OVERVIEW OF ECON 111 ONLINE

Required Course Text Books:

• McEachern, W. (2005). Macroeconomics: A contemporary introduction: Wall Street Journal Edition (7th ed.). THOMSON/South Western. ISBN # 0324338457 (students must use this ISBN number when obtaining this book).Available at the UCONN Bookstore.
• Text comes with a complimentary subscription to the online edition of the Wall Street Journal

Course Outline:

SESSION 1: Economics and the Cartesian Graph
SESSION 2: An Economy's Production Possibilities Frontier (PPF)
SESSION 3: Demand and Supply
SESSION 4: Economic Statistics: GDP and Inflation
SESSION 5: Economic Statistics: The Unemployment Rate
SESSION 6: Aggregate Demand: Consumption, Investment, Government
SESSION 7: Aggregate Demand: The Multiplier, Inventory Adjustment
SESSION 8: Aggregate Supply
SESSION 9: Macroeconomic Policy: Fiscal
SESSION 10: Macroeconomic Policy: Monetary
SESSION 11: Macroeconomic Policy: Business Cycles

Course Requirements:

· 4 online exams, including a cumulative final

· Weekly postings to an Instructor moderated class discussion bulletin board

· Weekly postings to a Student moderated class discussion bulletin board.

Course Activities expected of course participants:

• Review the online lecture notes for each session
• Read 3-5 articles assigned weekly in the online WSJ on newsworthy economic events
• Complete online exercises of diagrammatic drill in concepts such as shifting supply and demand curves, and using fiscal and monetary tools to close expansionary and Contractionary gaps. The exercises are programmed in Flash, use a drag and drop format, have interactive feedback, and links to slides in the lecture notes where the topic is discussed.
• Complete online exercises of drill in calculations such as opportunity cost, and multipliers. The exercises are programmed in EXCEL, have Help Resources to obtain assistance on how to write the relevant equation, and answer keys to self evaluate responses.
• Complete an online quiz for each session. They are self-correcting, have feedback explanations, and links to relevant slides in the lecture notes.
• Participate in the weekly discussion forum. The forum seeks to simulate the student-teacher, and peer-peer exchange that occurs in the traditional face-to-face classroom format, and to stimulate interest by relating economic principles to the required WSJ readings.
• Self review of online exam results. After the exam period ends students are expected to view their corrected exam, which has feedback explanations and links to relevant slides in the lecture notes, and to contact the instructor if they have follow up questions.