Online quizzes

There will be four online quizzes conducted throughout the session. These will be held during teaching weeks 4, 7,10 and 13.

The first online quiz will cover lecture material from weeks 1-3, the second online quiz will cover lecture material from weeks 4-6, the third online quiz will cover lecture materials from week 7-9, and the fourth online quiz will cover lecture materials from week 10-12. 

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 due to illness or other reasons?

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 3rd of September, 2021 (Week 6) and the second assignment is due by 3pm on Friday 29th of October, 2021 (Week 12).

The assignments are to be submitted via Turnitin through iLearn. 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 10% 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 20% penalty).

What happens if I cannot submit the assignment due to illness or other reasons?

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

A two-hour final exam will be held during the University's exam period.  The exam will cover material from all topics covered in the unit. The exam will consist of multiple-choice questions and short-answer/numerical questions.

What happens if I miss the final exam due to illness or other reasons?

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.

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 (https://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/launchpad/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 following week's 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 – weekly online ECHO recordings (1.5 hours for each topic) and four live online revision lectures (1.5 hours in weeks 4, 7, 10, 13)

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.

Live online revision lectures will cover material from the preceding three weeks of lectures.  For example, the first revision lecture in week 4 will cover material from weeks 1-3, the second revision lecture in week 7 will cover material from weeks 4-6, and so on.  The revision lectures will be an interactive experience, including live quizzes and discussion of example questions relevant to the respective topics covered.

Tutorials – weekly face-to-face or online Zoom meetings (1 hour for each topic)*

Tutorials constitute a critical learning experience of this unit. 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.

* Subject to changes due to covid-19 (which will be highlighted on iLearn, if relevant), delivery of face-to-face tutorials will revert to online formats if necessary.

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

Revision of the material from both lectures and tutorials.  Details will be provided on iLearn.