Course Grades Have Been Uploaded Into Banner

I just posted this.  It seemed to accept my upload.  Several students were given ABS grades, so I will be making changes to the Banner grades, as I receive the work from the students who currently have an ABS.

Grades Have Been Upload Into Moodle

This includes the last Excel homework on the Shapiro-Stiglitz model, the Blog Posts Second Half, and the Comments Second Half. 

Here is some information about how the scores were determined.  There were 6 posts in the second half.  (I had originally planned for 7).  On the Comments, everyone got 8 points for free and then I simply counted how many posts you commented on and multiplied that by 7.  If you made more than one comment on your post, I didn't count it here.  However, I did account for it in the scores on the posts themselves.

For that, each person got 30 points for free.  Most people did all the rest of the posts.  Then I made a qualitative determination on your performance based on the posts and the comments and whether you seemed to incorporate my comments.  There is no algorithm here, just my subjective interpretation.  I'm something of a strict grader on this, so nobody got 210 points.  Indeed nobody got 200 points.  A score of 190 was quite a good performance.  I save the remaining performance because all of you can do still better.

There are comments to accompany the points.  For those who missed some posts, the comments may have referred to that rather than to your general performance

Finally - if any of you want to become a professor some day, note that it is a nice job most of the time, but on days like this the job doesn't pay enough.

My schedule after today's class session

I plan to start working on grading the blog posts for the second half of the course (and the comments too) sometime tomorrow.  I've got non-school things to work on this afternoon.   When that is done I will upload grades, including the last Excel homework on the Shapiro-Stiglitz model.   I don't know how long that will take, but I will make an announcement to the class after doing this.

If you'd like to meet with me for whatever reason, I'm happy to do that.  Morning are probably better for me, but if you need to do that in the afternoon, we'll figure something out.

Regarding final grades, I will try to do them on the December 18, after the last Moodle quiz.  Again, I will make an announcement to the class site when that is done.

As an FYI, instructors got a massmail yesterday from the Registrar, which said that the last time for entering final grades is January 3, at 2 PM.   One of the things we talked about early in the semester but then didn't follow up on is scheduling.  When Final Exam Week ends so close to the winter holiday, you get a deadline like this after the Christmas Holiday.  This makes no sense to me, but if you don't get a grade in one of your classes, this may be the reason why. 

A few different announcements

Reminder: The last Excel Homework is due this Wednesday evening and is on a modification of the Shapiro-Stiglitz model where the monitoring intensity becomes a choice variable of the firm.  The post on that homework has a link to the Excel file.  That is where you should post questions, if you have any.  Please don't post questions about that homework to this post. 

Reminder 2: The last blog post is due this Friday.  The prompt was given on the Friday before the break.  For your convenience, it is reproduced below.

Note: This is being assigned the Friday before the Thanksgiving break, but the post isn't due until two weeks later. This is the last blog post - You have two options to write to. The first is the prompt I've used last year and in all prior years.  The second is to do a Williamson-like critique on our class based on two governance decisions that were made. One of those decisions was to not require attendance. The other was to allow soft deadlines. 

 1. The traditional final prompt: This is the last post to be done for the course. I'd like it to be both a review and a critique. Can you offer up some lessons learned from the course about Organizations that you didn't have already going in? What about the pedagogic approach we took with the way the live class was structured and the online blogging. Are there any take aways from that? Please spend a bit of time talking about your process for doing the blogging and the Excel homework -including the preparation you do and how long it all takes. Finally, talk about things you would have liked to see in the course but didn't or ways the approach might be improved. 

 2. Williamson-like critique The two rules to focus on are: (a) that attendance was not required and (b) that deadlines were soft. Please describe how those rules impacted your own behavior. Then consider how the rules impacted the class as a whole. Finally, if you were to recommend changes in the approach, how would you modify these rules to produce better outcomes?

Last Moodle Quiz:  The final exam schedule for our class is below. 

So I've scheduled the last quiz in Moodle to include the scheduled time within the 36 hours that the quiz will be available.  It will open at 9 AM on Monday, 12/16, and close at 9 PM on Tuesday, 12/17.  

As I write this the campus wireless is down, but Moodle is up.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there will be no technology issue then.

Grades Uploaded Into Moodle

I just finished a grade upload.  In the Excel category there was the Principal-Agent Homework and a bonus item - added because the total for the category should be 200 points.  In the Blogs category I tracked the last two posts - one on Conflict, the other on the Triangle Principal-Agent Model.  In the Concept Quiz category there were two items uploaded.  The quiz on Conflict, and a bonus item to make the category total to 100 points.

The Second Moodle Quiz Starts Tuesday

It will be based on the Excel homework since the first quiz.  I'm seeing that quite a few students haven't yet done the Principal-Agent Excel homework.  I encourage you to get that done before taking the quiz.

Grades Uploaded Into Moodle Nov. 12, 2019

The upload includes two Excel homeworks, insurance under adverse selection and bargaining, the last two blog posts, and the concept quiz on procurement.

I am planning on having class tomorrow

If our class was scheduled for this afternoon, I would cancel it.  The snow seems to be sticking now, but with water underneath that is probably partly ice.  This is just the type of weather I'd like to avoid.

The forecast for tomorrow is for much colder temperatures.  It won't be fun, to be sure, but it shouldn't be slippery.  So we're on as usual. 

I hope you stay warm and bundled up in the meantime.

I made a mistake in the class calendar

This Tuesday we will talk about the issue of a worker who is not performing up to standard and what might be done about it.  We will take varying approaches - philosophical, learning, and the experiences that students posted about.  We will also talk about progressive discipline - the recommended practice.  A few people hinted at this, but nobody really worked it through.

A week from this Tuesday we will talk about conflict in the workplace and about leadership.  I mistakenly had that for this Tuesday.  My bad.  Some people did the concept quiz early, as a result.  I hope that is not a big deal.

For Submitting The Key in the Bargaining Homework

If you've already done the assignment but it sent you to a form for 2017, that was the old link, which I failed to update.  This is where you should submit the homework.
https://forms.gle/VXtUikFkcvJ1TnQ46

I will update the Excel Homework now so students who have yet to download it will get the correct link.

Sorry for my absentmindedness.  It's what happens as you get old when there are too many different points of stress.

Course Policy on Bad Weather

While it is pretty icky outside now, at least the snow is not sticking ---- so far and the pavement, while wet, is not icy.  So we had regular class today, though attendance was down.  If, however, the temperature were a couple of degrees lower and I knew it would be that way the evening before, I will alert the class

I polled the students who did attend today on this matter.  They requested email notification.  That's what I will do and I will put the same message on the class site as an announcement. 

Happy Halloween and here is to a warm rest of the semester.

Grades Updated in Moodle

Three items were updated:

1. The Excel homework on the Math of Risk and Risk Preference,
2. The Blog Post on Managing Future Income Risk, and
3. The Concept Quiz on Risk Preference.

Lecture Tomorrow

Please note that tomorrow I will present the basic insurance model and do so in lecture format.  I have decided to do that live rather than as a video, in part so you can ask questions then and there.  This model will underlie other models well will consider over the next several weeks.  The homework that is due a week from this Wednesday, on adverse selection in insurance markets, depends on it.  Another homework on the principal-agent model can best be understood as a variant of the insurance model.

At this point it seems most of the class has yet to do the Excel homework due on Wednesday evening, which really should be preliminary to the insurance model.  I'm going to push ahead anyway, in part so students get a chance to see where we are heading and in part  because we really need to get this done.

Comments First Half Grades Uploaded

Here is an explanation for how your scores were determined.

First, only a few students diligently commented on the posts of other students, which was required in the syllabus.  The students who did this ended up getting the maximum number of points, 50 points.

Second, I needed to figure out how to give credit for those students who did respond to my comments on their own blog.  What I ended up doing, was to give 9 points for each post they commented on.  This would give a maximum of 45 points, obtained if the students commented on each of their posts, and less if they missed posts where I did comment.

I want to acknowledge that on some posts a few students wrote multiple comments and some wrote very long and impassioned comments. It is good to demonstrate such enthusiasm and I thank you for doing it.  But in terms of accounting for it in the scores, I didn't. 

Do note that commenting on other students posts is still certainly okay to do, but there won't be points assigned for it in the second half.

Grades Uploaded Into Moodle

This grade upload includes the scores you were assigned on the blog posts first half, comments on those, and then 100 points bonus that I gave everyone. 

I did not upload the tracking of the most recent post on connecting the dots.  Given the scores I gave that seemed redundant to do. 

I have also yet to give you scores for the comments first half.  I'm pretty tired now so will get that done when I'm fresher, on Thursday.  I will be out of town tomorrow.

Anonymous and Unknown Comments

As I'm going through the blog posts I'm seeing comments from Anonymous or Unknown.  When that happens on your own blog, I believe I can figure out that it is you posting.  When it happens on somebody else's blog, then it is too hard for me to figure it out.  

If you want to get credit for those comments, you will need to claim them as your.  Send me an email with a link to the post.  I know this is a hassle, but think how I feel about it.  You were supposed to use your alias when making comments.  That would clearly identify you (to me).  

Updated Syllabus - No More Commenting On Other Student Posts

You should still comment in response to my comment.  Here is the new point allocation to put this into effect.

Blog Posts First Half (150 points - 5 posts (not counting the one about your alias) for 30 points per post).
Blog Posts Second Half (210 points - 7 posts for 30 points per post.)
This gives the same total points for the Blog posts as was allocated before.

Comments First Half  (50 points)
Comments Second Half (50 points)
Bonus (100 points) - everyone gets this automatically.
This gives the same total points as what was allocated for Comments in the original syllabus.

Please get your blog posts due tomorrow in NO LATER THAN SUNDAY!

Soft deadlines notwithstanding, this is not a good time to be tardy with your blog posts.  This one is on Connecting The Dots.  For your convenience, the prompt is reproduced below.

Connecting the dots - This is a chance for you to read through your prior posts and then try to answer the following questions: (1) Are the themes from one post that tie into other posts? if so, what are those connections? (2) Aside from addressing the prompt are there ways to connect what you wrote about to course themes? Were there connections that are more obvious to you now than at the time you wrote the post? if so, can you elaborate on that? (3) Has your process for writing these posts evolved? Please explain how that has come about. (4) Now put yourself in the position of writing the prompt (this one or other prompts for future posts). What would you like to see? Can you give some reasons for that.

Some Announcements

Reminder:  The quiz in Moodle begins after class tomorrow, at 11 AM.  It concludes the following evening at 11 PM.   It can be taken any time in between.  You are free to review your Excel homework while taking the quiz.  The grades on the quiz will be available after the quiz closes.

Drop Date/Grades for Blogging During the First Part of the Course

The deadline to drop is Friday October 18.  You'll want to know where you stand in the class.  So I will try to give you the points for your blogging in the first part.  This is not quite halfway (we didn't do blogging the first two weeks) so I need to figure out the proportional allocation of points possible.

This part takes me a while to do.  I will also provide a brief written evaluation of your work.  To do that I read through what you've written again and the comments your've written as well.   I will start doing this after the first few posts this week come in and I plan to devote a lot of time next Monday to this.  But I have an eye doctor appointment Monday afternoon.  I am planning on being out of town Wednesday of that week, so I hope I get it done before that. If not, I'll make some general announcement so you can get some sense of how your points are determined and how you will be evaluated. 

Ballgame Tonight

The Yankees play the Twins starting at 7:40 pm, which is pretty late for me.  I still haven't figured out whether I'll watch it live or tape it and watch it in the morning.   If the Yankees sweep, your professor will be a happy camper.

Grades Uploaded into Moodle

There were two items added.  The Excel homework due this past Wednesday on Coordination Failures and Coordination Mechanisms and the blog post on Effective Teams.  I also updated some earlier scores for people who are trying to catch up.