy reported in the news media. This course is also a foundation
course that will prepare students to be successful in upper division finance,
marketing, business administration, economics, government, and social work
courses.
3. Common
Course Objectives/Student Outcomes.
Students who complete this course will be able to
understand:
o the meaning of unemployment and
inflation data and how that data is collected and computed;
o the meaning and components of
the National Income Accounts, especially GDP;
o the meaning of the business cycle
and its phases;
o and to manipulate the basic
Aggregate Supply, Aggregate Demand model of the macro economy;
o how fiscal policy operates, its
tools, and its advantages and drawbacks;
o how a fractional reserve banking
system works;
o how monetary policy operates,
its tools, and its advantages and drawbacks.
|
Required: |
Economics Today: The Macro View plus MyEconLab
plus eBook 1-semester Student Access Kit, 17/E (Pearson/Prentice Hall,
2013) |
This
is a traditional introduction to macroeconomics college textbook. If you buy
this text new, an access kit granting students access to the on-line homework
site, PearsonMyLab, and the associated eBook has been added.
Some version of the textbook,
new, used, or eBook, is required. So is access to the course's PearsonMyLab
site.
You can buy the eBook and
PearsonMyLab together as a package without the hardcopy of the textbook if you
so desire. Instructions on how to do so can be found below.
You can buy used copies of this
text also, even the 16th or 15th edition. However, you
need to be careful here, because in all probability you will not receive an
access kit that has not been used. So, if you do buy used, you will most likely
still need to buy access to PearsonMyLab. Instructions on how to do this can
also be found below.
WHERE
TO PURCHASE:
Whichever
option you choose, you will need to regsiter at http://www.pearsonmylab.com/Be ready
with following:
PearsonMyLab--Student
Features:
Students benefit when they
arrive for class confident and prepared. PearsonMyLab is the only online
assessment system that gives students the tools they need to learn from their
mistakes right at the moment they are struggling.
I.
Personalized
Study Plan
A Study
Plan is generated from each student's results on Sample Tests and instructor
assignments. Students can clearly see which topics they have mastered-and, more
importantly, which they need to work on. The Study Plan links to additional
practice problems and tutorial exercises to help on those topics.
II.
Unlimited
Practice
Many
Study Plan and instructor-assigned exercises contain algorithmically generated
values, ensuring students get as much practice as they need. Every problem
links students to learning resources that further reinforce concepts they need
to master.
III.
Learning
Resources
In the
lower-left corner of each practice problem is a link to the eText page discussing
the very concept being applied. Students also have access to guided solutions,
animated graphs, audio narratives, flashcards, and live tutoring. PearsonMyLab
has a suite of graphing tools for practice and current news articles that tie
chapter topics to everyday issues.
IV.
Test
and Other Assignments
PearsonMyLab
comes with two pre-loaded Sample Tests for each chapter so students can
self-assess their understanding of the material. Instructors can assign these
Sample Tests or create assignments using a mix of publisher-supplied content
and their own custom exercises.
As a student you should:
The examinations in this course
are based on learning objectives composed by the instructor that you can find
on Blackboard under Course Documents. Read these objectives carefully before
you read the corresponding chapter in the textbook and do the activities on the
textbook's ebook web site. The learning objectives are
correlated exactly with the questions on the exams and are more detailed than
the ones that can be found under "objectives" in the textbook's web
site.
In general, after studying each
chapter, you should be able to:
The learning objectives are there to help you focus your mind on the
important concepts and theories discussed in the unit. The exams will test your
knowledge of and ability to apply these learning objectives. Knowing this will
help you efficiently allocate your mental energies.
Reading
Reading the textbook thoroughly
is the key to doing well in this Distance Learning course. Distance Learning
courses have no lectures to help you understand the material being covered. You
must rely almost completely on the textbook to help you understand the
material. This is why reading, and re-reading
the text is so essential.
I recommend that you take these
steps in reading each chapter.
Step One: Skim the chapter. Spend three to five
seconds looking over each page of the chapter.
Step Two: Quickly read over the chapter again
reading only the title of the chapter, the learning objectives, all the
headings and sub-headings in the chapter, all the words in bold print, and all
the words in the left column of each page in the chapter.
Step Three: Read the introduction of the chapter,
the first paragraph of each section or subsection in the chapter and the first
sentence of all of the other paragraphs in the section or subsection. Finally
read the summary of the chapter.
Step Four: Without referring back to the chapter
make a list of all the important concepts, terms, ideas, theories, and laws
that you can remember.
Step Five: Read the introduction, the
learning objectives, and the summary of the chapter in the
"end-of-chapter" section of the textbook.
Step Six: Revise and improve your list and then
use it to make the outline/map of the chapter.
Step Seven: Read the chapter in the text completely
and thoroughly.
Step Eight: Revise and improve your outline/map once
again. This time add the key terms to the appropriate places in your
outline/map if they had been included before this time.
Step Nine: Complete a Study Plan for the chapter in
PearsonMyLab.
Step Ten: Revise your outline/map one more time.
Step Eleven: Review your outline/map every four or
five days until the exam and then use it to prepare for the exam.
If you read your textbook in
this structured and disciplined way, you will learn much more than if you
approach your reading task in an unorganized manner, and you will do much
better on the exams than you would otherwise do.
Free Tutoring:
There is a
"free" tutoring on-line site available to students for this course.
It is provided through a third party and is called "Smarthinking." It
is available to all distance learning students at the college and, truth be
told, to all students at the college.
ACC has
contracted with Smarthinking.com to provide students at ACC, in particular Open
Campus students, with free on-line turtoring. Five hours of free tutoring are
available to each student. Additional hours must be paid for by the student
receiving the tutoring.
To register, log
into ACC's Blackboard site. Once you are logged in, click on the "My
ACC" tab in the upper left corner of the page. In the left most column,
you will see a link to Smarthinking. Click it to register and get started.
Top of Syllabus
Exams are based on the Learning Objectives students are expected to master.
Furthermore the exam questions will be drawn exclusively from the textbook, Economics Today: The Macro View.
The exams over each Unit assigned will
include ten questions over
each chapter assigned for each Unit -- forty questions in all. The questions
will appear on the exams in the order in which the chapters were assigned for
the Unit. For example, on the first exam the first ten questions will cover
Chapter 1, the next ten will cover Chapter 2, the third ten will cover Chapter
3, and the last ten will cover Chapter 4.
The midterm/unit exams will be administered over the internet through the
course's Blackboard site.
There will be ten learning objectives listed for each chapter. Each learning
objective will have 10 or more questions connected to it by the testing program
used in this course. That program will randomly choose one question from each
group of ten for the exam. For example, if an exam is 40 questions long like
the exams for this course, then there will be 10 ways to select the first
question, ten ways to select the second question, and so on to the fortieth
question. The number of different exams this program can generate for one
midterm/unit exam is 1040. One billion is 1 followed by 9 zeros. 1040
is 1 followed by 40 zeros.
The online midterm/unit exams will also be timed. You will have 60 minutes
to answer 40 questions.
Once again, the midterm exams will be given on the Blackboard internet
course platform used by ACC, so students will need to sign on to Blackboard in
order to take the exams.
Please note: Students will not be able to access Exam 2 until Exam 1 is
passed with a grade of 70% or better. Students will not be able to access Exam
3 until Exam 2 is passed with a grade of 65% or better.
The instructor reserves to right to drop from the class any student who has
not passed Exam 1 by the last day of the semester to drop classes. The reason
for this policy is that students who either have that much difficulty with the
material or who fall that far behind rarely finish the class well. IÕd rather
give you a ÔWÕ than an ÔF.Õ
If you are having trouble passing an exam, please contact the instructor for
help. ThatÕs what IÕm here for.
Students will have the opportunity to re-test each exam twice. Students do
not have to re-test at all. If a student is satisfied with his score after the
initial attempt, he can stop there. If a second or third try is made, the last
attempt will completely overwrite (erase) previous efforts.
So
be careful, you can do worse on these re-tests. If you re-test, you will
receive the grade you made on your last attempt.
The results of the last re-test will be used in
determining your grade. This means there is some risk in re-taking an exam,
since you could do worse. This risk is intentional. I put it there hoping that it would give you some incentive
to re-study the material if you decide to re-take an exam. Of course, you could do much better on the
re-test. If you do I will use that
result to calculate your end of the semester grade.
All exams will be available on
Blackboard until the last week of the semester. Be sure to make note of the
exact dates listed on Blackboard.
Contact
the instructor if you
are unable to take any of the exams by the listed date.
Contact
the instructor if you
have fallen behind schedule so that you can put together a plan to catch up.
The
Final Exam must be taken in a Testing Center.
You MUST show your student ID and a
photo ID in order to take an exam at a Testing Center.
The Final Exam can be taken at
any ACC Testing Centers. You
will have the results immediately.
The final exam will be comprehensive. Two or three questions will be drawn
from each chapter covered during the semester. The questions will be arranged
in the order the chapters were assigned. Questions over Chapter 1 will be the
first ones encountered, then questions over Chapter 2. You will find no questions over the chapters skipped in
this course.
Students will be allowed to bring with them a 8.5x11 inch piece of paper
with notes written on both sides. This crib sheet must be hand written --
not typed, and it must not be a
photocopy. This crib sheet must also be
turned in with your answer sheet. You
must use a crib sheet even if it has nothing on it except a note saying you
didn't prepare a crib sheet with your signature.
Please make a photocopy of your crib sheet if you want to save it. The original will be taken up with the final
exam in the Testing Center and will not be returned to you.
More information about the final
can be found on this course's Blackboard site.
There is no retesting on the final
exam.
PearsonMyLab.com is the online study
guide which accompanies our Miller text. 25% of your grade, 1000 points, will
come from PearsonMyLab Homework and Quizzes. PearsonMyLab is required, not optional.
PearsonMyLab has four types of
assignments:
Each
question will have a panel of helps to the left of the window. These
"helps" include
Once the
deadline for the homework has passed, you may still work on it, but there will
be a late penalty of 1% per day for all work completed after the due date.
Once the
deadline for quizzes has passed, you will not be able to take the quiz for
credit.
IV.
Extra Credit Tests: There are three chapters in the text not
covered on the exams. 100 point tests over these chapters are available on
PearsonMyLab for extra credit. Please
note: You must
score at
least 70% on the test to receive credit for it, so please study the chapter before
taking the test.
The Results page will give you
your scores on each assignment, as well as your overall average.
Please note: The system sometimes
locks up and kicks the student out of a quiz. If this should happen to you, I
can easily allow you access to the quiz to try again. However, the original
deadlines will still hold. This means that if you are doing the quiz the
evening it is due and you are unable to complete it, I will not be able to help
you regain access to the quiz.
Grading is based on the total number of possible points available on the
exams and the required PearsonMyLab
Homework & Quizzes. There are four required Unit exams and a
required final exam. Each midterm exam will consist of 40 questions. Each
question on the Unit exams (midterms) is worth 10 points. The final exam will
consist of 50 questions. Each question on the final exam is worth 28 points.
|
|
Exam 1 |
= |
40 X 10 |
= |
400 |
|
|
Exam 2 |
= |
40 X 10 |
= |
400 |
|
|
Exam 3 |
= |
40 X 10 |
= |
400 |
|
|
Exam 4 Getting Started with MyEconLab |
= = |
40 X 10 |
= = |
400 40 |
|
|
PearsonMyLab Homework |
= |
16 x 20 |
= |
320 |
|
|
PearsonMyLab Quizzes |
= |
16 x 40 |
= |
640 |
|
|
Final Exam |
= |
50 X 28 |
= |
1400 |
|
|
Total
Possible Points |
|
|
|
4000 |
Number of Points needed for Final Letter
Grade
|
|
4000-3600 |
(100-90%) |
A |
|
|
3599-3200 |
(89.9-80%) |
B |
|
|
3199-2600 |
(79.9-65%) |
C |
|
|
2599-2200 |
(64.9-55%) |
D |
|
|
2199-0 |
(54.9-0%) |
F |
There are two ways to for
students to improve their grades by earning extra credit points.
Extra
Credit Type 1: Take the tests on time:
You can earn extra credit points
by taking your exams on or before the initial testing deadlines. You will find
these deadlines, as well as details on which chapters each test covers, on
Blackboard.
You will earn 20 points for each
Unit exam taken on or before its deadline. You will not lose these extra credit
points if you take the re-test for that unit.
If you take the Final on or
before its deadline, you will earn 70 extra credit points.
The total number of extra credit
points you can earn by taking the exams on time is 150. This is equivalent to
3.75% of the total points available (4000) from the tests, the final, and
required PearsonMyLab Homework & Quizzes.
Extra
Credit Type 2: Taking PearsonMyLab Tests on the unassigned chapters of the
textbook.:
Several chapters
in the test are not assigned and will not be covered on any mid-term exam on
Blackboard or on the Final Exam. However small tests over most of these chapters
will be made available on PearsonMyLab. Each of these tests will be worth 100
points.
If students are
looking for another way to improve their grade, then they are encouraged to
read these chapters and take these tests. Students must make 70% or better to
earn any points on these tests. This policy is meant to discourage students
from taking these tests without reading the chapters.
Extra
Credit Type 3: Taking the Mandatory Orientation Quiz on Blackboard: This short quiz is just an incentive to
read this syllabus carefully. ItÕs worth 20 points.
Incompletes are discouraged.
They will be given only when extraordinary events intervene so as to make
completion of the course impossible. If you want an incomplete, these events
must be documented. To receive an incomplete the student must have completed
two exams with a grade of C or better. The student must also come by my office
to fill out an incomplete grade form. If the form is not filled out, an
incomplete grade will not be given.
Incompletes will not be given to
students who are behind schedule when the semester nears its end. Nor will
incompletes be given to students who need just a few more points to make the
next higher letter grade. Plenty of opportunity exists during the semester to
accomplish your goals.
If you find yourself way behind or many points short toward the end of the
semester, you may withdraw without a grade penalty up to three weeks before the
end of the semester. Please read the following note about withdrawals.
Students are responsible for
withdrawing themselves from this course if that is what their personal situation
requires. This means that if you have taken only two of the tests and the
semester ends without your having withdrawn yourself, then you will receive an
F in the course. The instructor makes no
promise either implicit or explicit to withdraw students from the course.
In addition, students
should be aware of a change in the law regarding Withdrawals passed by the
Texas Legislature in the spring of 2007. Starting in the Fall of 2007, entering
freshman will be restricted to six non-punitive withdrawals for the whole of
their undergraduate careers while attending state colleges.
Please be sure to check on the ACC academic calendar or the assignments page
of our Blackboard for the last day to withdraw from the course.
Scholastic dishonesty: Acts prohibited by the college for
which discipline may be administered include scholastic dishonesty, including
but not limited to cheating on an exam or quiz, plagiarizing, and unauthorized
collaboration with another in preparing outside work. Academic work submitted
by students shall be the result of their thought, research or self-expression.
Academic work is defined as, but not limited to tests, quizzes, whether taken
electronically or on paper; projects, either individual or group; classroom
presentations, and homework.
Students with disabilities:
Each ACC campus offers support services for students with documented physical
or psychological disabilities. Students with disabilities must request
reasonable accommodations through the Office for Students with Disabilities on
the campus where they expect to take the majority of their classes. Students
are encouraged to do this three weeks before the start of the semester.
Academic
Freedom: Each student is
strongly encouraged to participate in class discussions. In any classroom
situation that includes discussion and critical thinking, particularly about
economic and political ideas, there are bound to be many differing viewpoints.
Students may not only disagree with each other at times, but the students and
instructor may also find that they have opposing views on sensitive and
volatile topics. It is my hope that these differences will enhance class
discussion and create an atmosphere where students and instructor alike will be
encouraged to think and learn. Therefore, be assured that your grades will not
be adversely affected by any beliefs or ideas expressed in class or in
assignments. Rather, we will all respect the views of others when expressed in
classroom discussions.
Safety
Statement: Austin
Community College is committed to providing a safe and healthy environment for
study and work. You are expected to learn and comply with ACC environmental,
health and safety procedures and agree to follow ACC safety policies.
Additional information on these can be found at http://www.austincc.edu/ehs.
Because
some health and safety circumstances are beyond our control, we ask that you
become familiar with the Emergency Procedures poster and Campus Safety Plan map
in each classroom. Additional information about emergency procedures and how to
sign up for ACC Emergency Alerts to be notified in the event of a serious emergency
can be found at http://www.austincc.edu/emergency/.
Please
note, you are expected to conduct yourself professionally with respect and
courtesy to all. Anyone who thoughtlessly or intentionally jeopardizes the
health or safety of another individual will be immediately dismissed from the
dayÕs activity, may be withdrawn from the class, and/or barred from attending
future activities.