Welcome to ECO 211 Online!
At first the materials and structure of this course will
seem confusing and maybe a bit overwhelming. This
orientation will begin the process of learning to navigate
through the course. Remember that you can always ask your
instructor for help (mhealy@harpercollege.edu)
or 815-861-7265. Some of the information here is also
included on the course syllabus.
There is NO ON-CAMPUS ORIENTATION. Instead,
there is this orientation webpage, an extensive course
syllabus, and a orientation quiz which must be competed
during the first week of the semester. The orientation quiz
is worth 5 points and you can take it as many times as is
necesary. Only the highest score will be included in the
gradebook. The quiz will cover information found in the
course syllabus, orientation webpage, and on the course
Blackboard site. You will find the syllabus and the
orientation quiz on the course Blackboard site.
If you have any questions please post them on the
Blackboard Discussion Board so that all students can read
the question and reply, or email me.
For your online orientation, do the following:
- Read the SYLLABUS
and this ORIENTATION
page. Read the syllabus again.
- Put the MICWEBAPP
on your cell phone or tablet. Go to the MICWEBAPP
on your mobile device and read this link found at the
bottom of the page: Click
here to learn how to put an icon to this webapp on your
mobile device.
- See the LESSONS
page, or the MICWEBAPP,
which is the CORE of the online course. Always look
here BEFORE beginning a new chapter. We do not always
read the whole chapter and sometimes additional pages
from another chapter are included. The LESSONS
page, and MICWEBAPP,
contains the following for each lesson:
- lesson introduction
- something interesting
- reading assignments
- assigned video lectures
- lesson outcomes
- key terms
- practice quiz
- formulas
- key graphs
- YELLOW PAGES
- Check out the Yellow Pages on our Blackboard
site. The Yellow Pages are worksheets that I use in my
face-to-face Micro sections. (They are printed on
yellow paper.) We do most of the graphing exercises in
class and some of the Quick Quizzes. For my online
sections I strongly recommend that you do the yellow
pages. They are not required, but I think you will
find them very useful while you prepare for the
quizzes and exams.
- Check out the Blackboard
Menu. You can click on ALL of the links to
see what is there. The only thing that you should not do
is to "begin" an quiz. Everything else you can click on
without problems. Go to Blackboard
and look around. There you will find:
- CHAPTERS-BEGIN HERE (everything that you should be
doing
- COURSE INFO.
- FOR STUDYING
- FOR POINTS
- Orientation Quiz
- Required Activities
- Quizzes
- Exams
- Extra Credit
- FOR PRACTICE (see below)
- OTHER
- Take the ORIENTATION QUIZ on Blackboard
FOR
PRACTICE
In order to do well in an economics course you must
practice. Many students have read the book, maybe more than
once, and failed the exams. Think of economics like a you
would a math class. You would never just read a math
textbook and not do any problems before taking an exam. If
you did you would probably fail. I am not saying that there
is a lot of math (but some) in this course, but you must do
problems or you will not really learn the concepts.
DO PROBLEMS. BEGIN WITH THE REQUIRED ACTIVITIES and
theYELLOW PAGES
I have prepared many other practice activities for you.
ALL can be found on our Blackboard site in a section of the
main menu called: FOR PRACTICE. There you will find the
following:
- PREQUIZZES used in my face-to-face sections
- CLICKER QUIZZES used in my face-to-face sections
- STUDY
GUIDE and TEXTBOOK PROBLEMS:
- Study Guide multiple choice and problems (must be
purchased, see syllabus)
- Worked Problems from the textbook website
(free)
- Web Quizzes from the textbook website (free)
- End-of-Chapter Questions from the textbook with
solutions on Blackboard (free with textbook)
- TEXTBOOK SOLUTIONS for answers to the assigned end
of chapter textbook questions
- OTHER
REVIEW (free)
- FINAL
EXAM REVIEW (vocabulary list)
- PRACTICE QUIZZES / OTHER (free on Blackboard)
- Ch 8 - 4 PRODUCT MARKETS practice quiz
- Ch 11 - GAME THEORY QUIZ practice quiz
- Ch 13 - 8 LABOR MARKETS practice quiz
- Ch 13 - SUMMARY 8 MODELS pdf
Also:, there are review quizzes for most of the online
video lectures (VIDEO
LOGIN)
OK, I know this is a lot, and most students will not do
them all, but they are here if you need them.
OTHER
- There is NO certain time that you must be
online.
- Schedule dates, except for the final exam, are
flexible. They are recommendations only.
- Exams are taken ot the Harper Testing Center, unless
arrangements have been made to take them at another
proctored testing center.
- Always put "ECO 211" and a message in the
subject lines of e-mail messages sent to the me. To avoid
viruses, I delete messages prior to reading them if I
don't know who they are from.
- Every time you open a REQUIRED ACTIVITY, even if you
do not answer a single question, you must click on the
SUBMIT button before you close the page. Click on SUBMIT
EVERY TIME, even if you haven't finished all of the
questions.
- You are NOT on your own. Your instructor is
available to provide assistance and answer questions:
- The Blackboard Discussion
Board for course CONTENT questions
- E-mail for personal questions:
mhealy@harpercollege.edu
- Call me at
- Cell: 815-861-7265 (Best, especially during the
summer.)
- Harper: 847-925-6352 (Not during the
summer)
- DISCUSSION BOARD
- Use the Discussion Board for any question which
might be of use to other students - like asking a
question in class. Do not ask such questions via
e-mail. If you use the Discussion Board everyone can
"hear" the answer.
- It is strongly suggested that you SUBSCRIBE to the
discussion board thread so that you get an e-mail
whenever a new message is posted.
- SOME OF YOU WILL NOT COMPLETE THIS COURSE
- Distance learning courses tend to have a high drop
rate. Many students who register for, and pay for,
online classes never complete them. Harper gets your
money and you get nothing. If you cannot devote at
least as much time, or MORE, to this course as you
would to a regular face-to-face college course, you
should consider withdrawing.
- College counselors suggest that on average during
a regular 16 week semester, students should
attend class 3 hours a week and they should study
outside of class TWO hours for every ONE hour of
class. Therefore for a regular semester 16-week
three-credit-hour online class this means that you
should plan for NINE hours a week (three hours of
"class" PLUS 2 x 3 hours of studying). This is an
average, which means some courses require more study
time and some less. You may find that economics
requires MORE. In the summer, with 5-week and
8-week class sections, you will need to study more
hours each week. DO THE MATH: 8-week summer session =
18 hours of studying per week; 5-week summer session =
about 29 hours of studying per week.
- If you decide not to finish the course and you do
not officially withdraw by the drop date you will
receive an "F" grade for the semester.
- For the last day to withdraw (drop date) from
course see the course schedule.
- Everything that is required, or optional, for you
to do is listed under the CHAPTERS - BEGIN HERE link on
our Blackboard website. But you will also want to
do as many of the FOR PRACTICE exercises as is necesary
for you to learn the material.
WHERE DO YOU START?
- Read the SYLLABUS
and ORIENTATION
web pages again, look over the BLACKBOARD
site, and take the orientation quiz.
- Do the LESSONS
(textbook reading, online videos, video notes).
- Do the YELLOW PAGES.
- Then, do as many of the FOR
PRACTICE review exercises as needed.
Don't forget to take the Orientation Quiz on
Blackboard.
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