Syllabus for G100: ``Business in the Information Age'' (December 1, 1999)

Eric Rasmusen

  1. Basics
  2. Course Objectives
  3. Course Materials
  4. Assignments and Grading
  5. Office Hours and My Availability
  6. Course Schedule

Basics

Course Objectives

 This course is designed to provide beginning students with an introductory but comprehensive survey of business practices and information. Managers, consumers, investors, and government regulators all rely on a variety of information sources in making their decisions. In this course, you will learn what these sources are, where their information comes from, what it means, and how to use it. A large part of the course will also be devoted to business basics, which will further illustrate the importance of information. The course will provide a foundation for continued studies in business, and be useful even if you decide to pursue studies in other areas. The course will also give you experience in reading, discussing, and the critical skills needed to interpret possibly biased information.

G100 will be of interest to students already admitted to the School of Business, to those considering a business major, and to those who intend for this to be their only business course. It can be taken concurrently with E201 and E202, or before them. There are no prerequisites or corequisites for the course. It will be good preparation both for the I-Core courses in the business major and for courses outside the School of Business which make use of economic and business information sources.

The class is structured in lecture/discussion format. The full class will meet in 50-minute sessions twice a week. The class will be separated into two 50-minute discussion sections that will meet on Fridays.

Course Materials

 MS: Kenneth Morris and Alan Siegel, The Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Money and Investing, Lightbulb Press, 1993.

Packet: G100 Reading Packet, Parts I and II. Available at Mr. Copy, 10th and Indiana Street.

I will pass around a form from which you can sign up for the Wall Street Journal at a special price.

Later in the course I will supply you with the Eli Lilly annual report, courtesy of that company.

Assignments and Grading

 Final course grades will be calculated from the following assignments:

The quizzes, midterm, and final will contain a combination of types of questions. Multiple choice, short answer, and essay questions are all possible.

Each of you will choose a company to follow throughout the semester. You will complete various short assignments, many of them about that company. The purpose is to give you practice in thinking about how to collect information while learning more and more about one company. These will be graded down if late. All of these assignments are to be done in groups of about four people. Each person should submit a separate copy of the group's work on the assignment.

If, for some reason, you do not complete part of an assignment, write a short memo on a separate page explaining why. "Short" can mean one sentence; "memo" means the explanation says what you should have done, what you have actually done, and why there is a difference.

Most of the assignments will have one grade for the group. In the groups, you will, I hope, learn better how to manage, which includes motivating, scheduling, and coordination. This is an important part of business, but a part that cannot be taught in the classroom. At the end of the semester, I will ask you each to submit a confidential report ranking the other members of your group in the order of their value to the group's output, and I will take this into consideration in determining the Professionalism part of the grade.

I will automatically subtract points for each of the following common stylistic mistakes in assignments:

  1. Confusion of "Affect" and "Effect".
  2. Confusion of "It's" and "Its".
  3. Use of "Impact" as a verb.
  4. Not dating an assignment.
  5. Confusion of "Loose" and "Lose".
Since we have a relatively small number of people in the class, we should take advantage of that with give and take during the lectures. I strongly suggest that you do the reading before class. Attendance is also necessary to get the full benefit out of this class, and I will pass around an attendance sheet. If you arrive late, come up after class to sign in. You may be absent 2 sessions without hurting your professionalism grade (though I don't recommend it unless you have a special reason).

I encourage you to check on my arithmetic in the adding up of points on tests. I'd appreciate your letting me know if I gave you too many points, but I won't reduce your grade in that case. I will not engage in oral discussions of particular grades, but if you think a mistake has been made in the grading of any assignment, I will be happy to read a written memo detailing the problem, even if the memo is just an inquiry on something unclear. A memo can be as short as "My scores on Quiz 3 add to 24, not 23; see my attached quiz," but it must be in writing. I encourage you to discuss test answers with me so you understand where you went wrong, but it should be understood that these discussions are entirely separate from any question of grading.

Please bring to class the readings we are discussing that day.

``Professionalism'' means acting as a business professional would: attending class regularly, being polite and helpful to other students, handing assignments in on time, asking good questions, not sleeping in class, and so forth. (You don't have to wear a business suits, though.) It includes, but is not limited to attendance, having a nameplate in front of you. sending in email votes on cases, saying something in class occasionally during the semester, saying especially useful things in class, and input from teammates. "Miscellaneous assignments" refers to such things as case votes or impromptu short write-ups.

Please remember to bring the nameplates I will give you to class. They are not just for me, but for your fellow classmates too, so put your name on both front and back. If you lose your nameplate, make yourself a new one.

Announcements and Changes

Although I will generally stick to the policies and schedule outlined in the syllabus, various contingencies (snow days, illness, etc.) may require changes, and some topics may carry over from one session to the next. Announcements of changes might be made either in class or through email messages to you. You are responsible for knowledge of any and all announcements made in class and, within 24 hours, for any and all announcements made by e-mail (so check your e-mail daily).

Academic Misconduct

Any student committing an act of Academic Misconduct, as defined in the Code of Student Ethics, will be subject to any and all sanctions defined therein. Cheating is obviously dishonest, and I will not tolerate it. If you are worried about the boundary between using sources and plagiarism, please ask me. Note that signing attendance for an absent classmate is a form of cheating. If you observe cheating of any kind, you have a duty both to the university and to your non-cheating classmates to notify me.

Office Hours and My Availability

 My office hours are Wednesday 2-4 in BU 456 (or by appointment-- please call 5-9219 or send me e-mail at Erasmuse@Indiana.edu). My office is on the 4th floor at the north end of the business building. Feel free to stop by any time. If my door is even a little bit open, that means you can knock and have a good chance of finding me able to talk. If it is closed, I am probably not there, or am on the phone, or am otherwise busy. You can also drop by during office hours or make an appointment, or use email to contact me. I am often in my office on Saturdays, but the outer doors are closed after 5 and on weekends, so call me at 855-3356 or email me.

You can also send me email via a web form. The difference is that comments via the form are anonymous unless you sign your message.

I will put any extras I may have of handouts in the G100 mailbox across from my office door.

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