FIN 377: Investments

Larry Schrenk, Instructor

Exams, Quizzes, Assignments, Project and Grading Policies

Evaluation:    

Grade Scale:        Please note that grades/percentages will not be ‘rounded up’ (see below) and extra credit assignments are not available.

Academic Integrity: Any violation of academic integrity will be dealt with severely. See the WSU Integrity Oath and the Academic Integrity Policy.  Students caught violating any of these these principles will be subject to a failing grade for the course and referral to the Vice President for Student Life and Development for further disciplinary action.

Attendance (IMPORTANT): Attendance is required in this class. The full details will be given in class, but here are the basics:

• I will not take attendance until the second week of class.

• You will be allowed five permitted absences for the semester, which are only to be used for medical absences, job interviews, official sports participation, and other justified absences. Each additional absence will result in a deduction of 1 point (i.e., 1%) from your final course score.

• Should you have acceptable and documented reasons for missing more than five days, you are required to provide documentation covering all missed classes (including the five permitted days). Here are two examples that should make this clear:

  • Example 1: You miss 4 days due to participation in a WSU sports competition, then you are in the hospital for a week missing 3 more days of class. You have missed a total of 7 days (2 more than automatically permitted), but you can provide acceptable and documented reasons for all 7 days, so you have no penalty.

  • Example 2: You decide to skip 5 days of class without any justification. Then you get legitimately sick and miss an additional class. You do not get an additional permitted absence even if you have documentation for the sick day. The 5 permitted absences that you wasted were for covering legitimate absences, such as your sick day. If you wanted to get an additional permitted absence for the sick day, you would need to provide acceptable and documented reasons for all 6 days that you missed.

TEACHING METHODOLOGY: FIN 377 is taught as a 'flipped' classroom. That is, all lecture materials are available online. (Links to this material are on the schedule under the appropriate topic.)  Students are required to watch the online videos, and it is expected that this be done prior to the corresponding class.During traditional classtime, we will use more active learning techniques: discussing course material, discussing xurrent events, doing financial calculations, and introducing the use of Excel for financial problems.Students are required to attend all in class sessions,.          

MindTap Assignments: There will be a series of MindTap assignments in D2L. Due dates are listed on the schedule.

                              Intermediate Rounding in MindTap Assignments (VERY IMPORTANT): If you use enter intermediate rounding in any of your calculations, MindTap will mark the answer wrong. Intermediate rounding is when you write down a partial calculation and then enter that number back into your calculator. Even though you may only see 2-4 decimal points in the window, calculators commonly use 15 decimal points in their calculations, so, when you write down an answer, you are rounding those 15 decimal points to 2 decimal points. If you need to use a partial answer in a later part of the problem, store it in your calculator and then recall it when you need to make that calculation.

Exams: There are two examinations. The tests are not deliberately cumulative; however, since the course builds upon itself, concepts developed in earlier chapters will necessarily be used in later chapters. You may only use a calculator, but not the textbook, notes, crib sheets, formulae sheets, etc. You may not substitute a cell phone, tablet, computer, etc. for the calculator. The only exceptions are accommodations authorized by the University. Make-up exams will only be given if there is official documentation of an emergency, e.g., a doctor’s note. Details and dates are listed on the schedule. All exams will be taken through D2L during class, so you will need to bring your laptop to all exams. I assume that everyone has experience with this. You will also be required to use the Lockdown Browser (LDB). If you have not used this software before, it is your responsibility to download it and make sure it works before you come to class. Instructions are here.

Project: Each group must complete the course project (Instructions, Excel Guidelines). Your group can be found in D2L. More information will be given in class in a few weeks, but here is one hint: The most effecient way to do a group project is to have a common document that everyone can edit. You can edit a common document using either online apps in Microsoft 365 Online or in Microsoft Teams (These are better solutions than a Google Doc, and there is no charge for either for WSU students.).

Groups: All group members normally receive the same grade for group submissions. If, however, there is a significant problem of non-participating by one or more group members, I reserve the right to lower the grades for those members or remove them from the group (which would result in their losing all credit for group work).

Due Dates: I do not under any circumstance extend due dates for either the MindTap Assignments or the Topic Quizzes for individual students. If you have a documented excuse for not being able to complete one of these, I will consider adjusting the grade, but I will not extend the deadline.

Pre-Class survey and introductory meeting: Each student is required to complete a pre-class survey and an introductory Zoom meeting with the instructor within the first two weeks of the semester. Failure to meet either requirement will result in two points being deducted from the final course score.

     Cell Phone Policy: Cell phones may not be used during class. Please keep them muted and stored in your backpacks or elsewhere.

Academic Integrity:Students who commit any infraction of academic integrity are subject to failure for the entire course.

Studying: The following guidelines will help you study for the exams, but this is not a guarantee that every exam question will be covered by one of these suggestions. You should think of this as the minimum you should know to do well on the exams:

How to Study for the Short Answer Questions

1.   Study the slides–Anything that is the subject of a full slide is important.

2.   Read the textbook. IMPORTANT: You are responsible for the assigned textbook material even if we do not cover the material in class.

3.   Know the key words from the textbook–Key words are in bold and are also listed at the end of the chapter.

4.   Answer the end of chapter questions–The solutions are in D2L

5.   Review your class notes–Anything occurring multiple times is important especially if it is mentioned under different topics.

How to Study for the Calculation Problems

1.  Study the examples done in class and the worked problem sets distributed before each exam.

2.  Answer the end of chapter problems–The solutions are in D2L.

3. Do the assignments online.

Rounding: Let me explain my reasons for not rounding up grades. Whether or not scores are rounded up, there has to be some number that divides an A from an A-, an A- from a B+, etc. Rounding introduces potential ambiguity. That is, if you need a 90 for an A-, is 89.5 an A-. If not, is 89.55? 89.555? 89.555...? Whichever rounding method I might use can cause someone the same frustration as not rounding. If I don’t round, you get an 89.99 and a B+, you will be annoyed. If I do round up 89.55, you get an 89.54 and a B+, you will be annoyed. In my experience there are few semesters in which some student does not miss a grade cutoff by just a tiny bit. I do not round grades because I want my grading policy to be fair and clear as possible. For my class an A- is ≥ 90, and 89.99999999 is still a B+.

Evaluation: Evaluation of a student's performance in this course as a whole will be guided by the following criteria:

              A: Demonstration of superior work (written and analytical) in fulfillment of course requirements; improvement during the semester will be weighed in evaluation.

              B: Excellent work (written and analytical) in fulfillment of course requirements; improvement during the semester will be weighed in evaluation.

              C: Satisfactory work (written and analytical) in fulfillment of course requirements

              D: Assigned work is not satisfactory or not completed and/or student fails to meet minimum attendance requirements.

              F: Failure to meet minimum course goals: Examinations, participation and attendance, course project (including the submission of drafts through out the semester).