Tutorial participation

Tutorial participation is expected throughout the session. You will have many opportunities to participate in both small and large group activities. Your tutor will record your participation throughout the session to provide an overall mark for this component of the assessment. In order to get full marks for this component of the tutorial assessment, you need to demonstrate active participation in at least 10 tutorials throughout the session. Further details relating to tutorial participation are available in the participation rubric on iLearn.

What happens if I miss a tutorial?

We recognise that from time-to-time other commitments may result in you missing a tutorial. Therefore, we have designed this assessment to allow you an opportunity to achieve full marks (5% of your final grade) providing you participate in at least 10 (of 12) tutorials. That is, you may miss up to two tutorials without penalty. If you have a valid reason that prevents you from attending at least 10 tutorials throughout the session you may submit an application under the Special Consideration Policy. If your application is successful, your participation mark will be adjusted accordingly.

Online quizzes

There will be five online quizzes conducted throughout the session. These will be held during teaching weeks 3, 5, 7, 9 and 13.

The first online quiz will cover lecture material from weeks 1-2, the second online quiz will cover lecture material from weeks 3-4, the third online quiz will cover lecture materials from week 5-6,  the fourth online quiz will cover lecture materials from week 7-8 and the fifth online quiz will cover lecture material from weeks 9-12. Out of five quizzes, three best quizzes will be graded towards final score.

During quiz weeks, quizzes will be released on iLearn at 9am on Monday and close at 5pm the following Sunday.

Please note that no extensions will be granted. Failure to complete any quiz will result in a zero mark for that quiz.

If students undertake a quiz off-campus, it is their responsibility to ensure the compatibility of the software they use with that of the university. Technical failures that occur when a quiz is done off-campus cannot be verified by the university and will result in a mark of zero for that quiz.

What happens if I miss a quiz?

If you have a valid reason that prevents you from attempting an online quiz you may submit an application under the Special Consideration Policy. If your application is successful, your marks from the remaining online quizzes will be adjusted accordingly.

Individual Assignments​

There will be two individual assignments to be completed during the session. The first assignment is due by 3pm on Friday 4th of September, 2020 (Week 6) and the second assignment is due by 3pm on Friday 30th of October, 2020 (Week 12).

The assignments are to be submitted via Turnitin through iLearn. The emphasis in the assignments will be on using economic theory and reasoning to demonstrate the graduate capability related to 'ethical thinking'. The assignments will be in the form of two written essays (1250 words each) and worth 30% of your final mark in this unit.

The first assignment will be available on iLearn in week 2 and the second assignment will be available in week 8. Please note that no extensions will be granted. Late assignments will be accepted up to 96 hours after the submission deadline. There will be a deduction of 20% of the total available marks made from the total awarded mark for each 24 hour period or part thereof that the submission is late (for example, 25 hours late means a 40% penalty).

All students who apply for Special Consideration in relation to an assignment will be given an extension if the application is approved. Please consult the Special Considerations Policy.

Final exam

End of unit two hour written examination, to be taken during the end of session examination period. The examination will cover material drawn from all parts of the unit’s subject matter. The exam will consist of multiple-choice questions and written-answer questions.

What happens if I miss the final exam?

All students who apply for Special Consideration for the final exam will be required to sit a supplementary examination, if the application is approved. Please note that the supplementary examination may have a different format to the original exam. It is reasonable to point out that because students who sit the supplementary examination usually have much longer to prepare for their examination, the supplementary examination will be more difficult and marked at a higher level than the original examination.

Prescribed textbook

Students are recommended to purchase the following textbook:

• Goolsbee, A, Levitt, S.. & Syverson, C, (2020) Microeconomics (3rd Ed.), Macmillan.

The text is available for purchase  https://www.booktopia.com.au/coop or may be purchased as an e-book (http s://www.vitalsource.com/en-au/products/microeconomics-austan-goolsbee-steven-v9781319136 628?term=goolsbee).

The publisher also provides additional resources through 'Launchpad', an online site that includes the e-book and various other resources (practice tests, etc). If you have purchased an access code for Launchpad, you should go to the website http://www.macmillanhighered.com/lau nchpad/gls2e/10291617 and enroll in the online course.   Please note, this is an extra resource  and it is NOT required for the unit.  It is entirely optional whether or not you wish to purchase   these extra resources. More information about Launchpad is provided in the introduction to the text.

Additional references (in alphabetical order)

Apart from the prescribed textbook, students may find the following resources useful.

• Frank, R.H. (2010), Microeconomics and Behavior (8th Ed), Boston: McGraw-Hill.
• Nechyba, T.J. (2011), Microeconomics: An Intuitive Approach with Calculus (1st Ed), South-Western.
• Perloff, J.M. (2016) Microeconomics (7th Ed), Pearson
• Pindyck R.S. and Rubinfeld D.L. (2017), Microeconomics (9th Ed), Pearson International Edition.
• Varian, H.R. (2014), Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach (9th Ed), New York: Norton.

For equity concerns, the library has assisted ECON2003 with placing scanned resources from a variety of resources on the library's e-Reserve website. If you are facing financial difficulties in obtaining a textbook, this could be an option for you.

Technology used and required

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 iLearn by 5pm Friday each week before the lecture.

The iLearn site is also used to post important notices. You should check this regularly. The  iLearn web page has the facility to allow peer to peer discussion and 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 – online ECHO recordings (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 chapter(s) before each lecture. ECON2003 relies heavily on independent learning where students read the relevant chapter(s), revise lecture notes and prepare answers to the tutorial questions.

Tutorials – online Zoom meetings (1 hour for each topic)

Tutorials constitute a critical learning experience of this unit and students must attend these in order to earn participation marks. In ECON2003 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. Brief tutorial solutions and accompanying ECHO recordings of these solutions will be posted on iLearn after completion of all classes each week.

PAL, Peer Assisted Learning (1 hour for each topic)

Revision of the material from both lectures and tutorials.