Andrew Green Eco 1001 Fall 2021 Syllabus PDF

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Andrew Green Eco 1001 Fall 2021 Syllabus...

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Eco 1001 Principles of Microeconomics Instructor Information Andrew Green [email protected]

Course Information Section: BWA 29935 Meeting time: Wednesday 9:05 - 10:20am

Course Description Master the concepts of supply, demand and equilibrium, the dynamic forces of markets. Learn how economists think about the well-being of individuals and groups, and understand the effects of various government policies. Learn the power of trade to enhance the wealth of all nations, as well as analyze the consequences for producers and consumers within a nation. Learn how the market outcome can be inefficient for certain types of goods and services. Learn also, how the market outcome can be inefficient if outsiders are affected and if some producers have pricing power, as well as how the latter can be desirable in some cases. Learn the market dynamics, as well as production and pricing outcomes, which obtain under various industrial structures, depending on the number of firms and the nature of the goods and services produced. Use the intuition developed above, combined with the skills of algebra and geometry, to solve economic problems in a time efficient fashion, to be successful on department exams, to be taken by all students in all sections. Take the developed skills above on to further study in college, and apply them in life in general. Let them guide your thoughts when you consume news and weigh current events.

Grading Exam 1 Exam 2 Final Homework Extra Credit

20% 20% 30% 30% 3%

This grading scheme: 30% for homework, 70% for exams, with a potential for up to 3% extra credit, will be applied to each student. I do not make considerations for individual students. The way to succeed in this class is to put in the time, and do so early, so that you do not find yourself in a difficult situation at the end of the semester. If you get an F you can use the college’s forgiveness policy, if you have not already used your 16 forgiveness credits. But you must actually make an F. If your grade is in the C-/D+/D range do not ask me to lower you to an F so you can take advantage of the forgiveness policy. The college does not allow this. Per college rules a grade of INC will only be considered for students who request it, present the reasons for the request, and said reasons are deemed to have merit. Exam grades will be curved as I deem necessary. If the class average is below 70 there will be a curve. There is no explicit curve applied to the final course grades. Your grade will generally be assigned according to the standard letter grade assignment for GPA equivalent, Letter Grades and Grade Point Equivalents - Baruch College Undergraduate Bulletin - Fall 2018 / Spring 2019 ARCHIVE - Baruch College Confluence Service (cuny.edu). Expect the class median to be B-.

Required Materials Our text is Principles of Microeconomics, 9th Ed., by Gregory Mankiw. Throughout the semester we will be using an online software platform called Mindtap. Mindtap contains all of the homework for the course, as well as an online version of the text, exam preparation materials, extra credit assignments and other useful material for the class. A Mindtap account is therefore essential for the class. You can access Mindtap either by purchasing our textbook from the bookstore, which will include an access code, or you can purchase directly from the publisher, Cengage. Purchasing from the bookstore is more expensive, but you will get a textbook. If you purchase from Cengage you will get a hardcopy of our text in loose-leaf three hole punched pages, which you can put into a binder. If you purchase from Cengage directly you will receive a Baruch College special price of $77. If you have other classes utilizing Cengage’s online products it will benefit you to purchase their unlimited package for $120. In Blackboard under Course Documents you will find a folder titled Blackboard Access Instructions. In this section there are three documents and three links. The first document is a copy of our role. Many of you go by different names and different versions of your name. I would like you to find your name on our role, and register for Mindtap using the name on that role. The next two documents contain instructions for creating a Cengage account, purchasing access to Mindtap, and enrolling in our section. The second of these instruction documents (third file) instructs you how to take advantage of a free trial period. You would only want to use this if there were a chance you might drop the course after the first week. If you know you are taking the course then you will have to purchase Mindtap, either immediately, or at the end of the trial. Whichever is best for you, follow the instructions on only one of these documents, not both. There is a section of our Blackboard page titled Mindtap, which contains several links several links pertaining to the program. You will use the first of these links to register for our section, after you have created your Mindtap account, following one of the instruction documents described above. The second link is customer support. The third takes you to your Unlimited dashboard, if you are using Cengage online products in multiple classes. DO NOT register for our section in Mindtap multiple times with different email addresses. I do not know why I have to say this, as I do not know why one would do it. But in the past it has happened quite a bit, and it is really cumbersome for me to consolidate grades, when a student is registered more than once, and completes some exercises on one account, and other exercises on the other account. You will be penalized if you have multiple user accounts in our class section. I recommend getting acclimated with Mindtap immediately. When you access our section of Mindtap you will first see a section called Getting Started. This section contains brief modules that will show you how to use the product. I recommend that you begin by going through these. You will receive extra credit if you do them. Mindtap is arranged according to topic chapters. With each chapter we cover you will find a section titled Required and Graded, and a section titled Additional Practice Problems and Related Material. The Required and Graded section contains videos and exercises which must be viewed and completed prior to class each week, as well as exercises which must be completed prior to the following class. Your extra credit exercises are also in this section. While I will try to be useful for general questions, I will not be your support contact for Mindtap. When you have an issue, please use their customer support process, starting with the link in Blackboard. They will want you to create a ticket in their system so they can document the issue. But once a ticket is created, it is relatively easy to get a technician on the phone to assist you. You just want to be sure you never wait until the last minute to do assignments, so that you will have time to address any technical issues that may arise. Technical issues will generally not excuse homework not completed on time. You will need to have an account with Zoom, an online meeting and collaboration program which we will utilize for class meetings. If you do not already have one, please visit zoom.com, and create an account. It is free to you. Please use your Baruch email address.

Video Exercises Within the Required and Graded section of Mindtap, following the etext and its accompanying exercises, you will encounter brief video exercises, roughly two minutes in length. These you need to work through prior to our class meetings each week. Some are part of your required homework, and are marked by an orange dot. The others are extra credit. You need to work them all. They do not take very long, and you need to understand the basic concepts taught in these video exercises prior to the start of our class session. We only have 14 scheduled meetings and we must use them wisely. Many of the basic concepts you will learn in these videos, as in our class sessions we will go a little deeper and work problems. While our section is listed as online-synchronous the economics department views it as a “hybrid”, because we only meet once per week for 75 minutes. In a regular section we would have 28 class meetings. A hybrid section has only half of the teaching time, but we have to cover the same material. Therefore you are expected to learn basic concepts on your own. If you do not work through your video exercises every week prior to class (in addition to some other exercises discussed below) you may have a hard time following the lecture during our class time. A good way to think of it is this: a regular section meets twice per week, while we meet once. When we meet, treat it as though we are on day 2 for the week, and what is in the video exercises is what we would have covered on day 1. Nearer the bottom of the Required and Graded section in Mindtap, after the video exercises, are some other instructional videos, roughly 5 – 8 minutes in length. These demonstrate how to work certain problems, such as you might find in homework or on an exam. They are not required for homework and do not count for extra credit, but it is encouraged you view them.

A note on the two sections in Mindtap: “Required and Graded”, and “Additional Practice Problems and Related Material” Some students are confused by these titles, which I did not create. Not everything in the Required and Graded section is “required” in the sense that it will directly harm your grade if you do not do it. Everything that can have a direct impact on your grade is in this section. Your homework, and the extra credit are here. All items which count towards your homework grade are marked with an orange dot. The extra credit will not detract from your grade if you do not do it, but it will help your grade if you do. Ignoring any material in the Required and Graded will indirectly impact your grade because you will not learn what you need to be successful. Simplistically, think of it this way, I do not care if you never open the second section, “Additional Practice Problems and Related Material”. It just provides some extra tools to practice with. There is plenty for you to practice with in the “Required and Graded” section, and I want you to do all of it. After you have done everything there, the next most productive thing you can do is to work the practice exams, which I will provide in Blackboard.

Class Sessions We will have class on Wednesday mornings at 9:05am. The sessions will be conducted on Zoom. Attendance is highly encouraged but not mandatory. The lessons will be recorded and posted on Blackboard. I will provide the access information each week via Blackboard. There are many of you, and you all have probably experienced how disruptive online meetings can be when many people are participating. Therefore your audio will remain muted. Please utilize the chat box for questions. I will monitor it, and pause from time to time to take some of them. If your question does not get addressed during class please email me. If you have a question which is not related to the material, but concerns you, such as questions about your grade or other administrative issues, please email me. I ask that you only use the Zoom chat for questions related to

the material being discussed at the time. Many questions get repeated and many are of a basic nature, addressed in the videos, and therefore cannot merit spending valuable class time. I will select questions which are the most relevant and the most asked. If your question does not get sufficiently answered in class, email me. Students who participate in this class with their camera on or use a profile image are agreeing to have their video or image recorded solely for the purpose of creating a record for students enrolled in the class to refer to, including those enrolled students who are unable to attend live. If you are unwilling to consent to have your profile or video image recorded, be sure to keep your camera off and do not use a profile image. Likewise, students who un-mute during class and participate orally are agreeing to have their voices recorded. If you are not willing to consent to have your voice recorded during class, you will need to keep your mute button activated and communicate exclusively using the "chat" feature, which allows students to type questions and comments live. Homework Your homework is contained within the Required and Graded section of Mindtap. You have homework assignments every week and technical issues will generally not get you an extension on homework. This includes mysterious internet outages the night the assignment is due. Begin the assignment with enough time to address any issues prior to the due date. You have assignments to do before we meet and assignments to do after we meet. Some of the assignments you do before we meet are the video exercises marked with an orange dot, and some are separate quizzes labeled Pre-Lecture Quiz, also marked with an orange dot. Everything in Mindtap marked by an orange dot is required homework. Some weeks there will be mandatory video exercises, and some weeks there will be a Pre-Lecture Quiz. All pre-lecture assignments are due by 9am on class day. You have another exercise to do after our class meeting, which will be a little more challenging. These are labeled Post-Lecture Quiz, and can be found at the end of the Required and Graded section. They are also marked with an orange dot. They will be due by 9am prior to the following class. Right before these you will encounter the above mentioned longer vidoes, 5-8 minutes. These videos do not contain exercises for you to do, but rather demonstrate how to solve various problems similar to what you could encounter on a Post-Lecture Quiz, or even an Exam. To sum, due each Wednesday at 9am, prior to class, you will have a Post-Lecture Quiz on topics covered the previous week, and pre-lecture exercises for the topics to be covered that week. All of the pre-lecture assignments will count for 12% of your grade, and the Post-Lecture Quizzes will count for 18%. Altogether, homework will count for 30% of your course grade. All material which you must complete for a grade is clearly indicated with an orange dot on the left side under the heading, and the due date is indicated as well. At the end of this syllabus is a course schedule, which we will follow exactly. Therefore you will always know what we will cover that week, and what assignments are due. You will receive weekly emails from me, reminding you of what is due. These will be generated from Blackboard, so be sure the email address associated with Blackboard is one you check regularly (hopefully it is your Baruch address). All class announcements will remain, chronologically, in Blackboard for your reference. Additionally, if you like you may download the Mindtap smartphone application and set reminders for your weekly assignments. With all of the above, you have no excuse to not know specifically what is due, and when it is due. Do not email me asking for an extension, stating that you did not realize an assignment was due.

Extra Credit Within the Required and Graded Material section you will find some portions that just say Practice. These are extra credit for you. Extra credit exercises consist of the Quick Quizzes, found in the drop-down menu under the Interactive Book, as well as the short video exercises, approximately two minutes, located just under the Interactive Book, with the video exercises which are required, as indicated by the orange dot. Because the videos are instructional and this is a hybrid class, you need to do all of these every week, though only those

marked with an orange dot will count against your grade if you do not answer them correctly. There are a total 3 extra points available, with how ever many you get being added to your final grade for the course.

Exams We will have three exams, which are common among all Eco 1001 sections. There will be no make-up exams given this semester. If you miss one of the first two exams this portion of your grade will be reweighted to the final exam. Our final exam will be a department final, meaning all ECO 1001 sections will take the same exam at the same time. Department policy regarding department final exams prevents me from offering anyone a make-up final exam. If you must miss the final exam, and you have a valid reason which you get approved with me prior to the exam, you will receive an INC in the class, and then take the department final exam in the Spring. Missing the department exam and failing to get approval from me will result in an F. The college is requiring that we take one of our three exams in a classroom, on campus, at Baruch College. The reasoning for this strange requirement involves meeting state certification requirements which are well above my knowledge and understanding. Our in-class exam will be Sunday, October 10. Please plan to be on campus that morning. The other two exams will be administered on Blackboard, also on Sunday mornings. Please see the schedule below. Our exams are open book and open notes. You may use all of your preparation materials on the exam. But understand this, our exams are difficult, and require you to solve problems in a short amount of time. If you really have to search your materials to understand how to solve a problem, your chances of passing the exam are very small. You will need to be studying diligently all semester. The week of the exam you need to be working practice exams, which I will provide. You need to time yourself when you work a practice exam, and then you need to work another practice exam, and beat your time. This is how you will succeed on our department exams. You may not collaborate with each other on exams. If you are caught collaborating you will be dealt with accordingly, discussed below. Students have been caught collaborating, even on online exams.

“Office Hours” Email me. My email address is [email protected]. Please note this, often students use the suffix baruchmail.cuny.edu when emailing me. While this suffix is in your email address, it is not in mine, and I will not receive an email sent to any address except the one given above. Additionally, I do not recommend responding to Blackboard messages. I will frequently email you from Blackboard. Often when students reply to these system generated emails I do not see them. To be sure I see your email, begin a new email to the address given above. I have every desire to respond promptly, but there are a lot of you, and I am not always right in front of my computer. But I will respond. I envision most questions can be handled via email, but a Zoom session can be arranged if deemed necessary. Please remember that technical issues involving Mindtap need to be addressed through the proper channel, which begins with the link in Blackboard, explained above. While I will make myself available to you, by email and Zoom if necessary, I will not simply reteach what I taught the class. If you come to me for help understanding I will require you to specify what you do not understand, demonstrating to me that you have viewed your online videos, attempted the pre-lecture assignments, attended our class session or viewed the recording, and searched the textbook for understanding. Similarly, after an exam I will not be amenable to an email stating you do not understand what you missed and want me to explain. You will likewise have to demonstrate you have reviewed notes, videos, text, lecture and practice problems, and explain where specifically you do not understand the answer to an exam question. I want to do all I can to help you succeed, but I will not condone intellectual laziness. You are a college student, and this is a hybrid class; you are expected to put in the effort necessary to learn the

material. That said, I do not want you to feel reluctant email me, but only want you to know what is expected. Lastly, it may be that you want ongoing assistance with the material and practice solving exercises. The college tutoring center is open this semester, and I encourage you to utilize their services. S...