General Course Philosophy

This is an introductory course into the concepts around Engineering Economics and as such, it is more important to         demonstrate your understanding of the concepts than obtaining the “correct” numerical answer. This will guide the       approach to assessing all assignments, tests, and the final examination. We cannot stress enough how important it is to show us your work and the model or approach you are using with all work in this course. Showing us the model you are using by showing us all the equations you use and all the steps in detail is very important. This is where the majority of  the part marks are awarded. Correctly using your calculator, or Excel, to compute the answers is not worth significant    marks. Marks will not be awarded for implied work. Taking shortcuts to save on writing things out is not a good strategy for success both in this course and in your professional career. Things get missed, mistakes get made, and it becomes     much more difficult to spot where the problem is. Microsoft Excel is a great way to back check that you have correctly   calculated the solutions, however, with the exception of Assignment 3 – Part A, spreadsheets, whether stand alone or   embedded in a document, are not acceptable as solutions and will not be marked.

We DO NOT post full solutions for the chapter quizzes, the Midterm tests or examples, nor for the past Final exams       posted in the Exam Bank. Over the years we have found that posting full solutions to the arithmetic questions has          always been counter productive. It is far too easy to just look at the solutions and not actually attempt to work through the problem. This approach never helps when one is faced with actual questions on a test.

For most questions, you should be able to get the correct answer to within a dollar or two of the posted answer. If you are having difficulty, re-read the chapter material, see how the examples in the text were solved, look at the chapter   notes and videos provided in OnQ, ask your friends to see how they solved the problem, and then if you are still stuck, send your course instructor an email asking for help (attach a copy of your rough work showing how you have                attempted to solve the problem).

Don't give up, perseverance usually pays off in the end.

THIS IS ENGINEERING – Attention to detail is important! In the same way that a building will fall down if the foundation isn’t designed and constructed correctly, economic solutions and analyses require correct setup and assumptions. For  example, using an incorrect interest rate, while only a small portion of the work, will invalidate the entire solution and  any conclusions that are drawn from the analysis. The graders WILL NOT be recalculating subsequent answers that rely on previous parts of a question in order to award part marks. DOUBLE CHECK your work.

Scope of Material to be covered

Engineering Economics and Business Practices are closely related, but vast subjects. The scope of this course will be       limited to the topics covered in the text book "Economic and Business Practices in Engineering, Sixth Custom Edition for Queen's University'', along with supplemental material posted on the course OnQ web site.

See the posted schedule of topics to be covered this term.  This schedule is meant as a guide and may be adjusted by the instructor throughout the term as appropriate.

All material found in the text book and provided on the course webpage is examinable.

Time Zones

ALL times used in the course are Eastern Time, i.e. the time in Kingston Ontario, Canada. You are responsible for making your submissions on time and you must adjust for the time in your local time zone.

Submissions

In general you must submit a single electronic file for each question into the Assignment submission folder designated    for that question in OnQ. For example, if the assignment has five questions, you would be required to submit six files;     the first file being a signed Cover Page and then one file for each of the five questions. There will be six separate               submission folders. You MUST first submit the Cover Page file BEFORE the other five submission folders will become        visible in OnQ. Each submission folder will ONLY accept a single file, so if your solution extends beyond a single page you will need to use an app to combine the multiple pages into a single electronic file. Acceptable file formats for                     submissions are MS Word or PDF files, plus for single pages you can take a picture with your phone and upload the          image file. Acceptable image file types are jpg, and png. While spreadsheets are a great way for you to check your work, they are NOT acceptable for submissions, with only one exception, that being the First Screen analysis in the last              assignment, which must be in the form of the supplied MS Excel spreadsheet.

Extensions

ALL requests for an extension MUST be received at least 24-hours BEFORE the due date. Good project management is an important skill in engineering. Internet issues, issues with your car, flight delays/cancellations, wedding events, sports     events, catching a cold, and job-related issues, etc. are ALL predictable risks and SHOULD be considered in your plans.      DO NOT leave things until the last minute! Plan to make all submissions well in advance; at least 24 to 48 hours BEFORE  the due date.

Re-evaluation Requests

We will fit these in when time permits. If after you have compared your submission to a posted solution you feel that     the grader failed to add up the part marks correctly, or that you used a valid equivalent approach that you did not           receive credit for, etc. then email your instructor and your request will be added to the list for review. Again, we will fit  these in when time permits. For example if you submit a request for us to have another look at an Assignment 1              question, it will not be a high priority while Midterm 1 is being marked - it might get addressed during the gap between marking Midterm 1 and Assignment 2, however there is no guarantee.  The same will apply for the second Midterm and

Assignment 3. We will fit re-evaluation requests in when time permits and will do our very best to have all these requests addressed before the Final examination.

Course Web Page

OnQ -->APSC 221 Economic And Business Practices S22 (OL)

We will use the course web page for all communications pertaining to the course. Dates and other details mentioned in this course outline may change. Please check the web page weekly at a minimum. And DO NOT ignore emails from the OnQ system … they are sent out for a reason.

After you have logged in to the course web page for the first time you ABSOLUTELY need to verify your           “Notifications” settings. Click on your name (upper right-hand corner of the page) and then click on                 “Notifications” in the dropdown box and make sure that the "Announcements - announcement updated",     "Announcements - new announcement available", "Assignments - assignment due date or end date is 2 days away", and "Quizzes - quiz due date or end date is 2 days away" item checkboxes are active. If not, click on    them to activate and then SAVE your choices. This is really important, because all subsequent course               notifications to you will come through the OnQ Announcements system, but you will ONLY receive them in   your Queen’s email account if you have properly set up your notifications.

Instructional Team

Your instructor is your only point of contact. If you have questions during the semester, contact your instructor.  Please use email as the primary means of contact. Check OnQ for instructor availability in the “header” section of the weekly     Content folders and be sure to allow 48 hours for a response.

Office Hours will be most Tuesday evenings from 7 until 8 p.m. ET via Zoom                                                                            (https://queensu.zoom.us/j/95003206163?pwd=NTJNNTJqYTJFWnJBVUJDYmFrMitlUT09), see the Content >Weekly Schedule. You must login to Zoom using your Queen’s student account.

The role of Teaching Assistants (TAs) in the course is to mark assignments, tests and the Final examination.

Calendar description

This course will provide the student in the Engineering program with the ability to appropriately incorporate selected    economic and business practices into the practice of engineering. The practices covered include: business planning for  the enterprise, enterprise economic analysis, project management process, project economic analysis, risk analysis and management, quality management and change management. Assignments and examples are based on situations from engineering based industries.

Course length and pace

This course represents a study period of one 12-week long semester. Learners can expect to invest on average 7-9 hours

per week in this course. At the end of this document is a Timetable and more details can be found on the class website. Learners who adhere to a pre-determined study schedule are more likely to be successful in the course.

Diversity and Accommodation

Queen’s University is committed to achieving full accessibility for persons with disabilities. Part of this commitment       includes arranging academic accommodations for students to ensure they have all equitable opportunity to participate in all of their academic activities. If you are in need of academic accommodations, you are strongly encouraged to

contact Student Wellness Services and register as early as possible.  For more information, including important deadlines, please visit the Student Wellness Services website at: www.queensu.ca/studentwellness/home/

To request an accommodation for the entire term (in-class, or with assignments, or for both midterm tests, or the Final examination) you must register with Accessibility Services www.queensu.ca/studentwellness/accessibility-services/.     Once approved your accommodations will be entered in the Ventus system (ventus.queensu.ca). You MUST make sure that your accommodations have been correctly entered into the system, and you need to indicate which                          accommodations you want applied to this course. If you have any questions please contact the Engineering Academic   Accommodations Coordinator at email: Engineering.AAC@queensu.ca .

Prerequisite knowledge

This course is designed for learners with no economics background; however, they will need to be comfortable with the foundations of algebra and with Microsoft Excel.

Required Readings

The textbook "Economic and Business Practices in Engineering, Sixth Custom Edition for Queen's University'' is required.

Week Chapter Title

Key Dates – May to August 2022

.     Monday May 9 – the term begins

.     Monday  May 23 at 10:00 p.m. ET – Individual Assignment #1 due (Chapters 1 – 5)

.    Tuesday May 31 – Midterm test #1 via OnQ quiz (Chapters 1 – 6)

o 1 hour in length, plus 15 minutes for uploading copies of work

.     Monday June 20 at 10:00 p.m. ET – Individual Assignment #2 due (Chapters 7 – 10)

.    Tuesday June 28 – Midterm test # 2 via OnQ quiz (Chapters 7 – 11, plus Change Management)

o 1 hour in length, plus 15 minutes for uploading copies of work

.     Friday July 8 at 10:00 p.m. ET – Individual Assignment #3 Part A due (Chapters 12 – 13)

.    Sunday July 17 at 10:00 p.m. ET – Individual Assignment #3 Part B due (Chapter 14)

.    Sunday July 31 at 10:00 p.m. ET – Individual Assignment #3 Part C due (Chapter 15 – 16)

.     Final examination –Closed Book - Will be held during the official exam period in August (2nd through 10th ) using Proctortrack (Chapters 1 – 16, plus Change Management)

Academic integrity

Your attention is drawn to the policy posted on the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science web page

engineering.queensu.ca/policy/Honesty

Midterm Tests and Final Examination Requirements

For tests and examinations that are being written online (as opposed to being written at an examination center) students are responsible for having access to a good quality Internet connection during the test and either a scanner or camera so electronic copies of work can be uploaded into OnQ. You will also require a good quality webcam if the test is being proctored by an online proctoring service.

You will be tested on what you know and can apply immediately, NOT on how well you think on your feet or can look up material in the textbook. Know more than one method/approach to solving the problems, as some are seriously more    time consuming than others.

Midterms will be open book and one hour in length, plus 15 minutes to upload electronic copies of your work in OnQ. You will have a choice of one of three time slots within which to write the test; 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. ET, or 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET, or 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET. Late submission WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED, no matter what technical issues you have. Best     strategy is to upload electronic copies of your work as you complete each question.

Remote Proctoring - Proctortrack

The final exam in this course will use remote proctoring provided by a third-party, cloud-based service that enables the completion of a proctored exam or test from an off-campus location, through OnQ.  This online proctoring solution was chosen as part of the approach to  maintaining academic integrity in online assessment.   Details about how  remote proctoring will be used in this course can be found in the “Using Proctortrack for the Final Examination” content module in OnQ and/or additional information will be provided by the instructor.

When writing examinations using remote proctoring, you are connecting to the third-party service. Queen’s has conducted a privacy and security review of the service in accordance with Ontario’s privacy legislation. You should also take measures yourself  to  protect  your  information  by  keeping  your  NetID  password  and  challenge  questions  private,  closing  all applications prior to starting an exam/test, and ensuring your device is updated and safeguarded against malware. For more information about remote proctoring, see the Student FAQs on the OUR Exams resource page for remote proctoring.