No extensions will be granted.

Students who have not submitted tutorial work prior to a stated deadline will be awarded a mark of 0 for the task.

Note that due to the nature of the timing of tutorial assignments, disruption claims will not be entertained for those submissions. Students who suspect that they will be absent on a given tutorial day should advise me in writing in advance so that amendments to the schedule can (if possible) be made to avoid any disadvantage.

The essay is to be submitted to Turnitin via iLearn. 

Late essays will be accepted up to 48 hours after the submission deadline, after which a mark of zero will be awarded. The awarded mark for accepted late submissions will decay exponentially at the rate of 1.15% per hour after the published deadline. This penalty does not apply for cases in which an application for disruption is made and approved, and where as a result consideration is granted.

Note also that for the Reflective Writing Exercise there are no 'due dates' per se. The content on the relevant wiki will be assessed at particular, stated times. As the timing of contributions to the wiki is completely in the control of the individual student, no extensions will be granted under any circumstances.

Classes

• 3 hours face-to-face teaching per week consisting of 1 x 2 hour lecture and 1 x 1 hour tutorial (N.B there are no tutorial classes in Week 1)
• The timetable for classes can be found on the University web site at:http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au/

Required and Recommended Texts and/or Materials

There is no set text for this unit. A guide to available resources is provided on iLearn.

Technology Used and Required

• Standard teaching technology (Powerpoint, Lecterns etc).

• Technology requirements: standard (i.e. computer access for submission of assessments and use of iLearn).

Unit Web Page

Course material is available on the learning management system (iLearn)

Learning and Teaching Activities

Lectures cover the basic content of the unit. They do not, however, cover the entire content, which must be made up with extra reading and tutorial work. Tutorials consist of student presentations and class discussion. 

Students are expected not only to attend classes, but to prepare for them in advance (it helps to know what the class is about!). You are encouraged to ask questions in lectures. You are expected to ask questions in tutorials.

• The presentation component has been removed from the tutorial assessments.
• The Reflective Writing Exercise is based on what was formerly the essay topic.

TUTORIAL ASSESSMENTS

Tutorials in ECON356 will focus on extracts from notable primary sources by significant authors. Tutorial questions and readings will be made available prior to tutorial sessions.

Each student will be called on twice in tutorials to submit written answers – the timing of each submission will be random.

Answer submission will be in two parts. The first component involves submission of a written paper answering the tutorial questions of not more than 4 double-spaced A4 pages. Excessive length will be penalised proportionately. Papers are due immediately after the presentation. An identical copy must be submitted via iLearn by 23:59 on the day of the tutorial. The second component involves submission of a written paper of not more than 2 double-spaced A4 pages reflecting on the class discussion of the tutorial content, and identifying the significant new points (i.e. not covered in the submitted answers) learned therefrom, and why they are significant. This component must also be submitted via iLearn by 23:59 on the day of the tutorial. 

Each component is weighted equally in terms of marks.

Failure to submit either component as required will result in zero marks being awarded for the tutorial submission. No extensions will be granted. An average of the marks for the tutorial submissions will be used in calculating the final overall tutorial mark, with a larger weight (2/3) applied to the higher of the two marks.

If you are absent when your name is called to submit tutorial answers you will receive a mark of zero for that attempt of the tutorial exercise. Given the random nature of the timing of these assessments, special consideration will not be available. Should you suspect that you will be absent from class on a given day, let me know in advance via email and I will endeavour to ensure that you are not disadvantaged.

ESSAY

Information relating to the essay for ECON356 will be provided via iLearn.

REFLECTIVE WRITING EXERCISE

In lieu of a final examination in this unit you will be expected to complete a writing exercise over the course of the semester. The aim of this task is for you to demonstrate in your own way that you have met the learning outcomes specified in the Unit Guide. The reflective writing exercise requires you to reflect on and compare the contributions of three writers on economics from different time periods.

In order to complete the RWE, begin by consulting the list of economists provided on the iLearn site. Then choose 3 economists from the combined list as follows:

• One only from each of Lists A, B and C;
• Each economist chosen must have the initial letter of one of their names in common with the initial letter of one of your names. It need not be the same letter – e.g. my initials are WB and my middle initial is D so that means I would have 27 permutations to play with (if you don’t know why, look it up!);
• Only names count, so titles (e.g. Dr) and prepositions in names (de, von) don’t; Customary names by which people were/are known are allowable, e.g. James Maitland, Earl Lauderdale is usually referred to as ‘Lauderdale’ in the literature so he could be used for a ‘J’, ‘M’ or ‘L’, but not ‘E’ (‘Earl’ is a title). 

For your chosen economists, you must show how their ideas are linked in some way. This could, for example, involve showing how they all worked on a specific problem (e.g. trade) and what their contributions are, and how they are related. Or it could mean showing how the work of the first lead to research questions that were worked on by the second, whose work then lead on to problems examined by the third. In this case the research topics need not be the same, but you have to be able to show how they are linked. Remember, linkages can be positive or negative - trying to build on the work of an earlier author, or trying to refute their arguments. These are non-exhaustive examples; your task is to show how the three can be put together as a set.Obviously, something like ‘they all wrote on economics’ is not sufficiently fine-grained! The aim of the exercise is to get a close and specific look at the genealogy of economic theory. 

Naturally, in preparing your response you are expected to draw on the material and topics covered in the course as examples and for thematic illustration. Marks will be awarded for insight and understanding, rather than irrelevant reproduction of course material. It is said with regard to improvising music that there are no wrong notes, just better choices. For this exercise the only definitively wrong note is simple retelling of the story of the course. You may be used to exam-based assessments where, to varying extents, this is what is expected of you. In this case, not. I already know what I will say and have said, and what I think. Telling me that doesn't show that you understand. I want to know what you think, and telling me that in your own way is an effective way to demonstrate achievement of the learning outcomes.

Please note that duplication of your essay content is not permitted (there are no economies of scale to be exploited here!).

The Reflective Writing Exercise has a word limit of 3000 words. It will be written as an individual wiki, hosted on iLearn. The RWE will be assessed at three points in time - as shown in the 'Assessment Tasks' section of this Unit Guide. The first stage will be worth 5% of the total unit mark, the second stage 15% and the final stage 25% (giving 45% for the exercise overall). Note that the document is expected to evolve, so the value added is what is being marked at each point. No marks will be allocated at a stage where the document has not been altered from the previous assessment stage.

The first stage should involve identifying your three authors and outlining the contributions you will be examining. The second stage should involve development of the interrelationships. The third stage should involve the finalisation of the argument, as well as some discussion of what the interrelationships among the three authors demonstrates about the evolution of economics as a discipline.

It is important to note that the assessment points are not 'due dates' per se. At the allotted time the wikis will be temporarily locked and whatever content is there will be marked before they are once again unlocked. You can edit your wiki at any time 24/7 so there are no extensions available at the assessment times. Nothing will be marked that is not on the wiki. It is expected that you will work on your wiki progressively (which I can verify via the edit history!). It is also expected that you will write your document on the wiki rather than cutting and pasting from external documents.

In addition to meeting the Learning Outcomes as required by the Grading Policy, it is necessary for a passing grade in ECON356 that you:

• score at least 40% of the combined available marks for the Tutorial Assignments and the Essay (i.e. at least 22/55);
• score at least 40% of the combined available marks for the Tutorial Assignments and the Reflective Writing Exercise (i.e. at least 28/70);
• score at least 40% of the combined available marks for the Essay and the Reflective Writing Exercise (i.e. at least 30/75).

The rationale for these rules is that there is a minimum level of general performance required if a student is to be held to have achieved the Learning Outcomes, and this precludes doing extremely poorly in one of the assessment tasks. Some degree of 'catch up' is permissible, but this must limited to maintain the integrity of the grading process.