"our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become"

Syllabus
Summer 2004

Introduction

You have now made it to the syllabus of Art's online version ECN201, an Introduction to Microeconomic Principles.  It is important to understand right up front what this course is all about - what my responsibilities will be and what will be your responsibilities.  Most of you do not have the option to opt out of ECN201, but most of you have the option of opting out of this section, so make sure this is a good match.  Make sure you want to take it on line with me.  I emphasize this because this is an economics course in which you will be hearing a lot about choices, and this is one of those choices.  Because of scarcity - you just do not have enough time to do it all - you are "forced" to make choices on how you will allocate your time, how you balance your professional and personal lives and the how you balance consumption for today against investment for tomorrow.  Do I go to the movie or work on the research paper?  Do I spend Saturday on the new project at work or go to the kid's concert or ball game?  Do I buy a new "hot car" or do I put the money into a mutual fund to pay for the down payment on a house? Despite the PR executives continuously telling us, "You can have it all," in most cases we cannot have it all and we need to make choices.  It should not take long to figure out that there will be no shortage of "experts" telling you how to make those choices.  So be careful who you allow to influence your choices, and make sure you assemble the information needed to make informed choices.  Some of the questions we will look into during the semester are: Why did you choose your major? Why did you choose URI? What is the cost of a year of your education?  Were they good investments?  

The focus in this course will be on the behavior of individual decision makers - what makes people and businesses "tick?"  And once we have a handle on that, we'll examine how the interactions of these decision makers - you and IBM, for example, influences the prices you pay for things you buy and receive for things you sell.  Some of the questions we'll look into are: What will happen to the price of computers if we loose some computer companies? What will happen to the starting salaries of college grads by the time you graduate? How much will that first house cost you when you are ready to buy? What will happen to the price of 'pot' if it is legalized? How can we explain the downsizing of American companies and the "offshoring" of American jobs?  How can we best deal with pollution problems such as acid rain and global warming? What is the future of public education, and should we have a casino in the state? 

Before you move on to the content of the course, you should stop to review the course's goals to see if they are consistent with your goals. You should also check out the method of evaluation and text and a brief overview of the structure of the web. While you may not have a choice about taking this economics course, you do have a choice about what "version" of the course you take so you should be sure to read on so that you can make an informed choice. You should also note that there will be a concept that reappears continuously throughout the semester - sustainability.  It is not inherently an economics concept, but it is a critically important concept and one that has an important economic dimension.

Goals

The goals for the course are specified in terms of what should you should be able to do when the course is over rather than on what I will do in the course.  When you leave this course you should see the world a bit differently.  It is not uncommon for students to say they "learned a lot about the world in this course," which is the way I want it to be.  My job is to help you bridge the gap between "theory" and "reality," and along the way you will learn more about that "real" world into which you will be graduating.  It turns out there are a few basic economic principles that will prove valuable to you as you try to make sense of that real world, regardless of your major or career choice, and this course was designed around the core principles.  Although there are limits to what can and will happen in one course, what I can tell you is that this course was designed in such a way that your success will mean that by the time you have successfully completed this course you will have demonstrated an ability to: 

 

	effectively utilize the internet for finding information
	understand more of the business news including the financial pages
	think critically in order to solve problems
	explain the concept of sustainability and its relationship to economic principles
	identify the 'economic logic' or 'economic principles' useful in interpreting current or historical events
	demonstrate an ability to effectively use and interpret tables, graphs, and equations
	identify the economic theory that is the foundation for discussions of public policy proposals and / or decisions
	explain to your parents and/or friends the function of an economic system
	describe the characteristics of the three "primary" economic systems and the evolution of the market system
	describe the broad outlines of the major ideological views on economic systems
	demonstrate an understanding of the basic economic concept of opportunity cost
	use possibility curves to describe choice situations
	demonstrate an understanding of the supply and demand model of prices by using models to explain past changes in prices and formulate 'forecasts' for prices
	explain what behavior we can expect from "rational" individuals and profit seeking firms
	identify the strengths and basic shortcomings of the market system and some policy options for dealing with the short-coming
	better contribute to discussions/argue a position on public policy and election issues such as raising the minimum wages, legalization of drugs, environmental protection and global warming, reigning in the power of large companies such as Microsoft, and immigration restriction
	identify and research an important company in an industry that you might find employment in when you graduate.  This could include following the company's stock market performance.

If you are to achieve these goals in five weeks - yes I said 5 weeks - then it is important to invest a little time now to understand the basic structure of the course including the web material and the grading.

Structure of the Web

The course you have signed up for contains the material of a traditional in-class microeconomics course delivered in an on-line format.  For many of us this course will be very different from what we are used to because all of the material is on-line which will require a little adjustment in how we work during the semester.  After some minor adjustments, you should have little trouble reading the course material online.  What is missing in the online version are the in-class discussions that have always been an important part of my courses, and an effort has been made to find an online substitute.  Participation has always mattered in my courses and it will continue to matter in the online version.  In the remainder of the syllabus the structure of the course will be described, so take some time to read it.  What you will find is that there is considerable flexibility in online courses in terms of when you do your work, but there are deadlines that are ABSOLUTE and you owe it to yourself to make sure you are aware of the deadlines.  I have talked with too may instructors who comment on the "missing" students in on-line courses, the student who disappears or who consistently misses assignments.  If you look at the grading scheme in the course you will note that there is little margin of error for the slow starter who misses a number of the early assignments or the prodigal student who disappears for a while during the course.  Remember you have 5 weeks for a 13 week course so a missed week is the equivalent of almost three weeks - and you don't come back from missing that.  What you do not see is any opportunity for extra credit to compensate for missed deadlines.  So take the time to master the structure of the course before you commit yourself to it.  

This course will also require you to use Web CT, an interface between you and the material.  One thing you should not forget in Web CT is your password.  Once you are into Web CT you will find the Web CT home page that has four buttons that link to material for the course.  Each of these links is explained briefly below

 The Schedule page should be monitored regularly because this is where you will find the weekly schedule of readings, assignments, quizzes, exams, and discussions.  You should also note that the deadlines are all on Monday to allow for you to catch up on the weekend.  For example, below you will find the entry from the schedule page for the first week of the course.  By the end of the day on September 8th the Discussion1 and the Introduction & Data Analysis quizzes will be closed.  The questions in the quizzes are based on the material in the units Introduction & Data Analysis. 

  The Readings page links you to the textbook - or the closest you will come to one in the course.  This course is divided into three segments, each of which contains units that correspond to chapters in a book. Within each unit there are two components - Abstract and Readings.   To get an idea of what you will encounter in the unit you should read the Abstract.  The list of the three segments and units can be found in the Readings Page.  This is the equivalent of the Table of Contents in a traditional book.  The three segments are:

	Introduction to the Basics
	The Basics of Microeconomics
	The Market System

For a "taste" of what to expect you can check out the readings for the the Data Analysis unit. 

The Quizzes are interactive quizzes that provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate your mastery of the important concepts and principles introduced in the units.  You should take the quiz during the allotted time - and you have only one chance at the quiz so you had best make it count.   You will access these quizzes off the main Web CT page and the quizzes are timed so you will be working under a time constraint.  The specific "time horizon" is specified on the quiz page that is linked from the main page and the menu bar.  Here you will find the last date you can take the quiz for credit - so make sure you are aware of the deadlines.  If you miss the deadline for any quiz there is no chance to make up the quiz.  Your grade will be based on the five "best" quiz grades, but I would suggest you take all of them.  The quizzes give you a good guide to what you need to study for the exams - you get to know what you know and what you need to work on before the exam.  While the choice is ultimately yours, I would suggest as a preferred strategy that you take all of the quizzes.  

The Assignment page is where you will find a set of assignments you will be responsible for during the semester.   

The Communications page is where you will find a link to mail and a link to discussions.  These links you should check on a regular basis since this will be used as a means of getting information to you regarding the course.  For example, during the semester there will be a few extra credit assignments that will be posted on mail.  These are designed to provide you with some experiences "using" economics and me with "evidence" you are willing to make the extra effort.  

This is also where you will find the links to the class discussion page, which is the online version of class participation.  During the semester you can expect that there will be a weekly set of discussions to which you will be expected to contribute.  As with the quizzes, you will not be expected to contribute to all discussions, but you are expected to make a meaningful contribution to seven discussions. 

  This is the  Syllabus page that provides the basic information on the course including the goals, course requirements, and grading procedure. 

  The Exams page provides a link to earlier exams that were given in the on campus course recently and they should help you prepare for the exams in this course. 

  The News page links you to an index of newspapers and magazines.

  The Information page links you to an index of sources of economic data and information.  

  The Micro Sources page links you to sources of microeconomic information.  

Evaluation 

How you should be evaluated is always the tough question, especially in an online course such as this one.  What you should know at the outset is this is a General Education course and therefore you will be being evaluated not only on your command of economic principles and concepts, but also on basic skills identified in the General Education program.  In accordance with the University's General Education program, you will be evaluated on in this course on your ability to Read Complex Texts, Use of Quantitative Data, and Use of Information Technology.  You will be asked to demonstrate your command of the material in online quizzes and online exams.  You can check out the quizzes that are accessible from the Quizzes link on the menu bar and course homepage.  There are nine quizzes that will test your command of the material on the individual units and two semester exams and a final exam. The quizzes and exams in this course will focus primarily on your skill at applying the principles and concepts discussed in the course rather than on your recall skills.  THE QUIZZES AND EXAMS HAVE VERY SPECIFIC DATES AND TIMES THAT THEY ARE OPEN FOR YOU TO TAKE AND YOU SHOULD MAKE SURE YOU REVIEW THE DATES AND WORK YOUR SCHEDULE AROUND SO YOU CAN MEET THEM.  THERE ARE NO ALLOWANCES FOR MISSED EXAMS AND QUIZZES, SO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT DATES AND TIMES.  When constructing the quizzes and exams I have the choice of asking you to recall material covered in the class material and assigned readings or ask you entirely new questions requiring you to apply basic principles and concepts discussed in the readings.  For many, maybe most of you, the first is a framework you have become accustomed to in your travels through the education system.  While it has its place, it will not be employed here because you are not in training to be practicing economists and thus there is no need for an encyclopedic approach to the course.  Furthermore, each quiz and test is constructed based upon the assumption it is an open-book open-note exam - which is what it is in an online course.  Economics will matter to you because it helps you understand your world, because you can relate it to your work as a pharmacist, an accountant, or a retail buyer and no instructor can anticipate where it will come into play in your world. This means that the quizzes and exams will tend to be difficult and the scores somewhat lower than if the questions had been recall questions.  To give you an idea of what to expect you will find a practice quiz that you can take anytime to give you a sense of what to expect in the real thing.  You will also find a link to Exams where you will find previous exams in the on campus ECN201 course that covers similar material.  And you should check out the scale on the exam link to get a better sense of how to translate your quiz and exam scores into grades.

There will also be some discussions regarding current policy issues that you will be expected to contribute to during the semester.  During the semester you will be expected to post at least one article to a discussion list and participate in discussions based on two other postings for a total of three postings. The assignments and discussions will be worth 20 points on your final grade. On Web CT's Discussion link you will find a preliminary list of discussion topics and during the semester additional discussion topics will be added to the course.  If you have any questions regarding course requirements or material, you should post them to the course info discussion list. 

The grades in the course will be based upon the following weighting scheme. 

So, as you begin to make your choices, keep in mind the fact your success in the future is likely to depend less on your major or your first employer and more on the skills you acquire, more on your creativity, originality and ability to think critically than on your ability to store and recall information. With a positive attitude and good choices, you can position yourself well for entry into the new "real world" and even have some fun in ECN 201.

Text

You should also note that there is not a textbook and that all of the materials that you will need are available on-line.  In addition to the primary course readings for each unit, each of you will be expected to read on a regular basis the New York Times and some additional online articles and you can expect some questions to be on your readings.  I would strongly suggest that you subscribe to the New York Time's online version so that you will be able to receive daily updates directed to your e-mails since certain articles will be assigned during the semester and material from these articles may be included on the semester exams.  For those who want a hard copy, you can have i-copy at the Emporium print up a copy of the readings for the course.