Course Name & Number

ECON 2302

PRINCIPLES OF MICROECONOMICS

Semester & Year

Fall 2017

Instructor's Name

Office Phone #

E-mail Address

Office #

Angela Thurman

athurman@nctc.edu

*Text is 21^st edition

Office Hours

Available by email

Catalog Description

Analysis of the behavior of individual economic agents, including consumer behavior and demand, producer behavior and supply, price and output decisions by firms under various market structures, factor markets, market failures, and international trade. 48 lecture hours.

Textbook & Materials Required:

Microeconomics: Principles, Problems, & Policies (with ConnectPlus with LearnSmart) by McConnell, Brue, & Flynn, McGraw Hill, 22st edition, ISBN: 9781259915840

Ø  Students can purchase a loose leaf book directly from McGraw Hill when registering Connect Access

CONNECT REGISTRATION THROUGH CANVAS: Students no longer need a course ID# or a separate website to register for Connect. Rather, the Connect website is now linked directly to Canvas, and so students will ONLY be registering for Connect through their student Canvas accounts for this course starting on the first day of class.

CONNECT ACCESS: The textbook, Learn Smart, and Connect activities are all maintained within the McGraw Hill Connect System. Students need to be enrolled immediately in Connect, which can be purchased at the bookstore, or online directly from McGraw Hill through their student Canvas accounts for this course. Free Temporary access can be used directly from Connect McGraw Hill for 14 days from the first day of class. Students must be enrolled immediately, as multiple assignments are due the first week of class.

CANVAS/CONNECT ACCESS: All students must have complete access to Canvas for the entire semester. It is the student’s responsibility to have access to the internet at all times, as well as having all needed programs to complete an online course. Students are not to give any other person access to his/her Canvas account. Students can be removed from the online course immediately up violating this rule. Once a student has given another person access to his/her canvas account, the credibility of any work completed becomes questionable.

CANVAS WEBSITE: Students can access Canvas indirectly by going to the NCTC homepage (www.nctc.edu) and clicking on the “Canvas” icon/logo. Or, students can access Canvas directly by going straight to the website for Canvas (https://nctc.instructure.com).

CONNECT SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS: All students can access the Connect Support center and staff for students -- referred to as the “Customer Experience Group (CXG) Support Center” -- by going to the top right hand side of the Connect online classroom page and clicking on the word “Help”. This takes the student directly to the “Contact Us” page for the Customer Experience Group (CXG) Support Center and provides the student with all contact information and hours of operation for the Support Center. Students are able to contact the Support Center and staff by Chat, Email, and Phone.

Here is the direct link to the “Contact us” page for the Customer Experience Group (CXG) Support Center: http://mpss.mhhe.com/contact.php

As shown on the “Contact Us” page, here is the direct toll-free phone number for the Customer Experience Group (CXG) Support Center: 800-331-5094 (U.S. Only)

As shown on the “Contact Us” page, here are the hours of operation for the Customer Experience Group (CXG) Support Center below:

Sun: 11am - 1am
Mon-Thurs: 7am - 3am
Fri: 7am - 8pm
Sat: 9am - 7pm
(All times Central)

***CONNECT TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES / ISSUES***

If you experience any technical difficulties / issues while working on assignments in Connect, it is your responsibility as the student to take the following actions:

(1)  Contact your Course Instructor (me) immediately to notify me of the issue AND

(2) Contact the Connect Customer Experience Group (CXG) immediately to report the issue at the time the issue occurs, prior to the assignment due date, so that the issue can be addressed and resolved.

Learning Outcomes

At the successful completion of this course the student will be able to:

Explain the role of scarcity, specialization, opportunity cost and cost/benefit analysis in economic decision-making.

Identify the determinants of supply and demand; demonstrate the impact of shifts in both market supply and demand curves on equilibrium price and output.

Summarize the law of diminishing marginal utility; describe the process of utility maximization.

Calculate supply and demand elasticities, identify the determinants of price elasticity of demand and supply, and demonstrate the relationship between elasticity and total revenue.

Describe the production function and the Law of Diminishing Marginal Productivity; calculate and graph short-run and long-run costs of production.

Identify the four market structures by characteristics; calculate and graph the profit maximizing price and quantity in the output markets by use of marginal analysis.

Determine the profit maximizing price and quantity of resources in factor markets under perfect and imperfect competition by use of marginal analysis.

Describe governmental efforts to address market failure such as monopoly power, externalities, and public goods.

Identify the benefits of free trade using the concept of comparative advantage.

Scholastic Integrity

Scholastic dishonesty shall include, but not be limited to cheating on a test, plagiarism, and collusion. See Student Handbook “Student Rights & Responsibilities:   Student Conduct [FLB (LOCAL)]” #20 on page 175.

CHEATING:

There is always the temptation to cheat on assignments/quizzes/exams, especially when they are online. DO NOT CHEAT. If you are caught, you will receive an immediate “F” in the class, no exceptions.

Attendance Policy

ATTENDANCE POLICY:

While attendance will not be tracked, regular logins to Canvas and Connect are crucial to successful completion of this course. It is up to you to keep up with due dates and announcements. Note: I DO NOT drop students-- if you stop logging into Canvas and completing assignments in Connect, and do not drop the class, you will receive an “F” in the course. It is YOUR responsibility to drop the class or withdraw if you so choose.

IMPORTANT NOTE REGARDING CONNECT:

The software may take a while to load onto your computer, so you MUST register for Connect as soon as possible-- i.e. the first day of classes. If you sign up late and the software has not loaded in time for you to take the first quiz or assignment-- that is NOT an excuse!! You will receive a zero for that assignment and/or quiz. Do it right the first time and there will be no problems.

COMPUTER PROBLEMS:

Quizzes and/or Assignments (Homework & LearnSmart) are usually due at 11:59 pm. If you start your assignment at 11:45 pm and run out of time, the assignment will shut automatically and your grade will reflect only the work completed.   Please do not email me with this type of problem-- you need to do the work in a timely fashion so you don’t run into this problem. Computer issues/failures/wipe outs/etc., are not excuses—so plan ahead!

Grading Policy & Procedures

GRADING CRITERIA

COURSE REQUIREMENTS, EVALUATION METHODS AND GRADING CRITERIA

Each student’s semester grade will be determined by the following:

       Assignments (Homework & LearnSmart):   15%

       Quizzes:                                                                           15%

       Exams:                                                                            70%

       Total:                                                                                      100%

Assignments: There will be 13 LearnSmart assignments and 16 homework assignments of which your lowest 5 scores will be dropped.

The 13 LearnSmart assignments are directly over textbook content and will be completed in Connect via the “McGraw-Hill Campus” link on the Modules Tab in our Canvas course. LearnSmart uses adaptive technology to tailor the assignment and learning experience to each individual student’s needs. LearnSmart starts by identifying the topics a student knows and does not know. As the student progresses, LearnSmart adapts and adjusts the content and questions on the assignment based on the individual student’s strengths, weaknesses, and confidence. Each LearnSmart assignment is set to take 30 minutes to complete on average. However, it may take some students more than 30 minutes to complete and some students less than 30 minutes to complete.

Ø  **How quickly a student completes the assignment depends on (1) how many questions the student answers correctly and (2) how confident the student is that their answer is correct, prior to viewing the correct answer and their score for each question. So, if you are confident that the answer you have chosen is correct, make sure to click “I know it” when you are asked “Do you know the answer?” after having answered the question. If you are confident that your answer is correct , but instead you click on “Think so,” “Unsure,” or “No idea,” then LearnSmart will keep on giving you additional questions covering those same concepts until you (1) do answer all of the questions correctly and (2) are confident that you answered all of the questions correctly. Therefore, as there is no limit on the number of times that a student can attempt and work through each LearnSmart assignment, if a student continues answering all of the questions that LearnSmart presents him/her with in the assignment, the student will eventually achieve a perfect score and earn a “100” on the assignment.

Please be aware of the opening and closing dates for the LearnSmart assignments, as no assignment will be re-opened once it has closed and no late assignments will be accepted. Again, you have no limit on the number of attempts on the LearnSmart questions to get the correct answer and state that you are confident the answer is correct, and there is no time limit. Think of this as practice!

The 14 Homework assignments are directly over textbook content, excluding the first “Graphing Tool Introduction” assignment, and will consist of 4 to 8 multi-part questions and will be completed in Connect via the “McGraw-Hill Campus” link on the Modules Tab in our Canvas course. Please be aware of the opening and closing dates for the Homework assignments, as no assignment will be re-opened once it has closed and no late assignments will be accepted. You have 3 attempts on HW questions to get the correct answer and there is no time limit. Think of this as practice!

Quizzes: There will be 15 Quizzes of which your lowest 3 (three) scores will be dropped. The quizzes are directly over textbook content, excluding the first “Course Introduction & Syllabus” quiz, and will consist of 30 multiple-choice questions and will be completed in Connect via the “McGraw-Hill Campus” link on the Modules Tab in our Canvas course. Please be aware of the opening and closing dates for the quizzes, as no quiz will be re-opened once it has closed and no late assignments will be accepted. For the quizzes, you have 2 attempts to get the correct answer, and each quiz attempt is timed for a maximum of 40 minutes.

EXAMS: There will be 5 Exams of which your lowest 1 (one) score will be dropped. These are assessments directly over textbook content and will be completed in Connect via the “McGraw-Hill Campus” link on the Modules Tab in our Canvas course. Exams 1, 2, 3 & 4 will each cover 1/4 of the material and consist of 50 multiple-choice questions to be completed in a maximum of 65 minutes. The Final (Exam 5) is cumulative and will cover all of the course material from the start of the semester to the end, and consist of 80 multiple-choice questions to be completed in a maximum of 100 minutes. As the lowest exam grade is dropped, the 4 individual remaining exam grades will each be worth 17.5% of the student’s overall course grade. Therefore, Exams count for 70% of the student’s overall course grade.

You will have only 1 attempt to complete and submit exams. Please be aware of the opening and closing dates for the exams, as no exam will be re-opened once it has closed and No makeup exams will be given or permitted.

**Details on when Assignments (Homework & LearnSmart), Quizzes & Exams are open and due will be given in Connect and/or on Canvas. It is the student’s responsibility to be aware of what is due and when it is due. Failure to regularly sign into Canvas and/or Connect could be the difference between passing and failing.

Tentative Course Schedule

GENERAL DESCRIPTION AND TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

Subject to change, please see Canvas for most up-to-date schedule

Other Pertinent Information

Academic Dishonesty will not be tolerated in this course.  You are not to give any person (which includes parents, spouses, friends, etc.) access to your Canvas account at any time during the semester.  If you do, you are putting the integrity of the course work completed in question.  Do not ask someone to email me on your behalf in Canvas.  If you have an emergency and cannot contact me yourself, it is best to have an alternative person contact me on my NCTC email address: athurman@nctc.edu. Again, do not give anyone access to your Canvas account.  Any student who cheats on any course material (exams, assignments, and post-tests) will immediately fail the course and academic dishonesty papers will be filed with the Dean and VP of Instruction.

Disability Services (OSD)

The Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) provides accommodations for students who have a documented disability.   A disability is anything that can interfere with learning, such as a learning disability, psychological challenge, physical illness or injury. Accommodations may include extra time on tests, tests in a distraction reduced environment, volunteer note taker in class, etc.

On the Corinth Campus, go to room 170 or call 940-498-6207. On the Gainesville Campus, go to room 110 in the Administration (100) Building or call 940-668-4209. Students on the Bowie, Graham, Flower Mound, and online campuses should call 940-668-4209 to arrange for an intake appointment with OSD.

North Central Texas College is on record as being committed to both the spirit and letter of federal equal opportunity legislation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, ADA Amendments Act of 2009, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (P.L. 93-112).

http://www.nctc.edu/StudentServices/SupportServices/Disabilityservices.aspx  

Support Services

Counseling and Testing staff offer a variety of services to current and prospective students, such as College 101, placement testing, academic advising and course registration, transfer assistance, and College Success seminars (Time Management, Study Skills, Test Anxiety, Choosing a Major, Learning Style Strategies, Career Exploration), and much more.  http://www.nctc.edu/StudentServices/CounselingTesting.aspx

 Student Success offers academic coaching, tutoring, including a Writing Center, a Math Lab, free 24/7 online tutoring through Grade Results and assist new students acclimate to college by providing computer lab services for prospective students.   First generation students can also participate in TRIO which offers specialized support services.

http://www.nctc.edu/StudentServices/SupportServices.aspx

Financial Aid offers financial resources for students that qualify, visit the financial aid offices for more information.  http://www.nctc.edu/FInancialAidHome.aspx

EEOC Statement

North Central Texas College does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, or disability in the employment or the provision of services.