Welcome to ECO 202 PRINCIPLES of ECONOMICS II Online Orientation

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Welcome to (ECO 202 PRINCIPLES of ECONOMICS II)
Online Orientation

• Mark Wencel
• Economics Instructor

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Course Information

• Microeconomics is about the study of specific
  products, businesses, and industries in the U.S.
  economy. You will learn about prices, pollution,
  public highways, various industries, luxury
  products, and many other exciting topics in
  microeconomics when you take this course.

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Welcome

• Welcome to Rappahannock Community Colleges
  Principles of Economics II on-line course. This
  is a Flexible Learning Opportunities course
  designed specifically for those students whose
  learning styles are best served by providing
  instructional opportunities beyond the
  traditional classroom setting. For this on-line
  course, access to a computer and the ability to
  send and receive e-mail, including the use of the
  Internet is required.

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Instructor Information

• Mark Wencel
• Part-time Internet Instructor at Rappahannock
  Community College
• Full-time Instructor at Piedmont Community
  College, PO Box 1197, Roxboro, North Carolina
  27573
• 336-599-1181, ext. 412 (24 hrs. a day)
• 336-598-0453 fax (24 hrs. a day)
• mwencel_at_rcc.vccs.edu

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Mark Wencel
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Instructor Availability

• I will have at least one hour each week of
  virtual office hours for those of you that want
  to talk to me synchronously online. The day and
  hour(s) will vary each week and will be announced
  on the blackboard announcement page weekly. You
  are not required to participate during the
  virtual office hour each week unless you want to.
• I will also be available by e-mail 24 hours a
  day.

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Course Materials

• You will need to purchase a textbook for this
  course. The textbook is Principles of Economics,
  Third Edition, by N. Gregory Mankiw (ISBN
  0-324-16862-4), Harcourt College Publishers.
  This same textbook is used for two courses (ECO
  201 and ECO 202). Different chapters are covered
  in both courses, using the same textbook.

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Picture of Your Textbook
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Technical Requirements

• To succeed in this course you should have access
  to a computer and be able to access the Internet.
  In addition, being able to send and receive
  e-mail, including attachments is a requirement.

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Dates to Remember

• The course begins on January 7, 2006 and ends on
  April 27, 2006.
• The last day to add/drop is January 23, 2006.
• The last day to withdraw without a grade penalty
  is March 17, 2006.

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Course Content Overview

• In this course you will be learning about the
  study of specific products, businesses, and
  industries in the U.S. economy. Many of these
  topics you see on the news and read in the
  newspaper every day. You will learn about
  prices, pollution, public highways, various
  industries, luxury products, and many other
  exciting topics in microeconomics when you take
  this course.

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Course Content with Cartridge

• This is something you do not need to worry about
  for this course. In some courses, you must have
  a special code to enter the course content on the
  blackboard site. This is not one of those
  courses. So do not worry about this.

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Grading/Evaluation

• You can earn 375 points in this course. Exams
  will count as 300 points of the final grade and
  other assignments will count as 75 points.
• Your final grade for this course will be
  determined as follows
• 338 to 375 points A
• 300 to 337 points B
• 263 to 299 points C
• 225 to 262 points D
• 224 points or below F

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Testing

• There will be 3 open book and open notes exams.
  Each exam will consist of 25 to 50 true-false or
  multiple choice questions. You will have 2 hours
  to complete each exam. All exams will be taken
  online and will consist entirely of objective
  questions. There will be no essay questions.
  Exam 1 can be taken online at home. Exams 2
  and 3 will be taken online in the Testing
  Center.

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Getting Started with Assignments

• The first assignment you will have to complete is
  a required icebreaker assignment where you
  introduce yourself by posting information about
  yourself on the discussion board. You must
  complete this assignment by January 17, 2006 or
  you will be dropped from the course. This
  assignment will be worth 1 point toward your
  final grade.

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Evaluation

• In order to truly improve, we must evaluate the
  class. Please complete your course evaluation
  when posted in Blackboard near the end of the
  semester.
• Only you can make the course better by giving us
  constructive feedback.

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Help
FLO_at_rcc.vccs.edu
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Email and Blackboard Tips and Tricks

• If using AOL or other broadband internet
  providers, please open another browser such as
  Internet Explorer or Netscape 6.0 or higher.
• Make sure when sending attachments that the
  filename contains no spaces or special characters
  such as hyphens or symbols.
• If you cannot login to your blackboard or email
  account, please go to the student login page to
  fill out an error reporting form.
• If you are having trouble with opening blackboard
  or your email, make sure to view the VCCS outage
  page at http//helpnet.utility.vccs.edu/central/Lo
  gs/outagelog.htm.
• If you are typing a long email, you might want to
  type it in word and then cut and paste the
  information into your email message.
• Other tips can be seen at the VCCS Webmail FAQ
  page at http//webmail3.utility.vccs.edu/index.pl?
  funcusage
• If you are new to distance learning, you should
  attend the on campus orientation. If that is not
  possible, please attend the online orientation at
  http//www.rcc.vccs.edu/tegrity and select Online
  FLO Orientation.

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Have a great semester

• You are going to learn a lot and have fun in this
  course. I look forward to getting to know every
  one of you.