Detailed information on assessment tasks, including specific submission and assessment dates and marking rubrics will be supplied via iLearn.

All assessments will involve either online submission or online completion.

The following conditions apply to the Assignment:

No extensions will be granted. There will be a deduction of 10% of the total available marks made from the total awarded for each 24-hour period or part thereof that the submission is late (e.g. 25 hours late = 20% penalty) unless an application under the Special Consideration Policy has been made and serious and unavoidable disruption found to have occurred.

As the discussions are time-limited activities involving the whole unit cohort, no extensions are possible. The blogs will be open for all to read once marked, so no extensions will be possible once blog entries are made publicly available. Where an application relating to blog entries or a graded discussion is successful, alternative assessment approaches will be employed.

Learning and teaching strategy

The learning and teaching strategy in ECON215 recognises that students learn from interaction with academic staff and other students.  It also recognizes that students must take responsibility for their learning process, which includes independent study.  Moreover, it acknowledges the importance and acts to promote the academic and personal integrity of students and academic staff.

Online content provision

Material provided online in lieu of 'traditional' lectures is intended to provide an overview of topics in behavioural economics and application to a variety of situations. This leaves face-to-face time free for interactive exploration of the material.

'Lectorials' – Small Group Learning

'Lectorials' constitute the central learning experience in this unit and students are required to attend. The aim of these sessions is for students to work together (lecturer facilitating) to discuss and derive novel applications of the content provided online, and to assess its relevance to 'standard' economic analyses of selected problems. Insights obtained within small groups will be shared with the larger group, reflecting a cooperative approach to knowledge creation and discovery.

Independent Learning – (≈ 7-8 hours per week)

ECON215 relies heavily on independent learning where students consume the online material, reflect on lectorial outcomes, and prepare questions as part of the Reading Game task.  

Classes

There are 2 hours face-to-face teaching per week consisting of:

• one 2 hour 'lectorial'

There will be approximately 1 hour of online content provided each week.

It is important to note that as the course is running in the 'lectorial' format, there are no weekly tutorial classes in ECON215.

The timetable for classes for ECON215 is on the University web site at: http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au/.

Required and Recommended Texts and/or Materials

There is no set textbook for the course.

USEFUL REFERENCES:

• Angner, A Course in Behavioral Economics
• Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow
• Thaler & Sunstein, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness

Unit Web Page

iLearn is a Learning Management System accessible via at http://ilearn.mq.edu.au through which students will be able to access resources to assist them throughout the semester.

The discussion forum on iLearn can (and should) be utilised to ask academic and administrative questions (of a non-personal nature). You must regularly visit and use the website to assist with your learning.

Information available on iLearn will include (but not be limited to) the following:

It will be useful if you bring a device with online connectivity (phone, tablet, laptop) to each lectorial session, as online tools will be used frequently.

In order to demonstrate attainment of the learning outcomes to an extent sufficient to warrant a passing grade in ECON215 as per the Assessment Policy you must:

• score at least 40% of the combined available marks for the Personal Blog and the Assignment (i.e. at least 28/70);
• score at least 40% of the combined available marks for the Personal Blog and the Graded Discussions (i.e. at least 24/60);
• score at least 40% of the combined available marks for the Assignment and the Graded Discussions (i.e. at least 28/70).

Note that these are necessary, not sufficient, conditions. They must be achieved in addition to attaining an aggregate mark of at least 50.

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 the assessment tasks address different combinations of the Learning Outcomes. This means that doing extremely poorly in one of the assessment tasks is not consistent with demonstrating overall attainment of the Learning Outcomes.  Some degree of 'catch up' is permissible, but this must limited to maintain the integrity of the grading process.

The Assessment Policy requires that students be given an additional attempt to meet hurdle requirements where failure to meet the requirements will result in a fail grade for the unit. This attempt is available only to students who are deemed to have made a *serious attempt* at the hurdle assessment. For the purposes of this unit the definition of serious attempt is the submission of at least 50% of the answers or contributions required for assessments. This means submission of the assignment, at least 6 personal blog entries and participation in at least 2 graded discussions.

Students who score at least 50, meet the participation requirements described, and fail to meet the hurdle condition described above will be given an additional assessment task in line with the Policy. Students who do not meet the participation requirements will be deemed not to have made a serious attempt and so will not be allowed an additional assessment as per the Policy.