An Open Access Course

Intro Macro SyllabusDownload
Interactive Lectures

Student Created E-learning Content

Course Description

An introduction to national income analysis, money and banking, and balance of payments. The course deals with theory and policies of a mixed economy, using the United States as a prime example. Emphasis is placed upon the determination of public policies to solve the problems of unemployment, inflation, and stable economic growth.

Intended Outcomes:

In keeping with the liberal tradition and educational goals, this course intends to support the students’ growth in critical thinking, problem solving, and communication skills. The course stresses the application of the scientific process to economic phenomena and analyzes the ways in which economic forces affect national policies and issues.

Information Literacy.

Students will be able to:

  1. Understand and interpret both mathematical and graphical presentations of economic models.
  2. Identify, find, cite process and interpret current and historical economic data to communicate information about related economic phenomena.

Visual Literacy.

Students will be able to:

  1. Interpret, create and use graphical representations of theoretical models and understand their limitations.
  2. Interpret, create and use graphical and tabular representations of data and empirical models and understand their limitations.
  3. Utilize clear and appropriate labels and captions for graphs, tables and images.
  4. Use visuals in their written work and presentations, including graphs and tables representing data or theoretical and empirical models, to effectively summarize research and communicate information.

Technology literacy.

Students will be able to:

  1. Retrieve data and import it to R.
  2. Use R to create graphical and tabular representations of data.

Oral Communication.

Students will be able to:

  1. Explain economic phenomena using models and acknowledge the limitations of those models.
  2. Discuss data summaries presented in graphs and tables.
  3. Work in groups to do assignments/projects/presentations and/or provide critique to peers’ work.
  4. Present (informational or advocatory) to economists and non-economists alike.