Classes The timetable for classes can be found at the university web site: http:/www.timetables.mq.edu.au/.

Required and Recommended Texts and/or Materials

The required textbook in ECON111:

Gans, J., King, S., & Mankiw, N. G. (2014). Principles of Microeconomics: Australia and New Zealand Edition, 6th Edition. Cengage Learning.

The Co-op bookstore has this book and it is recommended that students purchase a copy. A copy of this book has been placed in the reserve section of the library. The publisher provides a range of support material for the textbook, including a website. Information on accessing this material is provided in the introduction to the text. The website material includes trial questions and quizzes. You may find it useful to devote some limited time to these questions and quizzes. They will give you some feedback on how your understanding is progressing. Note however that the bulk of your study time, outside of the classroom, should be devoted to studying 

Additional References

Your recommended textbook will be more than adequate for this unit. Listed below are a series of other texts on microeconomics that you should feel free to consult if you wish. These books cover most of the material covered in your textbook, but each one does so in its own unique way. You may choose to consult these books if you feel that a slightly different presentation of the material might aid your understanding. These books have been placed in the reserve section of the library:

Hubbard, G., Garnett, A., Lewis, P. and O’Brien, T., Microeconomics, Pearson Education, Australia, 2011.

Swann, M. and McEachern, W.A., Microeconomics: A Contemporary Introduction, Thomson, Australia, 3rd Edition, 2006.

McTaggart, Findlay and Parkin, Principles of Microeconomics, Pearson Education, Australia, 2013.

Technology Used and Required

Unit Web Page The unit uses the learning management system (iLearn) that can be accessed via iLearn.mq.edu.au. The lecture slides for each week’s lecture will be posted on the unit web page, before the lecture. You will find it useful to download the slides prior to the lecture, and bring them to the lecture. The web page is also used to post important notices from time to time. You should check this web page regularly. The unit web page has the facility to allow peer to peer discussion. The unit web page also allows students to put questions to an Online-Tutor. The Online-Tutor will attempt to answer your questions in a timely manner.

Learning and Teaching Activities

This unit is taught as a mix of tutorials and lectures. The lectures are designed to provide the tools which can then be applied in tutorials.

Lectures – large group learning (2 hours for each topic)

Lectures are intended to provide an overview of the key concepts explored in the unit. Students are expected to read the relevant chapters before each lecture. Independent learning ECON111 relies heavily on independent learning where students read the relevant chapter, revise lecture notes and prepare answers to the tutorial questions.

Tutorials – small group learning (1 hour for each topic)

Tutorials constitute a critical learning experience of this unit and students must attend. Group work is an essential part of this learning. In ECON111 we emphasise peer-to-peer learning by working as a group through the exercises and learning from others. Your tutor's role is to help you understand the material. Ask your tutor for guidance on how to approach questions and problems.

After the tutorials – the learning continues. At the end of each teaching day, review your tutorial notes, compare your answers to those of friends, members of your group and the discussion board. Note that model answers will not be provided. You get the answers by engaging in all the above activities.

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The curriculum has been transformed by integrating the threshold concepts of economics. Each topic will revolve around the threshold concepts of economics. Students are not to consider the unit as a series of 13 topics of content. Rather, students will be trained to master the eight threshold concepts of economics. The Topic Content each week is simply to highlight the utilisation of one or more of the eight Threshold Concepts of economics. While each topic engages more than one threshold concept, the main threshold concept for each topic has been underlined in bold.

* The Unit Schedule is subject to change depending on the lecture pace. Any alterations will be advised via iLearn.

While the coverage of each lecture stream is identical, students are encouraged to attend a single lecture stream for the entire session. This is to ensure continuity of a train of thought within a lecture stream. It is expected that students will be attending lectures on a weekly basis. The lecture streams are as follows:

Tuesday - 10 a.m. - 12 noon - Mr Prashan Karunaratne - Macquarie Theatre

Wednesday - 12 noon - 2 p.m. - Dr Edwin Franks - Macquarie Theatre

Thursday - 8 a.m. - 10 a.m. - Dr Onur Ates - E7B Mason Theatre

Friday - 12 noon - 2 p.m. - Dr Andrea Chareunsy - X5B T1

The final examination has been reduced from 60% to 50%.

The assignment submission has been split into a three-way submission. The assignment is now worth 30% instead of 20%.

The ordering of the topics has been augmented in line with the literature on "Threshold Concepts".  This new curriculum was first implemented successfully in Session 3, 2014.

While the coverage of each lecture stream is identical, students are encouraged to attend a single lecture stream for the entire session. This is to ensure continuity of a train of thought within a lecture stream. It is expected that students will be attending lectures on a weekly basis.

The on-site lecture streams are as follows:

Tuesday - 10 a.m. - 12 noon - Mr Prashan Karunaratne - Macquarie Theatre

Wednesday - 12 noon - 2 p.m. - Dr Edwin Franks - Macquarie Theatre

Thursday - 8 a.m. - 10 a.m. - Dr Onur Ates - E7B Mason Theatre

Friday - 12 noon - 2 p.m. - Dr Andrea Chareunsy - X5B T1

In addition to the aforementioned on-site lecture streams, the following live iLecture stream will be available:

Tuesday - 10 a.m. - 12 noon - Mr Prashan Karunaratne - iLecture via iLearn (a live stream of Tuesday's on-site lecture in Macquarie Theatre.)

If you are unable to attend an on-site lecture for a particular week, you are encouraged to log on to the live iLecture stream via iLearn from your chosen location. You will be able to interact with the teaching staff live via a chat tool in the live video-streaming-software (instructions on iLearn). The lecturer of this stream, (the Unit Convenor, Prashan Karunaratne) will aim to address any issues or questions during the 2 hour time slot - depending on practicality. Otherwise, the queries may be attended to post-lecture via iLearn. The purpose of the live lecture stream on Tuesdays is to allow interaction between students and teaching staff, even if students choose to attend the lecture on-line for a particulat week.

Furthermore, experience and feedback from past years indicate that students who miss an on-site lecture, and thus decide to watch pre-recorded lectures end up delaying the viewing of these. Students have reported that they themselves create a negative situation having accumulated too many hours of pre-recorded lectures to be viewed - and thus feel overwhelmed. Experience and feedback from students also indicates that watching a pre-recorded 2 hour lecture actually ends up taking 3 or more hours - due to continuous pausing and re-playing - thus ending up taking more time than originally intended or envisagaed. The live iLecture stream intends to address the negatives of pre-recorded lectures. However, the live iLecture is not intended to be a substitute to attending the on-site lecture in the first place.

NOTE: If you opt for the live iLecture stream, ECON111 staff are NOT able to address any technical, software or internet issues. By opting out of an on-site lecture and choosing the on-line live iLecture, you are responsible for ensuring all required compatibilities of hardware and software.

In addition to the aforementioned live iLecture steam, all on-site streams will be recorded and available for review for study and revision purposes via Echo360 on iLearn.

It must be noted that, the university and the The Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA), has listed the unit as "internal". Therefore, the expectation from staff, the university and TEQSA is that you are physically attending classes on-site. Innovations such as iLecture and Echo360 are provided as a supplement to assist in your study experience and journey at Macquarie University. These innovations are not intended as a substitute. This is because the unit is not listed as "external" - in other words, it is not a component of an online degree. The fees you pay, either deferred fees or upfront fees, are reflective of the extra resources and facilities required for an internal offering of the unit.

Furthermore, you will miss out on the "full" university experience by not being on-site, physically interacting with staff, physically interacting with peers and practising real-world social skills and collegiality that a university campus provides as training for your future careers.

It must be further noted that, the lectures in ECON111 are very dynamic and not static. The lecture recordings - whether via iLecture, or via Echo360 simply capture the audio of the lecturer's voice and the video of the projections on the main theatre screen. The video recordings are unable to record the various classroom interactivities, demonstrations and experiements. This is because the video recordings simply capture what has been projected onto the main theatre screen. Furthermore, theatres at Macquarie University have multiple screens which at times the lecturers will utilise to display various content. In this instance again, the video recording is only able to capture the content on a single (the main) screen.  

Finally, whichever lecture stream you choose, if you take part in all learning and teaching activities on a regular basis - you will be setting up yourself to not only pass but excel in ECON111 !

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT ALL STAFF INVOLVED IN ECON111 ARE HERE TO FORWARD AND NOT HINDER YOUR LEARNING.

WE ARE ALWAYS AVAILABLE AND READY TO ASSIST YOU IN ALL MATTERS RELATED TO ECON111. PLEASE COME AND SAY, " Hi !" .