Professor: Bradley K. Hobbs, Ph.D.
Phone: Voice Mail is available at all hours: (239) 590-7162
e-mail: bhobbs@fgcu.edu (By far, the best way to get a message to me.)
home page: http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/bhobbs
Office: Lutgert Hall 3366
Office Hours: I have set aside Monday's and Thursday's to address all electronic correspondence for this course including email and web board posts. Please recognize that Distance Learning (DL) can occur "whenever" but that does not imply that I check e-mail and phone hourly to see what is happening (the opportunity costs would be horrific -- more on opportunity costs in this course... ;-)

Syllabi
A syllabus is your primary reference in any course. It tells you what I expect in the course from you and from myself. If you have a question concerning the workings of this course please turn to this syllabus first.

Important Class Dates:
1) Classes begin on Monday, May 9, 2016.
2) The Midterm Examination will be available on Thinkwell from Wednesday, 05/25/2016 at 1:00 a.m. through Sunday, 05/29/2016 11:55 p.m.
3) The Final Examination will be available on Thinkwell from Wednesday, 06/15/2016 1:00 a.m. through Sunday, 06/19/2016 11:55 p.m.
4) Classes officially end on Saturday, June 18, 2016. Grades are due by Noon on Tuesday, June 21.

Your first course by Distance Learning?
Distance Learning (DL) exhibits a very wide range of permutations. In its simplest form DL is a workbook course where students hand in worksheets. In its fully developed form it is a complex web of interaction drawing upon a wide range of technologies. One form is not necessarily better or worse - in fact, diversity in approaches provides value to this relatively new endeavor.

Regardless of your distance course's form, they are different from traditional face-to-face interaction. According to research, the most striking aspect of this for students is the extent to which the student becomes responsible for their own learning. The only scheduled events in this course are weekly recordings of homework scores, a midterm and a final. As a result of this flexibility you can get into trouble quickly -- Who wouldn't want to watch reruns of South Park, Breaking Bad, or The News Hour with Jim Lehrer (all personal favorites) in lieu of keeping up with a DL course in economics?

My e-mail is bhobbs@fgcu.edu and my phone number is (239) 590-7162 (voice messaging available at all times.) I will be running this course primarily from FGCU but will also be at off-campus locations during parts of this course: "Have laptop, will travel." As noted in office hours above I will sign-on on Mondays and Thursdays to check out this particular course. All course content questions should be directed to the web discussion board. Personal emails to me should be about specific course issues not course content - again, direct all content issues to the web board. The web board is where we all can learn from one another and we do not have to "be there" at the same time (this is referred to as asynchronous learning in the distance education literature.)

Why Economics? Why Finance?

http://www.econpointofview.com/2014/05/5-life-lessons-economics-taught/
Economics is the study of the allocation of scarce resources among alternative uses. Its modern "father" is Adam Smith who published "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" in 1776. Economists are social scientists who study the behaviors of individuals and firms in both market and non-market settings. Business students who do not understand economics will be forever navigating the sea of business with no understanding of tides, winds and weather. Economics explains the environment in which you are or will be operating. It explains how customers and rivals will react to the actions of your firm and it even explains why firms exist in the first place. It tells you a lot about the profits you can expect and the prices you should "set" -- if you can set prices at all!

Economics and psychology are the intellectual parents all business disciplines. What a business student should learn in a good business curriculum, partially through its economics requirements, is a body of knowledge that informs management, marketing, and finance. The models used in these disciplines are, many times, originally formulated in the economics literature at the theoretical level and then applied in the business disciplines. This theoretical approach means that economics is analytical - it draws upon inductive and deductive reasoning within a rational-choice framework of logic.

I find economics to be fascinating for both its breadth and depth -- this course emphases breadth. I sometimes use the analogy of an onion. ECO 5005 is like taking off the outer skin of economics knowledge and revealing the very beginning of the inner core: the analogy also works well because getting to that core is hard intellectual work that can make you cry (or at least whine a bit.) Which leads me to my next point: the distinct downside of the study of economics is that many students find it to be intellectually rigorous -- there is no way around that -- the content is what it is. On the upside, the market recognizes this -- for example, undergraduates in economics (and finance, a direct offshoot of economics) are among the most highly paid among all business disciplines coming out of university.

Finance broke off into a field on its own about 30 years ago. Economists had studied and specialized in finance for many years prior, but as colleges of business matured and grew, ever deeper specialization was the result (as Adam Smith predicted in 1776.) Finance remains deeply rooted and tied to economics. With only 6 weeks to cover these materials we will be skimming the surface, but we will include some finance and you will have an entire course in it in your MBA curriculum. When I started my career 25 years ago this course was three, full-semester courses: Basic Corporate Finance I, Principles of Microeconomics, and Principles of Macroeconomics.

I hope you find these subjects as fascinating as I do. The applications of economics and finance to everyday life are innumerable. I can pick up any decent newspaper and form a one-hour economics lesson. Finance surrounds us in ways you probably would find amusing and so broad as to be incomprehensible. If we succeed in this course, you will have a very basic foundation and be able to draw upon it to inform and frame your remaining coursework in the MBA program.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
An accelerated survey of microeconomic and macroeconomic concepts and basic finance. The microeconomics component addresses economic decision-making by individuals and firms in a market economy. Resource allocation, supply and demand, market structures and the wealth effects of a market economy are covered. The macroeconomic component deals with output, employment, the business cycle and policy decisions at the national level. The finance section focuses on the major tool of finance: Net Present Value. This course is open to graduate students without a previous background in economics or finance.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
1. Be able to use microeconomic theory to explain the observed behaviors of individuals and firms.
2. Be able to interpret and clearly articulate the macroeconomic concepts which are used to interpret (a.) "up-and-down" economics such as news articles and reports which explain why broad economic measures are moving in the direction they are, and (b.) economic policy evaluation, news and political commentary on the macroeconomy.
3. Develop a level of comfort with economics that allows you to interpret economic phenomena through the use of scientific models which can be defended logically.
4.  Be able to distinguish between "good" economic analysis from "bad" economic analysis. Because economics deals with resources and their, often political, allocation there is a great deal of bad economic analysis out there.
5. Address the role of finance and a basic NPV framework and problems.

REQUIRED TEXT(S):
Thinkwell's ECONOMICS -
The "text" used in this DL course are not a traditional text at all. It is a web-based product streamed from Thinkwell's website. The product includes video lectures, notes, exercises (they are short mini-quizzes) and two examinations.
You must go to http://www.thinkwell.com and sign up for the course.

Simply choose the "Click here to register or purchase" link and a series of questions will lead you to the sign up for this course. You do not need to go to the bookstore - you can do this all from the comfort of your keyboard. The process is self-guided. (State = Florida; School = Florida Gulf Coast University; Course/Section = FIN 5405 - Foundations of Economics/Finance - CRN 50156 - Summer 2016; Register without Subscription Code or if you bought a code from the bookstore use it.)

Here is a "Getting Started" file. There will be some learning curve but it is very rapid. Our undergraduates used the Thinkwell package for a number of years. Tech support is available at the hours listed on their site.

The finance materials are separate. Links are in the Current Assignments Web Page page at the top of this page. The course materials consists of videos from Khan Academy and the finance materials will be tested on the Midterm and Final. The midterm will cover the finance videos we have covered thus far in the course.

GRADING:
We will have on-line "Thinkwell Exercises", a Midterm Examination covering Microeconomics and Finance, a Final Examination covering Macroeconomics and Finance. SPECIAL NOTE!!!! The Thinkwell Grade weighs every question equally and keeps a cumulative tab of "right, wrong, and skipped." There are over 1300 questions cumulatively. Therefore, any given point in time the percentage calculation you see is the number correct thus far out of the total number of questions available and your score is constantly low. This resolves itself at the end of the course, once you have taken all available questions.

If you want to track this day-by-day you are welcome to. Sum the number of questions you answered "right" for each of the 12 units you have taken thus far. Then sum the number of questions "right + wrong + skipped" for each of the 12 units you have taken thus far. Place the first number in the numerator and the second in the denominator and that fraction will give you an accurate "current percentage." I've tried to do it a number of ways and given the weighting schemes in Thinkwell and Canvas this is just a reality we have to deal with. I could make all 12 units the same weight but since the number of questions per unit varies quite widely (appropriately) I weight every question equally, not every unit equally.

Assignment	Weight
Thinkwell Exercises (Class Participation Grade)	200 points (20%) Each individual question throughout the entire course counts equally at the end. Example: Suppose you were asked and answered 623 questions in the Thinkwell Exercises and you answer 601 of the 623 correct, Your grade for the Thinkwell Exercises will be {[(601/623)*100] * 2} = 102.9/200 possible points
Midterm - Microeconomics and Finance	400 points (40%) [One hundred questions with each question worth 4 points]
Final - Macroeconomics and Finance	400 points (40%) [One hundred questions with each question worth 4 points]

Thinkwell Exercise (or quiz) Grade: 20% of your Final Grade
I view these exercises as good learning experiences combined with a class participation grade. You will take the online Thinkwell Exercises at http://www.thinkwell.com for each module we cover. These exercises are directly correlated with the video modules and notes. You are welcome and encouraged to take the online exercises multiple times until you achieve the score you want. I will record only your "best score" from the multiple takes. However, rather than using a "pick until it's right" strategy, I encourage you know why the answer you choose was incorrect and why the right answer is correct. In other words, learn from the exercises.

All on-line exercises will have equal weight so your average exercise (quiz) grade over the course will be applied to your final grade. The dates for recording the exercises are found in the Current Assignments section of this web site - I will record them at 8:30 a.m. the assigned day. I will not check the web site and send you reminders, notes, prompts, or anything else -- doing the exercises by the deadline is your responsibility.

CRITICAL SCORING INFORMATION:
1) It is best to choose the "One at a Time" option on Thinkwell - not "All at Once". This is because your answers will be saved even if you lose your internet connection.

2) "Submit" is the button at the bottom right of the window. After each question you should hit this button. The software will tell you if you are correct or incorrect; and if the later, it provides hints to the correct answer.

At the end of the exercise when you hit next, a new screen will have this statement: "Review your responses below. When you're ready to submit your final answers click the 'Score' button. Please note: once you click the 'Score' button you will not be able to change any of your answers."

In other words, you are permitted to review any of your answers by clicking on the review buttons in the last column but if you choose "Score Now" the software will record your score permanently. If you do not want this to be your recorded score review the answers that you missed and correct them. When you want to record the score permanently you must choose "Score Now." Once you have hit "Score Now" you have recorded a permanent score for that particular exercise. You can go back in and take the exercise again for review but the score you set by hitting the "Score Now" button is the score that stays.

Bottom line - be sure that you want the score you have before you ever hit "Score Now."

3) The exercise section of the Web site provide hints for you - I have left this feature enabled. The software provides feedback and also allows you to go back and choose an alternative answer. I view the exercise grade like a class participation grade and if you watch the video lesson and then do the exercise your grade in this section of the course should be quite high - you can "bail out" at any time in an exercise and resume the exercise later.

Thinkwell Examinations: 80% of your Final Grade
Examinations are a test of your knowledge of course content. Examinations will be posted on the web using the Thinkwell site. Examinations are of multiple choice and true/false format for this course. You will be asked to apply the models of the micro- and macro- economy which are developed in this course. If you want to know more about how to study for this course, please click on the links here: Studying Economics 1 & Studying Economics 2.

Grading Scale:
I use a 1000 point grade scale with the following stratification.

A	1000 - 900
B	899 - 800
C	799 - 700
F	699 and below

Web Board:
Thinkwell has a web board. Students can post questions there and they can also answer one another's questions if they feel that they have the concept down. I will check the web board periodically and weigh in also. Recognize inherent limitations to the web board due to the lack of a visual component. As you will see, this course has many graphs and the web boards don't easily allow for this. One can attach files there however.

Cheating: Academic Honesty is your responsibility and ethical duty. Cheating is a rampant problem on college and university campuses today. As a social scientist, I think it says something quite interesting about our current culture -- or perhaps Glaucon, Adeimantus and Thrasymachus were right (see The Republic of Plato, Part II "Justice in the State and in the Individual", Chapter V, "The Problem Stated".) My attitude concerning academic dishonesty is simple: Cheating is not worth the potential consequences of getting caught nor the self-degradation which it involves whether you are caught or not. Apparently, some people care not about this. In a recent course I caught 10% of the class red-handed. So this gets really simple now for anyone who can't understand what I wrote above. If you are caught in an act of Academic Dishonesty you will be assigned an "F" for the entire course. Appropriate steps for dealing with scholastic dishonesty are spelled out in the Student Code of Conduct and these steps will be followed if this activity is revealed in your case. In the Student Code of Conduct "Cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, forgery, misuse of any University document, record, or instrument of identification, multiple submissions, bribery, and/or theft of academic materials" all constitute plagiarism. These guidelines pertain to all work done in this class including take home assignments and graded homework. (You do have explicit permission to engage in group homework under the conditions outlined above.) In case you are wondering, let me be clear: If you are caught in an act of Academic Dishonesty you will be assigned an "F" for the entire course. So that plagiarism does not cause you to fail this course read the two following web sites: A Statement on Plagiarism Plagiarism: What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It

Group Work:
Research in the area of learning has substantiated the positive effects of group study. When carried out with serious effort the returns to group study can be great for all members of the group. I would strongly encourage you to form study groups, then set a weekly meeting time to discuss this course and the material covered since the previous group meeting. I would ask that you assist each other; treating the study group as a cooperative experience rather than a competitive one. The web board is a place where group work is done explicitly.

All work handed in must be done alone.  You are welcome to discuss and work together but when you "put pencil to paper" it must be your own work.  To do otherwise will be regarded as plagiarism.

ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION POLICY:

Attendance Policy: "The discipline of colleges and universities is in general contrived, not for the benefit of the students, but for the interest, or more properly speaking, for the ease of the masters. Its object is, in all cases, to maintain the authority of the master, and whether he neglects or performs his duty, to oblige the students in all cases to behave to him as if he performed with the greatest diligence and ability. It seems to presume perfect wisdom and virtue in the one order, and the greatest weakness and folly in the other. Where the masters, however, really perform their duty, there are no examples, I believe, that the greater part of the students ever neglect theirs. No discipline is ever requisite to force attendance upon lectures which are really worth attending…” An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book V, Chapter 1, Part f, Paragraph 15 Adam Smith

In this distance course, it is your duty to complete the materials on time. I have set out a schedule in the Current Assignments link at the top of this page. There is a good deal of intellectually rigorous content in this course -- so keeping up with the work is critical.

The following passage is in all of my traditional syllabi. While this is a distance course, I think that this passage tells you a lot about my style -- therefore I have left it for you to ponder.

My attendance policy is laissez-faire. The translation from French is roughly "to allow to act". In other words, you are allowed to do whatever you want to do with regard to attendance. I am not your parent and I promise to treat you as an adult - after all, only you can decide what your opportunity costs are. However, whatever your proclivities for attendance may be, you are responsible for the materials of the course.

 

State-Mandated and University-Required Regulatory and Control Requirements

"The bureaucrat begins, perhaps, by doing only what he conceives to be his sworn duty, but unless there are very efficient four-wheel brakes upon him he soon adds a multitude of inventions of his own, all of them born of his professional virtuosity and designed to lather and caress his sense of power."
H.L. Mencken, On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1996 [1956]), pp. 278-279.

VERIFICATION OF ATTENDANCE IN CANVAS (V.A.C.though some might contend V.A.C.U.O.U.S)]
As of fall 2015, all faculty members are required to use Canvas to confirm a student's attendance for each course by the end of the first week of classes. Failure to do so will result in a delay in the disbursement of your financial aid. The confirmation of attendance is required for all students, not only those receiving financial aid.

General Education Program
This course qualifies as a General Education course in the Social Sciences subject area. The economic way of thinking relies heavily on the usage of critical thinking skills (the ability to link data, knowledge, and insight to make better decisions). Critical thinking is one of the four General Education competencies. All General Education courses are required to have a plan for assessing their students’ performance on at least one of those four competencies. To meet that requirement, there will be several questions on your final exam designed to assess your critical thinking skills. Those questions will be directly related to the economics content covered in your textbook and in class lectures.

Departmental Course Scheduling
Planning for and meeting all requirements of graduation are your responsibility.  Regularized course offering schedules are available from LCOB advisors, as are prerequisite sequences as described in the Catalog and degree program sheets, to assist students in the successful implementation of their plans. Course substitutions and prerequisite exceptions are only granted in exceptional circumstances clearly beyond the control of students and come through LCOB Advisors - not Professors. Lack of planning and poor planning are not exceptional circumstances.

Academic Behavior Standards and Academic Dishonesty
All students are expected to demonstrate honesty in their academic pursuits. The university policies regarding issues of honesty can be found in the FGCU Student Guidebook under the Student Code of Conduct and Policies and Procedures sections. All students are expected to study this document which outlines their responsibilities and consequences for violations of the policy. The FGCU Student Guidebook is available online at http://studentservices.fgcu.edu/judicialaffairs/new.html

Disability Accommodations Services
Florida Gulf Coast University, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the university’s guiding principles, will provide classroom and academic accommodations to students with documented disabilities.  If you need to request an accommodation in this class due to a disability, or you suspect that your academic performance is affected by a disability, please see me or contact the Office of Adaptive Services.  The Office of Adaptive Services is located in Howard Hall, room 137.  The phone number is 590-7956 or TTY 590-7930.  In addition to classroom and campus accommodations, individuals with disabilities are encouraged to create their personal emergency evacuation plan and FGCU is committed to providing information on emergency notification procedures. You can find information on the emergency exits and Areas of Rescue Assistance for each building, as well as other emergency preparedness materials on the Environmental Health and Safety and University Police Department websites.  If you will need assistance in the event of an emergency due to a disability, please contact Adaptive Services for available services and information.

Student Observance of Religious Holidays
All students at Florida Gulf Coast University have a right to expect that the University will reasonably accommodate their religious observances, practices, and beliefs. Students, upon prior notification to their instructors, shall be excused from class or other scheduled academic activity to observe a religious holy day of their faith. Students shall be permitted a reasonable amount of time to make up the material or activities covered in their absence. Students shall not be penalized due to absence from class or other scheduled academic activity because of religious observances. Where practicable, major examinations, major assignments, and University ceremonies will not be scheduled on a major religious holy day. A student who is to be excused from class for a religious observance is not required to provide a second party certification of the reason for the absence.

Last Updated: May 17, 2016
e-mail - Dr. Bradley K. Hobbs