NOTE: This syllabus may undergo minor changes up to the first day of the semester. The syllabus as it stands on the first day of the semester will be the final arbiter of all questions about the course, its assignments, its due dates, and its grading methodology. Small changes to the syllabus as it now stands might be made before the first of the semester. If you download this syllabus a substantial time before the beginning of the semester, I encourage you to check back to see if there have been any changes, such as deadline changes or grading changes, the first few days of class.
| Scholastic Dishonesty | |
| Extra Credit | Safty Statement |
| Attendance Policy | ACC Email |
| Incompletes | Withdrawals |
|
Office: MTW |
Rio Grande Campus(RGC)/1209 Rio Grande St 78701/Attache Bldg. |
Rm. 212 |
RGC Phone: 512-223-3390 |
The purpose of this course is to familiarize the student with the generally accepted principles of microeconomics. Microeconomics is concerned with how societies allocate scarce resources. Microeconomics deals with the interactions between and among households and business firms; it focuses on the behavior of people and deals with the process by which we make our living under conditions of free market capitalism.
The course is divided into several major areas as follows:
- The economic problem--scarcity
- Opportunity cost
- Comparative advantage and trade
- Capitalism and socialism
- Efficient allocation of scarce resources
- Demand and utility analysis
- Supply and cost analysis
- Factor markets
- Income distribution
- Market failure
- Market structure
- Government intervention failures
Course Description, Rationale, and Common Course Objectives/Student Outcomes as established by the economics department:
1. Course Description- Principles of Microeconomics deals with the interactions between individual households and business firms. The concepts of supply and demand will be studied; students will learn what these concepts mean, how they operate, and how prices are determined. Market structure, market failure and income distribution will also be considered.
2. Course Rationale- This course is meant to give students insight into the dynamics of a market based economy and how through its mechanism scarce resources are allocated. The theoretical and actual role of the government in this market system will also be addressed. The knowledge gained in the course will make students better informed citizens and allow them to follow the debates over various economic events and policies 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:
4. Discipline Program Student Learning Outcomes:
5. General Education Competencies:
Principles of Microeconomics, 2e, by Taylor, Greenlaw, and Shapiro (OpenStax, 2017)
This book is a free on-line textbook available through Rice University's OpenStax. You can read it on-line for free or download it as a .pdf file for free. You can also order a printed copy from Amazon for $25.99.OpenStax Getting Started Student Guide
Knewton is an interactive, on-line adaptive learning and homework assignment platform which includes exerpts of the textbook.
Students can only register for Knewton through the course's ACC Blackboard site. Instructions on how to register or purchase access to Knewton can be found on Blackboard.
It costs $44 for a three year subscription, or $9.95 a month.
If you choose to pay later, you may register for and use Knewton through February 5 without paying.
The lecture topics/questions upon which the exams will be based will function as broad learning objectives for the course and will be handed out well in advance of the exams.
These questions can be found by clicking here.
Regular attendance is expected. Frequent exposure to an instructor's explanations is an important factor in a student's ability to master the material covered. (Here is a scatter graph of the correlation between attendance and grades: http://www.austincc.edu/sondg/images/graphs/attendance.PNG.) I will reward students who attend frequently by awarding them extra credit points. These extra credit points will equal up to 5% of the course grade. If a student misses more than 5 classes, these extra credit points will turn negative: in other words, points will be deducted from your overall grade. See the section on Extra Credit Points below.
Using cell phones, laptops, or tablets in class is prohibited. Using them is disruptive to the learning process and is disrespectful to your fellow students and your instructor.
Lecture notes must be handwritten. Laptops will not be allowed for taking lecture notes.
Handwritten lecture notes will be collected and checked periodically. A grade will be given for these notes. This grade will constitute 5% of the course grade. For this reason, notes should be taken in a notebook. The notes will be graded on thoroughness and completeness (are any days missing?).
Blackboard (http://acconline.austincc.edu) is an on-line classroom management tool. It includes a grade book, a discussion board, ways to communicate between students and between students and professor, and a testing facility. The on-line, mid-term exams will be adminstered on Blackboard. On-line quizzes over the material covered in the testbook will also be administered on Blackboard.
Instructions on how to log into this course's Blackboard site can be found at http://itdl.austincc.edu/blackboard/stlogin.htm.
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.
Once you have done this, please make sure that your correct email address is listed on Blackboard. If it is not, please follow the instructions on this course's Announcement page of Blackboard.
There will be three essay exams given in class. They will be based on the essay questions/learning objectives that will be handed out well before the exams; these questions are available on the Internet from the very beginning of the semester. There will be anywhere from 14 to 16 questions on these handouts. On examination day I will randomly select anywhere from 3 to 5 questions from the handout, and these questions will constitute the essay exam.
For the essay exams, students will be allowed to use one sheet (8.5 X 11) of paper with handwritten notes on both sides of the sheet. These notes must be turned in with the exam. These notes will be worth up to 10 extra credit points depending on how thorough I judge them to be. I will turn these notes back with the graded exams. You may use the notes for Exam 1 again on Exams 2 and 3 and the notes for Exam 2 on Exam 3.
The essay exams will be administered in class.
A Blue Book must be used for the essay part of the exam. If there is enough room in the Blue Book, it may be used for all midterm essay exams. If you have never used a Blue Book, please click HERE to see what one looks like. Blue Books can be purchased in the ACC Book Store.
Each essay question will be worth 50 points. These exams are cummulative. The first exam will have three essay questions on it over the material covered. The second exam will have four questions on it--one from the material covered in the first part of the course and three from the material covered since Exam 1. The third exam will have five questions on it--one from the first part of the course, one from the second part of the course, and three from the material covered since Exam 2. So the first Essay Exam will be worth 150 points (15% of the course grade), the second Essay Exam will be worth 200 points (20% of the course grade), and the third Essay Exam will be worth 250 points (25% of the course grade).
Grading Rubric for Essay Questions:
50 points--excellent answer with a novel example or observation that illustrates the answer;
49, 48, 47, or 46 points--somewhere between 50 and 45;
45 points--Excellent answer without any illustrating example or observation;
44, 43, 42, or 41 points--somewhere between 45 and 40;
40 points--Very good answer but missing some minor ideas or terms;
39, 38, 37, or 36 points--somewhere between 40 and 35;
35 points--Good answer by missing some major ideas or terms;
34, 33, 32, or 31 points--somewhere between 35 and 30;
30 points--an answer that has the general idea but is missing important concepts and ideas;
29, 28, 27, or 26 points--somewhere between 30 and 25;
25 points--an answer that is entirely incorrect;
24, 23, 22, or 21 points--somewhere between 25 and 20;
20 points--entirely incorret but is trying to cover lack of knowledge with a torrent of words which my be interesting to the professor;
1 through 19--based entirely on the whim of the professor.
Summary of Exams weight in course:
Altogether the cumulative Essay Exams will also be worth 600 points, or 60% of the grade.
SCHECULED DATES for Essay Exams:
Essay Exams Exam 1 Wednesday, October 3 (6th week) Exam 2 Wednesday, November 7 (11th week) Exam 3 Wednesday, December 12 (16th week)
- Knewton assignments:
A major part of your grade will be earned by completing the assignments on Knewton.Knewton is an interactive, on-line Study Guide and Quiz platform which includes its own eText explaining the concepts and theories covered in this course.
THIS PART OF THE COURE WILL BE WORTH 200 POINTS, OR 20% OF THE COURSE GRADE.
Hopefully by the time the semester begins, students will need to just need click on "Knewton" in the left navigation column of the course's ACC Blackboard site. And then click on the title of the course on the page that comes up. A new browser page will open to Knewton's site. Follow the instructions from there. You should not need a Course ID. If you have purchased an access code, please enter it at this point. Or if you want to purchase an access code on this site at this time, you may do so with a credit card. Alternatively, you may select to use the site for 21 days, until September 17, without paying to use it.
To repeat, if you choose to pay later, you may use Knewton through September 17 without paying for it.
There will be two parts to the Knewton assignments. The first part are mastery assignments. These are a series of questions that test your understanding of the topic under consideration. The number of questions on these mastery assignments varies with your ability to master the topic. If you have master the topic from the beginning, then the number of questions will be at a minimum. The more questions you miss the more that will be added to help you master the material. So if your grasp of the topic is shakey, then the time it will take to complete the assignment will grow as Knewton leads you back to more basic material and then forward to mastery. By the very nature of these assignments, students who complete them will earn 100% on them. These assignments will constitute two-thirds of the Knewton grade or 10% of the course grade or 100 points. If you complete thses assignemnts, then the grade is completition grade. If you complete them all, then you will earn 100% on this part of the course. If you complete less than 100% of them, you will earn a grade proportional to the number you completed.
The second part of Knewton assignments are quizzes associated with the mastery assignments. These are traditional quizzes of between 4 and 10 questions over the same material in the mastery assignments. The difference is that you will only have one chance to get the questions correct, and you can earn from 0% to 100% on them. These quizzes are worth one-half of the Knewton grade or 10% of the course grade or 100 points. The grade at the end of the semester on these quizzes will be based on a weighted average or scores you make on them.
- Departmental Discipline Assessment Cycle Assisgnment:
The College and hence the Economics Department mandates that a Discipline Assessment assignment be required every semester. This assessment is actually mandated by Texas Coordinating Board to assess whether the ACC Economics Department is accomplishing the General Education Objectives and PSLOs listed at the beginning of this syllabus. This assignment will become available towards the end of September and will be due some time after we cover the chapters on Externalities. The DAC assessment will be worth 10% of the course grade or 100 points.
- Traditional Homework:
There will be three to five traditional homework assignments composed by the instructor. These assignemnts will cover material gone over in class and are meant to reinforce the topics covered in lectures. I will hand them out in class but also make them available on Blackboard. Students will submit them on Blackboard by a due date. These assignments will be worth 5% of the course grade or 50 points. The points will be calculated on a weighted average of the grades made on the homework.
- Written Lecture Notes:
Please purchase a notebook in which you can take lecture notes. The instructor will randomly call on 7 to 10 students to submit their notebooks at the end of class once every week. These notes will then be graded on a 10 point scale. The lecture notes grade will constitute 5% of the course grade or 50 points. The grade will be calculated as the weighted average of the grades earned each time the notes had to be turned in to the instructor.
The grading rubric that will be used to grade lecture notes follows:
- 4 points: All notes there for each day of class since they were last checked or from the beginning of the semester;
- 2 points: The notes are from lecture, though there will be no penalty if the lecture notes are supplimented with notes from the textbook or the Power Point presentations.
- 2 points: The notes are substantial in that they indicate what was lectured on during class.
- 1 point: The notes are neat and intelligible.
- 1 point: There is evidence of the notes having been edited after class.
There are 1000 points available all together. The three essay exams are also worth 600 points total or 60% of the course. The assignments from Knewton, mastery assginments--100 points & quizzes--100 points, will be worth 200 points altogether or 20% of the course. Finally the written homework will be worth 200 points altogether (or 20% of the course) also: 50 points or 5% for the written problems; 100 points or 10% for the DAC assignment; and 50 points or 5% for your lecture notes.
Final letter grades will be distributed according to the following scale:
| Letter Grade | Points | Percent |
| A | 1000-900 | [100-90%] |
| B | 899-800 | (90-80%] |
| C | 799-650 | (80-65%] |
| D | 649-550 | (65-55%] |
| F | 549-0 | (55-0%] |
EXTRA CREDIT: First there are two assignments in the first week of class will be worth up to 20 points: the information sheet is worth 10 points, and the Syllabus Quiz is worth up to 10 extra credit points. Second, the handwritten notes allowed on each of the three exams can be worth up to 10 extra credit points each if each is submitted with the exam they were prepared for; there is a possible 30 extra credit points from this source. Finally up to 50 extra credit points can be earned by regularly attending class. This all adds up to a generous 100 extra credit points available, or 10% of the course grade.
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 the first two exams with a C or better. The student must also come by my office to fill out an incomplete 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 four weeks before the end of the semester. Please read the following note about withdrawals.
The instructor will withdraw students who have four absences.
Outside that circumstance, students are responsible for withdrawing themselves from this course if that is what their personal situation requires. This means that if you have taken no tests or only a few of the tests and the semester ends without you 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 except for excessive absenses (four or more).
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.
The last day to withdraw from this course without penalty is Monday, November 26.
There are three ways to earn extra credit in this course. It is advisable to take advantage of every one of them. They are:
The assignments connected to the first week of class orientation can be worth up to 20 points: the information sheet is worth 10 points, and the Syllabus Quiz is worth up to 10 points. Both can be completed on Blackboard.
- Up to 10 extra points can be earned from handwritten notes you prepare for each essay exam, 30 points in all. See the explanation above under Testing.
Points in addition to the maximum points possible from exams and homework assignments are available through good attendance. Each student will start with 50 extra credit points for attendance. Each absence will reduce these extra credit points by a number of points as shown in the table below:
absence 0 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th points deducted for absence 0 0 4 5 9 14 23 37 60 total extra credit points remaining 50 50 46 41 32 18 -5 -42 -102 As you can see, if you miss more than five classes, your bonus points will go into the negative and will be subtracted from the points you have earned from exams and homework.
Schedule still under revision.
|
WEEK |
CHAPTER ASSIGNMENTS |
|
1 |
Introduction and Chapter 1 |
|
2 |
Chapter 2 & first section of Chapter 19 |
|
3 |
Chapter 2 & first secton of Chapter 19 continued |
|
4 |
Chapter 3 |
|
5 |
Chapter 3 continued, start Chapter 4 |
|
6 |
Chapter 4 continued on Monday |
|
7 |
Chapter 6 |
|
8 |
Chapter 7 |
|
9 |
Chapter 8 |
|
10 |
Chapter 9 |
|
11 |
Chapter 9 continued on Monday |
|
12 |
Chapter 13 |
|
13 |
Chapter 16 |
|
14 |
Chapter 15 |
|
15 |
Chapter 10 & Chapter 11(very briefly) |
|
16 |
Chapter 11 continued |
| Essay Exams | |
| Exam 1 | Wednesday, October 3 (6th week) |
| Exam 2 | Wednesday, November 7 (11th week) |
| Exam 3 | Wednesday, December 12 (16th week) |
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.
Student and Instructional Services & Student Accessibility Office:
1) ACC strives to provide exemplary support to its students
and offers a broad variety of opportunities and services. Information on these
services and support systems is available at: http://www.austincc.edu/support-and-services.
2)
Links to many student services and other information can be found at: http://www.austincc.edu/current-students/.
3) ACC Learning Labs provide free tutoring services to all ACC students currently
enrolled in a course to be tutored. But tutoring in economics is not widely
available. The tutor schedule for each Learning Lab may be found at: http://www.austincc.edu/support-and-services/tutoring-and-academic-help/tutoring-services-and-schedules.
4) For help setting up your ACCeID, ACC Gmail, or ACC Blackboard,
see a Learning Lab Technician at any ACC Learning Lab.
5) Each ACC campus offers support services for students with documented disabilities.
Students with disabilities who need classroom, academic or other accommodations
must request them through the office of Student Accessibility Services (SAS).
Students are encouraged to request accommodations when they register for courses
or at least three weeks before the start of the semester, otherwise the provision
of accommodations may be delayed. Students who have received approval for
accommodations from SAS for this course must provide the instructor with the
‘Notice of Approved Accommodations’ from SAS before accommodations will be
provided. Arrangements for academic accommodations can only be made after
the instructor receives the ‘Notice of Approved Accommodations’ from the student.
Students with approved accommodations are encouraged to submit the ‘Notice
of Approved Accommodations’ to the instructor at the beginning of the semester
because a reasonable amount of time may be needed to prepare and arrange for
the accommodations. Additional information about Student Accessibility Services
is available at http://www.austincc.edu/sas.
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.
Safty 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 dismissed from
the day’s activity, may be withdrawn from the class, and/or barred from attending
future activities.
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
day’s activity, may be withdrawn from the class, and/or barred from attending
future activities.
ACC Email: All College e-mail communication to students will be sent solely to the student’s ACCmail account, with the expectation that such communications will be read in a timely fashion. ACC will send important information and will notify you of any college related emergencies using this account. Students should only expect to receive email communication from their instructor using this account. Likewise, students should use their ACCmail account when communicating with instructors and staff. Instructions for activating an ACCmail account can be found at http://www.austincc.edu/accmail/index.php.
ACC Concealed Handgun Policy: Refer to the concealed handgun policy online http://www.austincc.edu/campus-carry.
![http://www.austincc.edu/sondg/images/graphs/attendance.PNG](="http://www.austincc.edu/sondg/images/graphs/attendance.PNG"){kind=link}
