Subject Outline

Introduction

Welcome to ECON10005 Quantitative Methods 1.

This subject covers core concepts which underpin quantitative analysis in economics and commerce. It provides a pre-requisite for second-year quantitative subjects and a foundation for other subjects in a commerce degree.

Subject Overview and Aims

The overall aims of this subject are: (1) to introduce basic statistical concepts such as            measures of location and dispersion; probability, random variables and expected values;       sampling design; estimation and testing using the normal and t-distribution; and simple          regression and correlation. (2) Guide students to real-world applications in the background of business analytics and financial mathematics. Students shall learn first-hand experience in

data processing, visualisation, and analysis rigorously.

For more details, seehttps://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/2022/subjects/econ10005.

Learning Outcomes                                                                            

Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes and Generic Skills

To view the subject overview, intended learning outcomes and the generic skills you will develop through successful completion of this subject, please see the University Handbook:

https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/2022/subjects/econ10005

Eligibility and Requirements                                                               

To view the eligibility and requirements, including prerequisites, corequisites, recommended background knowledge and core participation requirements for this subject, please see the  University Handbook:

https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/2022/subjects/econ10005/eligibility-and-requirements

Please see the subject LMS site for full contact details of the teaching staff in this subject.

Administrative Contact (all inquiries pertaining to tutorials and assessments)

Dr. Wasana Karunarathne

Email:QM-1@unimelb.edu.au

Subject Coordinators

Name: Prof. Kalvinder Shields

Email:k.shields@unimelb.edu.au

Name: Dr. Mehmet Ozmen

Email:mehmet.ozmen@unimelb.edu.au

Tutors

Please check the LMS page for tutors’ contact details.

Email Protocol

Please note that we are only able to respond to student emails coming from a University email address.  Please do  not  use  personal email addresses such as Yahoo,  Hotmail or even business email addresses. Emails from non-University email addresses may be filtered by the University’s spam filter, which means that we may not receive your email. All correspondence relating to this subject will only be sent to your University email address. Note that you must

first activate your University email address before you can send or receive emails at that

address. You can activate your email account at this link:http://accounts.unimelb.edu.au/.

While academic staff endeavor to address queries received via email, it is more appropriate to resolve substantive questions during tutorials and/or online discussion board. With this in mind, we encourage students to attend all lectures and tutorials and to familiarise themselves with the consultation methods offered by the lecturers and tutors in this subject.

Lectures

Lecture Times

The lectures are delivered on Wednesday and Friday each week. Check your timetable for the time and location.

Lecture Participation Requirements

Punctual and attentive lecture attendance is highly recommended, because QM1 is a highly intensive and integrated subject. Dropping any lecture may cause               confusion for the following ones.

Lecture Slides

Lecture slides will be placed on the LMS page for this subject prior to each lecture.

Recorded Lectures

Audio and video recordings of lectures delivered in this subject will be made available for review. These recordings allow you to revise lectures during the semester, or to review them in preparation for the end of semester exam.

You can access recorded lectures by clicking on the Lecture Recordings (or similar) menu item on the LMS page for this subject.

Please note that for live classes, recordings are not a substitute for attendance; rather they are designed for revision. On rare occasions the recordings can fail to take place due to technical reasons. In such cases, a substitute recording will be made available.

Students are required to attend their regular tutorial each week and get their tutor’s help to sort out any questions they may have about the concepts taught in the subject.

Tutorials are an integral part of the subject. They will be used to supplement the lectures and the reading material. They will also be used as a means of improving your                understanding of the subject material through an exploration of the critical concepts and the application of these concepts through problem solving. Each tutorial will cover           material taught in the previous week's lectures. They will be conducted on the                 assumption that students have reviewed the relevant material.

Tutorial Times

Tutorial starts on Week 1. Please refer to Canvas page for details.

Tutorial Participation Requirements

Active tutorial attendance is highly recommended. Tutorial questions solution shall be posted after all tutorials are finished during the teaching week. 

The Faculty has become increasingly concerned about the existence of a number of private tutoring services operating in Melbourne that heavily target University of Melbourne students enrolled in FBE subjects.

Students are urged to show caution and exercise their judgement if they are considering using any of these services, and to please take note of the following:

Any claim by any of these businesses that they have a “special” or “collaborative” or “partnership” style relationship with the University or Faculty is false and misleading.

Any claim by a private tutoring service that they are in possession of, or can supply you  with,  forthcoming  University  exam  or  assignment  questions  or  “insider”  or “exclusive” information is also false and misleading.

The University has no relationship whatsoever with any of these services and takes these   claims very seriously as they threaten to damage the University’s reputation and undermine its independence.

It is also not appropriate for students to provide course materials (including University curricula,  reading  materials,  exam  and  assignment  questions  and  answers)  to operators  of  these  businesses  for  the  purposes  of  allowing  them  to  conduct commercial tutoring activities. Doing so may amount to misconduct and will be taken seriously. Those materials contain intellectual property owned or controlled by the University.

We encourage you to bring to the attention of Faculty staff any behaviour or activity that is not aligned with University expectations or policy as outlined above.

Discussion Board

QM1 runs a discussion board that will be monitored by the teaching staff. Students are the  main  participants  of  this  discussion  board,  posting  as  well  as  answering questions  posted by their peers. Consider this as a great learning opportunity and actively participate in the board answering questions asked by fellow students.

The teaching staff will moderate the board several times a week (i) by correcting any incorrect information provided by a student (as a way of answering a question) and (ii) answering any unanswered important questions.

Note that the discussion board is not designed to replace attendance at tutorials or your own  reading  and  preparation,  but  rather  to  complement  these.  If  questions  can  be answered by referring to the prescribed readings, then this will typically be the response. Please also note that detailed answers for assignments should not be provided through the discussion board.

Weekly Online Quizzes

For each tutorial from week 2, 1 mark will be available for successfully completing the online quiz. To obtain this, students are required to complete a pre-tutorial task posted on the LMS the preceding week and answer the online quiz based on this work. A score of at least 50% on the quiz is required to obtain the mark.

If you have medical or other legitimate reasons for being unable to complete the quiz, apply to have the mark for that week transferred to the final exam.

(Details of the application procedure is available on the LMS.)

Mid-semester Tests

There are two mid semester tests for this subject.

Test 1: A 90-minute online test at 2pm on Friday in week 5 of semester, details to be advised. Test 2: A 90-minute online test at 2pm on Friday in week 9 of semester, details to be advised.

Please note the test dates available in the Assessment Schedule above. It is expected that students are available for both tests. Extensions will not be provided. Students who cannot attend either of the tests due to valid documented reasons can apply for special                  consideration following the online special consideration process. If approved, weights         allocated for each test will be transferred to the final exam.

http://students.unimelb.edu.au/admin/special

Teaching staff cannot approve extension or special consideration requests.

Assignment

The assignment comprises two parts and is one integral piece in the form of a business       report, which shall be viewed as an open-ended project that requires the application of     knowledge and skills students obtain from the subject. The project is based on real-world  data related to business and economics. Students are required to write a report                 presenting the data and results from the analysis they conduct. The first draft is individual, and the final draft is group work. Students are expected to use the feedback they receive  from tutors for the first draft when they work on the final submission.

Students are encouraged to work in groups (up to but no more than four students) when they complete the final draft and to submit a single electronic copy as a group. All         members of a group must belong to the same tutorial and all members of the group will be given the same mark. Students may choose to work and hand in an assignment on   their own if they wish. It is possible that due dates will also be due dates for work in       another subject or subjects. Be mindful of this. Students are required to provide              information on how they completed the group work and incorporated the feedback given for their draft assignment, when submitting the final version.

Extensions

•   A maximum extension of 4 days may be granted for the first draft.

•   A maximum extension of 7 days may be granted for the final submission.

Requests for an assignment extension should be submitted here:

http://go.unimelb.edu.au/yh9n.

Before completing this form, please read the Assignment Extension Policy, which can be found at: Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326) : Policy : The University of              Melbourne (unimelb.edu.au)

A faculty committee approves all special consideration applications, teaching staff cannot approve any extensions or any other special consideration requests.

Work commitments, personal travel, late enrolment and having multiple assignments due are not grounds for an extension.

Applications can take up to 3 business days to be assessed and for an outcome             provided. Applications received after the original due date will not be accepted. You will   need to provide sufficient supporting documentation to shows how your circumstances   have been impacted such as a health professional letter in the case of illness, academic

adjustment plan or a Statutory declaration.

Please note that you are required to keep a copy of your assignment after it has been submitted as you must be able to produce a copy of your assignment at the request of   teaching staff at any time after the submission due date.

End of semester exam

The online final exam accounts for 60% of your final mark. All topics are examinable and there will be little covered in tutorials and assignments which will not be examinable.

It is necessary to pass the final exam (a mark greater than or equal to 50%) to pass the subject.

The Faculty requires that you are available for the entire examination period at the end of semester. Supplementary exams will not be provided in case of absence during the         examination period, unless the absence is due to serious illness or other serious              circumstances, see

http://students.unimelb.edu.au/admin/special

Late submissions will attract a 10% penalty (of the total maximum mark for the exam) if      submitted after the scheduled completion time (for instance, an exam scheduled at 3:00pm with 180 minutes writing time + 30 minutes reading time will have a completion time of       6:30pm). Submissions 30 minutes after the completion time will not be marked.

Subject Resources

Prescribed References

We will use a workbook “Quantitative Methods and Econometrics” by Professor David Harris. It is free of charge and will be posted on Canvas.

Supplementary Readings

Some supplementary readings for certain topics will be posted on Canvas during teaching weeks.

Academic Integrity                                                                              

Academic Honesty

The University maintains high academic standards in its courses and subjects and expects students to conduct themselves in a manner which is fair, honest and consistent with the

principles of academic integrity, particularly when undertaking assessment and research.

http://academicintegrity.unimelb.edu.au/

Referencing

Each source used for a written piece of assessment must be referenced. This is to        acknowledge that your material is not based entirely on your own ideas, but is based, in part, on the ideas, information, and evidence of others. This is desirable as you are       attending University in order to learn from others.

You will be required to use the APA system or Harvard System of referencing. The library has prepared a website to help students correctly reference:

http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/recite/citations/harvard/generalNotes.html

It is important that all material you present for assessment is referenced correctly. Material that has not been referenced correctly may be considered to be plagiarised, and as such  may be penalised. We will also look for evidence that material included in the bibliography has been used in the assignment. Including references that have not been used may also result in your assignment being penalized.

The Academic Skills Unit has produced resources to assist students with referencing

https://services.unimelb.edu.au/academicskills/undergrads/top_resources            The Library also provides advice on referencing:http://library.unimelb.edu.au/cite

University Services                                                                             

Timetable

MyTimetable is a class timetabling system that creates individual timetables for students based on submitted class preferences, ensuring everyone has an equitable opportunity of getting their preferred class timetable. You will use this system to create your class timetable prior to each study period.

By following a preference-based model, students who have other commitments, such as employment or carer responsibilities, or who are  returning or living  overseas during the timetabling period, aren’t disadvantaged by their limited availability. When allocating class timetables, MyTimetable also takes into consideration factors such as class size limits and

potential clashes to ensure all students are equally accommodated. Further information is

available on the web athttps://students.unimelb.edu.au/admin/class-timetable

STOP 1: Connecting Students and Services

STOP 1 is here to provide you with a range of support services throughout your university

degree, from help with enrolment, administration and wellbeing to advice on building your

skills and experiences.https://students.unimelb.edu.au/stop1

Academic Skills

Academic Skills offers a range of workshops and resources to help you with study skills

including researching, writing and referencing, presentation skills and preparing for exams.

Visit their website viahttp://services.unimelb.edu.au/academicskills.

Service Finder

The University of Melbourne offers one of the most comprehensive student support networks in Australia. Use this site to locate a wide range of services

http://services.unimelb.edu.au/finder

Student Counselling

Students attend counselling to talk about personal, emotional, or mental health issues which might  be  affecting  their  study  and  life.  The  University’s  Counselling  and  Psychological Services (CAPS) provides free, confidential, short-term professional counselling to currently enrolled students and staff.

https://services.unimelb.edu.au/counsel

Student Equity and Disability Support

Student  Equity and  Disability Support  provides services for students who  need ongoing support with their studies. They understand that adjustments to learning and assessment are sometimes required to allow all students to reach their full potential. Learn more about the

services    provided,    how   to   find   support   and    how   to    register   for   assistance.

http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity

University of Melbourne Library Services

As well as holding an extensive collection of books, ebooks, digital media and periodicals,

library staff provide research guidance and support for students.

http://library.unimelb.edu.au/

These Business and Economics Library Guides have been designed specifically for Faculty

of Business and Economics staff and students.

http://unimelb.libguides.com/sb.php?subject_id=80310

Policy                                                                                                   

Alternative Exam Arrangements (AEA)

The definition of and eligibility requirements for alternative exam arrangements (AEA) can be

found viahttp://students.unimelb.edu.au/admin/alternate .

Assessment and Results Policy

The  University’s  assessment  policy  provides  a  framework  for  the  design,  delivery  and implementation of assessment of students in award and non-award courses and subjects. Assessment is designed to contribute to high quality learning by students, and to allow for quality assurance and the maintenance of high academic standards.

https://policy.unimelb.edu.au/MPF1326