| BUS 103 Business Math- Online |
Fall 2008 |
CONTACTING THE INSTRUCTOR
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Voice Mail |
201 447-7169 |
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Office |
400
Paramus Road |
Office hours:* |
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*I am often on campus aside from these scheduled office hours. Call or email to set up an appointment for other times.
| Course Description | Textbook | Learning Outcomes | Course Topics | "Attendance" | Academic Dishonesty |
| Quizzes | Projects | Homework | Getting Help | Make Up Policy | Grading |
| BUS 103 Business Mathematics provides a background in the principles and problems related to banking, interest, depreciation, and the pricing of merchandise. Attention is also given to commercial paper, consumer credit and various taxes. |
|
CREDITS/HOURS |
3credits; 3 hours |
| PREREQUISITES | MAT 011 or equivalent by placement or permission of the Department Head |
TEXTBOOK (required) |
Practical Business Math Procedures, 9 th Ed. By Jeffrey Slater. McGraw-Hill, ©2008 with DVD and Student Handbook. ISBN 0077214560. The textbook is available as an e-book from http://www.coursesmart.com. The e-book is approximately half the cost of the print book. Calculator: you may use any calculator |
| OTHER RESOURCES | Textbook web site: http://www.mhhe.com/slater9e Students who are having difficulty with the course may chose to subscribe to Aleks, on online tutoring system. The cost is approximately $20 per month for personalized tutoring with an automated system. Information may be found at http://www.business.aleks.com. |
| After successfully completing all course activities, the student will be able to :
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Lesson |
Chapter |
Topic |
|
1 |
- |
Introduction to the Course | |
2 |
4 |
Banking | |
3 |
7 |
Trade and Cash Discounts | |
4 |
8 |
Markup and Markdown | |
5 |
9 |
Payroll | |
6 |
10 |
Simple Interest | |
7 |
11 |
Promissory Notes and the Discount Process | |
8 |
12 |
Compound Interest and Present Value | |
9 |
13 |
Annuities and Sinking Funds | |
10 |
14 |
Installment Buying and Charge Cards | |
11 |
15 |
The Cost of Home Ownership | |
12 |
16 |
Financial Statements | |
13 |
18 |
Inventory and Overhead | |
14 |
19 |
Taxes | |
15 |
21 |
Stocks and Bonds Back to the top |
THE EXACT SCHEDULE FOR THE SEMESTER IS AVAILABLE TO REGISTERED STUDENTS THROUGH THE CALENDAR ICON. IF YOU NEED INFORMAITON ABOUT THE CALENDAR PRIOR TO REGISTERING EMAiL RANGIELLO@BERGEN.EDU.
| The student is expected to:
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| There is a quiz each week covering the chapter assigned for that week. The
quizzes will generally have 10-15 multiple choice questions covering the important vocabulary and concepts in the chapter and several problems which need to be worked out. The multiple choice questions will be similar to those in the self-tests on the publisher's web site. The problems will be similar to those suggested for "homework". Quizzes are timed and must be completed by the assigned
date and time. Because the quizzes contain some problems that must be graded by the instructor you will not get your grade immediately but within a few days of the deadline.
The deadline for each quiz is posted to the calendar. |
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| HOMEWORK | Each chapter will have suggested homework problems. The homework problems are assigned so that you can practice your skills after reading the chapter and following the sample problems. Although there is no grade for homework problems only very foolish students will skip doing them since all math teachers will tell you that doing problems is the only way to learn math. A sample solution to each homework problem is provided so you can check your work. Back to the top |
Much of the value of an online class is discussion, via the discussion forum (bulletin board), of the course topics. You are expected to participate in the discussions regularly. This means that you should have read the scheduled chapter(s) and thought through the questions posted for discussion. Each lesson has a different discussion; some require using materials from the book or websites. Discussion postings are graded based on the thought and insight demonstrated in the comments, the value of the comment to the discussion, the timeliness of participation, and the frequency of participation. The minimum per lesson is two substantive postings on two different days. There is a detailed explanation of how I grade the discussions under the Introduction in the Getting Started Section. You should be aware that the course software allows me to check how many postings you have read. There is no makeup for missed discussions regardless of the reason. Once a discussion is over; it's over. You are expected to stay current with business news that relates in some way to course content through newspapers, the Internet, TV, or radio. There may be discussion of the news on the bulletin board and the discussion grades will take into account how familiar you are with current business events. |
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| MAKEUP POLICY/EXTRA CREDIT |
Quizzes may be taken at any time prior to the due date; therefore, no makeups are given unless there are extenuating circumstances, not just that you don't have your act together. Contact the instructor if a deadline is missed for such a reason. If you anticipate being unable to take the quiz during the scheduled period contact the instructor in advance. Don't even ask. There is no extra credit. Do your work all semester long. |
| You are required to complete two out of three projects for this course. The projects are practical applications of Business Math that are important for each of us in our own financial lives. You may select the two projects that are most relevant to you. You are encouraged to join with 1 or 2 other students in this class and do any or all of the projects as a small group. I do not assign groups; formation of groups is entirely up to you. You are not required to work in a group. If you prefer you may work on all the projects alone. Detailed instructions on working in a group are posted under the Start Here and Project icons. Each of the projects is based on a short scenario. After reading the scenario and downloading a worksheet you will calculate the data needed to complete the worksheet, conduct additional research, and answer some discussion questions. The detailed requirements
for each of the projects are posted under the Projects icon on the homepage
and the due date is specified in the calendar. |
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| During
this online course there are no proctored exams. All quizzes are done online.
They are open book/open note. You may consult your textbook, the material
on the course website, or any notes you have made. This is perfectly acceptable
in this course. (Note: other online courses may not allow this.)
You are on your honor not to consult another person. Sharing quiz answers
or asking someone else for assistance in taking the quiz is academic dishonesty.
If I suspect academic dishonesty in quiz taking I reserve the right to require
in person proctored testing and, as required by BCC policy, all incidents
will be reported to the Vice President for Student Affairs.
A much more difficult issue of academic dishonesty arises in the submission of written work. It has been my experience that many students do not understand what is acceptable and what constitutes academic dishonesty. The following list is not meant to be a complete itemization of all the ways in which you can be dishonest but to point out the major problems. (1)You cannot purchase, borrow, or commission someone else’s written work and submit it as your own. You can’t copy it, even if you pay for it, and submit it as your own. (2)You cannot copy any part, as little as a piece of a sentence, of someone else’s work and incorporate it into your own without giving the citation. This includes information from books, newspapers, magazines, unpublished work written by someone other than yourself, and from the web. Some examples. When researching one of your projects you find a good description of one of the discussion question answers on a bank web site. You cannot copy and paste it into your report as if you wrote it yourself. What can you do? You can say something like this. According to the Citibank website, “blah, blah”. The “ ” signal that you have taken it verbatim (exactly word for word) from your source. Or, you can paraphrase it, that is, take the main idea and put it completely in your own words, and say something like this. As I discovered when reading about blah on the Citibank website, blah, blah. The absence of “ ” means you have not used any of the author’s words. It is very tempting to think that you are free to use information from the web and incorporate it into your own work without using quotes or giving the proper citation. Don’t fall into that trap. BCC uses plagiarism software and I personally check all written work against the software and other resources What happens if you submit
work that is not your own? You get a zero for that project and, as required
by BCC policy, you are reported to the Vice President for Student Affairs. |
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| GETTING HELP | Experience with Business Math indicates that some students have difficulty solving problems. This is due to a lot of different reasons: difficulty reading, difficulty extracting the salient points from a word problem, lack of basic math skills. One of the key reasons, however, that students tend to have trouble is that they do not take enough time to work through the homework problems or that they do not keep up with the course work. If you are making a conscientious effort to do both of these and still have difficulty there are several ways to get assistance:
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| While
the notion of attendance in an online class may seem unusual, it is critically important that you stay current with the course activities. Once you get behind in a math class you will have an extremely difficult time caching up. It especially difficult because in many cases subsequent topics are based on what you learned in a previous chapter. A good rule of thumb is
to expect to sign on to the course at least 3 times a week and to plan on putting in about 9 hours per week on the course. |
| Online Quizzes | 60 points | |
| Discussions | 15 points | |
| Projects | 25 points | |
| TOTAL | 100 points | |
| A | 90+ | |
| B+ | 88-89 | |
| B | 80-87 | |
| C+ | 78-79 | |
| C | 70-77 | |
| D | 65-69 | |
| F | below 65 Back to the top |
rev
8/12/08