About the course.

This course is intended as an overview of economics.  Think of it as a informed-citizen’s guide to the economy and to economic ideas.  Economics is at its core a theoretical discipline, and one goal of the course is to give you a working knowledge of the basic theory and the beginnings of an economic intuition. We will move fast and cover a lot of ground, from the environment to personal finances, from the economics of organ transplants to the workings of the Federal Reserve.  But you will see that many of the same basic ideas will be applicable to all these areas.

One important theme for the course is that understanding economics makes you see the world differently -- and that many of people's intuitions about how the social world works are flat-out wrong. In many respects, this course is about deflating urban legends about the economy and society generally. Economists are happiest when they are mythbusters.

Your guide to the course.

What you take away from a course -- how much you learn, how much you enjoy it -- depends in significant part on what your expectations are and on how you approach the course. In some respects this course is a typical large-lecture course. In other respects, however, this is an unusual -- and, at this point, experimental -- course.  It actually has a number of elements that you can use to tailor the course to your own learning style and interests.  To get the most out of the course, you need to know what these elements are, how they interact, and how to use them.

• MyEconLab.  Learning economics involves learning a skill as much as it does learning facts or manipulating ideas.  In this respect, an economics course combines the “feel” of a math course with the feel of a political science or history course.  Although this particular course will keep the technical stuff to a minimum, you will need to practice some basic skills like drawing and shifting supply-and-demand curves.  And this is what MyEconLab is good for – the skill part.  Although some students chafe at the discipline the MyEconLab deadlines impose, student reaction to such online systems has been overwhelmingly favorable. MyEconLab actually has two functions: (A) allowing you to practice and guiding your study and (B) taking the place of quizzes (but not exams). Here is a short tutorial.
  
• Textbook..  And, of course, there is a textbook, which is integrated with MyEconLab. The book is customized specifically for us: it picks and chooses chapters from several texts in order to tailor the discussion more closely to my own approach than would be possible with an off-the-shelf book. The book is available in paper from the Co-op or in an online-only version. (Even if you buy the paper version, you will also automatically have the online version as part of MyEconLab.)
• Lectures.  Because MyEconLab will prepare you with the basic ideas and skills of the course, the lectures take on a different function than they might in other courses.  The lectures are to fill in the gaps, to help you interpret what you have learned, and to provoke you to think in new ways.  Even though this is a fairly large class, I want and expect discussion.  Don’t be afraid to talk, to ask questions, to challenge what I say.  My approach is to use the material in MyEconLab and the textbook as a backdrop and a starting point but to provide my own spin and perspective.  Sometimes, as when we talk about the economics of higher education and the economics of textbooks, the lectures will cover stuff that isn’t in the book at all (and not very much in MyEconLab).  In past semesters, some students felt that the lectures follow the book and MyEconLab too closely, while an equal number of students complained that the lectures injected too much material that wasn’t in the book!  Obviously, both groups missed the point of the lectures.  They are not the main driver of the material; they are about enrichment, and maybe even be about adding genuine understanding to the material.
• PowerPoint slides.  In order to structure the lectures, I use PowerPoint slides, and I make these available online.  Students generally like the slides and the online availability.  The downside, as you might guess, is that many students then feel they don’t need to come to class.  (I don’t know, however, if anyone has done a rigorous empirical test of whether and how much online slides reduce class attendance.  That’s precisely the sort of thing economists would do.)  As an economist, I am well aware that there is an opportunity cost to your time, and that missing a lecture is arguably a rational decision.  But I can’t help thinking you are missing the fun part.
• Teaching Assistant. 

So, what you have in this course is a menu of learning resources.  Some, like the homework on MyEconLab and the exams, are required; others are optional.  You need to think about how you will use these resource.  Some students have complained that this system “makes you teach yourself economics.”  Here’s a newsflash:  in the end, you always teach yourself.  An instructor can create the structure and guide you through the process.  He or she can even provoke and motivate you.  But only you can teach yourself the material.

If you need help, talk to us.