THIS COURSE WAS ORIGINALLY DESIGNED TO BE A DISTANCE LEARNING, INTERNET BASED COURSE.

IT IS NOT A FACE-TO-FACE, LECTURE COURSE FORCED INTO BEING A DISTANCE LEARNING COURSE BECAUSE OF THE SOCIAL DISTANCING REQUIRED BY GOVERNMENT EDICT DUE TO THE CORONAVIRUS.

Complete syllabus posted at:

https://www.austincc.edu/sondg/Syllabi/MicroPCM/2019-2020/summer1st6w.htm

Mandatory Orientation:

Orientation for this course is done by taking a quiz over the course's syllabus, the document you are reading right now. The Orientation Quiz itself can be found on your course's ACC Blackboard site at http://acconline.austincc.edu on the syllabus page.

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. Exam and homework deadlines will be posted on Blackboard.

Course Announcements will be posted to Blackboard; midterm exams will be administered through Blackboard; and your course grades can be accessed through Blackboard. 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.

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.

Grading:

Grading is based only on the grades made on the four UNIT EXAMS, the Disciplen Assessment Assignment, and on the Final Exam. Each UNIT Exam will be worth 15% of the course grade. So the UNIT EXAMS are worth 60% of the course grade or 600 of 1000 points.  The Final Exam is worth 40% of the course grade or 400 points. The MyEconLab assignments will not weigh in the course grade DIRECTLY, but they are very important INDIRECTLY. This is so since students must make at least a 65% on the MyEconLab assignments to be able to take the UNIT EXAMS. And students must make a 65% on the UNIT EXAMS to be able to take the Final Exam.

NOTE #1: Because of the Extra Credit Points discussed later in this syllabus, the total points shown in the Blackboard gradebook will be 1140. However, the letter grades will be based on points accumulated as shown in the above table.

NOTE #2: There are three exceptions to the distribution of grades given above. They are:
1) If a student makes an F on the final, (that is, makes less than 55%, or 220 points out of 400, on the final exam not including the extra credit that might have been earned by taking the final exam on or before its deadline), then the student can make no higher than a C in the course.
In other words, a student cannot make an A or a B in the course if he makes an F on the final.
2) If a student makes a D on the final, (that is, makes at least 55% but less than 65% on the final exam not including the extra credit that might have been earned by taking the final exam on or before its deadline), then the student can make no higher than a B in the course.
In other words, a student cannot make an A in the course if he makes an D on the final.
3) If a student makes a 90% (360 points) or above on the final exam, the student will earn an A in the course regardless of his total points. 90% means 360 points not including the extra credit that might have been earned by taking the final exam on or before its deadline.

The first two exceptions are why a Practice Final is being provided to students in this course. It is hoped that this Practice Final will help students better prepare for the final and take away some of the anxiety that students normally feel when approaching a final exam.

Extra Credit  Points::

There are two ways for students to improve their grades by earning extra credit points. The total number of extra credit points possible is equal to 20% of the 1000 points upon which letter grades will be determined. (In other words, there are actually 1200 points available in the course.)

Extra Credit Type12: Taking test on time:

You can earn extra credit by taking your exams on or before the initial testing deadlines.

You will earn extra credit equal to 20 points which is 13.33% of the 150 points available on each UNIT EXAM taken on or before its deadline. You will not lose this extra credit if you take the re-test for that UNIT after the deadline. You must complete the Pearson MyEconLab assignments in each unit with a minimum of 65% before you can take a UNIT Exam, so half of these extra credit points can be considered an incentive to complete these assignments in a timely manner.

This means there is a total of 8% of the course grade available as extra credit just by taking each UNIT EXAM by its deadline.

If you take the Final on or before its deadline, you will earn 20 extra credit points which is 5% of the 400 points available on the Final Exam. 20 points is equal to 2% of the course grade.

So the total extra credit avialble by taking all exams by their due date is 10%.

Extra Credit Type 2: Taking Tests on the unassigned chapters of the textbook.:

Chapters 6, 27, 29, 30, and 31 are not assigned and will not be covered on any mid-term exam on Blackboard or on the Final Exam.
However small tests over these chapters will be made available on MyEconLab. Each of these tests will be worth 20 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 65% or better to earn any points on these tests. This policy is meant to discourage students from taking these tests without reading the chapters.
For example, if a student makes an 80% on one of these extra credit chapter tests on MEL, then he will receive 16 extra credit points: 80%*20=16. If a student makes a 64% on one, then he will earn no extra credit points.
There will be a total of 100 extra credit points available from these tests. 100 points is 10% of 1000 points.
The deadline for completing these extra credit tests is July 5.

 Exams:

All UNIT EXAMS and the Final Exam are objective, multiple-choice question exams.

All UNIT EXAMS and the Final Exam are based on the learning objectives students are expected to master. For more information on learning objectives, please see the section on "Learning Objectives"  in this syllabus. Furthermore all exam questions will be drawn exclusively from the textbook, Economics Today: The Macro View. The exams over each UNIT will include ten questions over each chapter assigned for each UNIT, so each UNIT EXAM will cover four chapters and consist of 40 questions. The questions will appear on the UNIT EXAMS in the order in which the chapters were assigned for the UNIT. For example, on the UNIT I EXAM the first ten questions will cover Chapter 1, next ten will cover Chapter 2, questions 21-30 will cover Chapter 3, and questions 31-40 will cover Chapter 4.. Indeed the questions will be numbered in exactly the same way as the learning objectives  the questions are associated with are numbered. 

The UNIT EXAMS for each of the four UNITS will be administered over the Internet through the course's ACC Blackboard site. Each UNIT EXAM over a UNIT will be found in the corresponding UNIT Module Folder in the left navigation column of Blackboard.

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 a UNIT EXAM is 40 questions long, 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, or 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 different exams will be possible for each UNIT EXAM.

The four online, mid-term UNIT EXAMS will also be timed. You will have 60 minutes to answer 40 questions.

Once again, the UNIT 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 these exams.

Students will have the opportunity to re-take each UNIT EXAM twice. Students do not have to re-take these exams if they make over 70% on them. A 70% grade on a UNIT EXAM will allow the student to move on to the next UNIT or the Final Exam if it is the UNIT IV EXAM. If a student does not make an 70% or better on a UNIT EXAM after three attempts, then the student will need to meet with the Professor of the course before he or she can re-test it again.

NOTE: All UNIT EXAMS and the FINAL Exam have prerequisites that have to be met before they can be taken.
UNIT I EXAM: to take this exam you must have taken and passed the Mandatory Orientation Quiz AND the Chapter 4 MyEconLab Quiz with a 65% or better grade.
UNIT II EXAM: to take this exam you must have taken and passd the UNIT I EXAM and the Chapter 21 MyEconLab Quiz with a 65% or better grade.
UNIT III EXAM: to take this exam you must have taken and passd the UNIT II EXAM and the Chapter 25 MyEconLab Quiz with a 65% or better grade.
UNIT IV EXAM: to take this exam you must have taken and passd the UNIT III EXAM and the Chapter 33 MyEconLab Quiz with a 65% or better grade.
Final Exam: to take this exam you must have taken and passd the UNIT IV EXAM with a 65% or better grade.

TO SEE ALL PREREQUISITES FOR ALL MYECONLAB ASSIGNMENTS AND ALL BLACKBOARD EXAMS, CLICK HERE.

YOU SHOULD MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO TAKE THE UNIT EXAMS NO LATER THAN THE LISTED DATE.

For all deadlines click here.  

However, all UNIT EXAMS will be available through the last day of the semester for re-testing purposes.

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 work with the instructor to put together a plan to catch up.

Final Exam:

The Final Exam must be taken in a Testing Center. Students can not pass the course without taking the final exam.

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 the Testing Centers on the Northridge, Highland Learning Center, South Austin, Riverside, Pinnacle, Eastview, Round Rock, Elgin, Hays, San Gabriel, or Cypress Creek Campuses. Since the Final Exam will be administered on the course's Blackboard site on a Testing Center computer, the results will be available as soon as a student submits the exam.

The final exam will be comprehensive. There will be 50 questions on it drawn from the 160 Learning Objective pools used in this course. So each question will be drawn form one or more pools. The quesitions will be arranged in the order the chapters were assigned. Questions over Chapter 1 will be the first ones encountered and questions over Chapter 33 (Chapter 6 is skipped & Chapters 7 through 18 are not included in our text book because they cover Macroeconomic topics) will be the last ones encountered.

Students will be allowed to bring with them two 8.5x11 inch pieces of paper with notes written on both sides. These crib sheets must be hand written -- not typed, and it must not be a photocopy. This crib sheet must also be turned in after the exam. 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 on it. 

Please make a photocopypy of your crib sheet if you want to save it. The original will be taken up after you complete the final exam in the Testing Center and will not be returned to you.

More information about the Final Exam will be posted on the Announcements page on this course's Blackboard site about three weeks before the end of the semester. (If you complete the course early, please email me, and I will supply you with that information.)

There is no retesting on the final exam, though there is a Practice Final available on Blackboard.

This Practice Final is a copy of the actual final you will be taking in a Testing Center in the sense that it draws examination questions from the same test pools. It is not an exact copy because it will most likely draw a different question from each pool. Nevertheless, it will give you an excellent sense of what the final exam will be like when you take it in the Testing Center. As such, it should help you understand how much you will need to prepare for the actual final exam.

Finally there are several important pieces of information that students need to keep in mind when preparing for the final exam.
1) If a student makes an F on the final, (that is, makes less than 55% or 220 points out of 400 on the final exam not including the extra credit that might have been earned by taking the final exam on or before its deadline), then the student can make no higher than a C in the course.
In other words, a student cannot make an A or a B in the course if he makes an F on the final.
2) If a student makes a D on the final, (that is, makes at least 55% but less than 65% on the final exam not including the extra credit that might have been earned by taking the final exam on or before its deadline), then the student can make no higher than a B in the course.
In other words, a student cannot make an A in the course if he makes an D on the final.
3) If a student makes a 90% or above on the final exam, the student will earn an A in the course regardless of his total points. 90% means 360 points not including the extra credit that might have been earned by taking the final exam on or before its deadline.

The first two items are why a Practice Final is being provided to students in this course. It is hoped that this Practice Final will help students better prepare for the final and take away some of the anxiety that students normally feel when approaching a final exam.

MyEconLab Homework Assignments and Quizzes:

MyEconLab.com is the online study guide which accompanies our Miller text. MyEconLab is required, not optional.

While the grades made on MyEconLab assignments are not part of the course grade, students cannot move on to the UNIT EXAMS without making at least and 65% on the assigned Chapter Homework Assignments and Chapter Quizzes that are part of the assignments for each chapter. More details about how this works will be found in the Grading section. A link to a list of all prerequisites for MyEconLab assignments and UNIT EXAMS can be found HERE.

MyEconLab has three types of assignments:

1. Study Plan: These are ungraded practice questions. You will be given 3 tries, then the system will tell you the correct answer. When you finish, the system will tell you which sections of the chapter you need to focus your study time on.

    

   Each question will have a panel of Learning Aids to the left of the window. These Learning Aids include

   1. Help Me Solve This - Guided Solutions take you step by step to the correct answer. These are only available on about half the problems.
   2. eText takes you to the page of the text where the information covered by the question is presented even if you did not purchase access to the eBook.
   3. Graphing - allows you to draw a graph of the question to help find an answer
   4. Ask My Instructor - emails the question to me, so I can help you with it
   
    
2. Chapter Homework Assignments: These are graded question sets, set up like the Study Plan sets. Each chapter will have 20 homework questions that are worth 1 point each for a total of 20 points.
   Students must get at least 13 of these questions correct before they can move on to the associated Chapter Quiz.
   Learning Aids are available on Homework assignments, and students will be able to take these assignments over and over again until they get them right. You will be allowed to submit these Homework Assignments after their dealine passes with a penalty of 2% per day being subtracted from your score on the Homework Assignment.
That means these assignments MUST be done within 12 days after the deadline passes. Any later and the probability of making a 65% or better on it will be quite low. There is no limit on how many times a student may take a homework assignment. The questions do not vary much from one attempt to the next.


3. Chapter Quizzes: These are graded assignment sets worth about twice as much as the Homework sets. Each chapter will have 20 quiz questions that are worth 40 points.
   Students must get at least 13 of these questions correct before they can move on to the next Chapter Homwork Assignment or to the UNIT EXAM.
   No Learning Aids are available on quizzes while you are working on them, but you will be able to review the graded questions after the deadline with the help of the Learning Aids.
   You will be allowed three attempts on the quizzes just as you are on the on-line UNIT EXAMS. You will also be able to complete them after their deadline passes with a penalty of 2% per being subtracted from your score on a late quiz for each day it is late. The highest of the three attempts will be used, not the grade on the last attempt. Since you will need at least a 65% on these MyEconLab Chapter Quizzes to move on to the next MyEconLab Chapter Homework Assignment (or, when it is the last chapter in a UNIT, to the UNIT EXAM), these quizzes must be done within 12 days after the deadline passes.
   You will have 60 minutes to complete a Chapter Quiz.

The Results page will give you your scores on each assignment, as well as your overall average.
Chapter Quizzes and Chapter Homework Assignments will have due dates.
You will not be able to do the assignments for credit after their deadlines have passed.

Deadlines for Homework Assignments and Quizzes on MyEconLab can be found here: https://www.austincc.edu/sondg/homework/micro/2019-2020/1st6wSummerMEL.htm.

Prerequisites for MyEconLab assignments and UNIT EXAMS can be found HERE.

Students can only register for MyEconLab inside of the course's ACC Blackboard site. If you should have trouble signing up for the course, please contact me immediately.

MyEconLab--Student Features:

Students benefit when they start an exam confident and prepared. MyEconLab 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.

• Personalized Study Plan: 
A Study Plan is generated from each student's results on answering Study Plan questions, by taking the Sample Tests, and by completing the instructor's 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. (When you click on the "Study Plan" link in the left control column, it only opens up to a tutorial on how to use MyEconLab. Look for the link "View all chapters" to find access to all the Study Plan questions.)

•  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. The Study Plan questions can be taken over and over again; the instructor assigned Homework Assignment can be retaken as many times as a student wants right up to the deadline for taking it. The Chapter Quizzes can be taken three times before the deadline. The highest score is used for grading the Chapter Quizzes.

• 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 ("Help Me Solve This"), animated graphs, audio narratives, and flashcards on many of the problems. MyEconLab has a suite of graphing tools for practice and current news articles that tie chapter topics to everyday issues.

• Test and Other Assignments: 
MyEconLab 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.

Recommended Study Method:

1. Spend as much time studying for this non-traditional course as you would have spent if you had registered for this course in its traditional lecture format - going to lectures and doing homework. This translates into about 12 hours a week for this 16 week course.
2. Not procrastinate, and you should not cram for exams. Set up a regular study schedule for this course and stick to it!
3. Read the learning objectives supplied by the instructor. The learning objectives listed in the textbook at the beginning of each online chapter are more general than those composed by the instructor. The instructor's learning objectives will be correlated to the examination questions. They 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.
4. Study the assigned textbook material. This includes the "Issues and Applications" sections found at the end of most chapters.
5. Complete the Study Plan and relevant Sample Test over the chapter you are studying. Re-study the material you were weak on.
6. Go to the Study Plan again and take the second Sample Test for the chapter. Once again re-study the material you are still weak on.
7. Do all of the Homework for the chapter you are studying. This Homework is graded but can be taken over and over again until you get it right.
8. Take the relevant Quiz for that chapter after you feel comfortable with the material the chapter covers.
9. Take the four midterm exams and the final by their assigned deadline dates.

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. 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.

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 MyEconLab.

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.

Step Twelve: Prepare one page of notes to use while you take the quiz. Think about what you will remember, and what you’re most likely to forget.

After each quiz, compare your results to what you thought you would need on your page of notes. After  you complete four chapters, combine the notes for the quizzes into one page of notes for the exam, again comparing your results to what you expected to need. For the final, combine the notes for the exams into one page to take with you to the final.

The last day to withdraw from the course is Friday, June 26.

All midterm exams will be available on Blackboard for re-testing purposes through Sunday, July 5.

There is no re-test for the final exam. Students are encouraged to take the Practice Final before taking the actual Final.

Departmental Course Description, Rationale, and Common Course Objectives/Student Outcomes

• 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.
• 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.

• Common Course Objectives/Student Outcomes.
Students who complete this course will be able to understand:
  • the meaning of unemployment and inflation data and how that data is collected and computed;
  • the meaning and components of the National Income Accounts, especially GDP;
  • the meaning of the business cycle and its phases;
  • and to manipulate the basic Aggregate Supply, Aggregate Demand model of the macro economy;
  • how fiscal policy operates, its tools, and its advantages and drawbacks;
  • how a fractional reserve banking system works;
  • how monetary policy operates, its tools, and its advantages and drawbacks.

In general, after studying each chapter, you should be able to:

• Answer questions about the topics from that chapter the exam will cover.
• Define all the key terms introduced in the chapter and review the "what you should know" section at the end of the chapter.
• Answer questions in the Sample Tests in MyEconLab.
• Successfully complete the Homework Assignment over the chapter in MyEconLab.
• Take the Quiz over the chapter assigned in MyEonLab by your instructor

Below you will find the learning objective, concept, idea, term, or theory that each question on Exam 1 will cover. Each number in the following list refers to the question number on Exam 1 that will test your knowledge of that specific learning objective. Each of these topics/learning objectives is discussed in the textbook in the order that they are listed below.  A much better understanding can often be attained by working through MyEconLab assignments connected to any of these objectives.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Below you will find the learning objective, concept, idea, term, or theory that each question on Exam 2 will cover. Each number in the following list refers to the question number on Exam 2 that will test your knowledge of that specific learning objective. Each of these topics/learning objectives is discussed in the textbook in the order that they are listed below.  A much better understanding can often be attained by working through MyEconLab assignments connected to any of these objectives.

Chapter 5

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Below you will find the learning objective, concept, idea, term, or theory that each question on the exam will cover. Each number in the following list refers to the question number on Exam 3 that will test your knowledge of that specific learning objective. Each of these topics/learning objectives is discussed in the textbook in the order that they are listed below.  A much better understanding can often be attained by working through MyEconLab assignments connected to any of these objectives.

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Below you will find the learning objective, concept, idea, term, or theory that each question on the exam will cover. Each number in the following list refers to the question number on Exam 4 that will test your knowledge of that specific learning objective. Each of these topics/learning objectives is discussed in the textbook in the order that they are listed below.  A much better understanding can often be attained by working through MyEconLab assignments connected to any of these objectives.

Chapter 26

Chapter 28

Chapter 32

Chapter 33