Principles of Macroeconomics

Public sample for thecoursemaker.com. Silver Oak University and Prof. Ashford are fictional, for demonstration only. Generated with the founder's method; institutional boilerplate (disability, integrity, Title IX) appears as clearly-labeled [PLACEHOLDER] text an adopting instructor replaces with their school's official language.

Course: ECON 2 (a.k.a. ECON 2301) — Principles of Macroeconomics · Growth, Inflation, Unemployment & the Policies That Move Them
Units: 3 · Modality: in-person · Meeting pattern: two 75-minute sessions/week · Term: Fall 2026 (Aug 31 – Dec 18, 16 weeks)
Department: Economics · Silver Oak University

1. Instructor & contact

Instructor: Prof. Ashford
Email: ashford@[silveroak.example] (placeholder) · replies within 1 business day
Office hours: Tue/Thu after class and by appointment (placeholder room / video link)

2. Course description

Macroeconomics is the study of the economy as a whole — why it grows, why it stumbles into recessions, why prices rise, why jobs appear and disappear, and what governments and central banks can (and can't) do about any of it. We start by learning to measure the economy — GDP, inflation, unemployment — because you can't reason about what you can't measure. Then we build the workhorse AD–AS model and use it to analyze booms, busts, and the two great policy levers: fiscal policy (Congress's spending and taxes) and monetary policy (the Federal Reserve's tools). We end with the open economy — trade, exchange rates — and the great debates between the Keynesian and classical/monetarist schools. The course is quantitative and graphical — you will compute GDP, price indices, inflation and unemployment rates, growth rates, and multipliers, and you will shift curves and read off the new price level, output, or interest rate — and it is applied, asking you to separate what a model predicts (positive economics) from what we ought to do (normative economics), and to weigh the competing schools of thought fairly.

No textbook to buy: all readings and videos are links to free, authoritative external resources.

3. Course outcomes

Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs):

• SLO A — Macroeconomic modeling & quantitative analysis. Build, manipulate, and read macro models — compute GDP, a price index, an inflation, unemployment, or growth rate; apply a multiplier; shift AD–AS, the money market, or loanable funds and read the new price level, output, or interest rate — and interpret the results in words.
• SLO B — Applying macroeconomic reasoning to real-world policy. Use macro reasoning to analyze real policies and events, distinguishing positive analysis from normative judgment and weighing the major schools of thought and competing arguments fairly.

Course objectives. By the end of the term you will be able to:

1. Apply macroeconomic modeling and quantitative/graphical analysis — scarcity, opportunity cost, the PPF, and the circular flow — and distinguish positive from normative economics.
2. Measure an economy's output with GDP (C + I + G + NX), distinguish real from nominal GDP, and compute the GDP deflator.
3. Measure inflation and unemployment — the CPI, the inflation rate, the unemployment rate, and the labor-force participation rate — and classify the types of unemployment.
4. Explain long-run growth and productivity, and compute growth rates using the rule of 70.
5. Use the AD–AS model to analyze short-run fluctuations and the business cycle, including recessionary and inflationary gaps.
6. Analyze fiscal policy and the spending multiplier, and distinguish the deficit from the national debt.
7. Explain money, banking, the Federal Reserve, and monetary policy — the money multiplier, the Fed's tools, the money market, and the transmission mechanism to aggregate demand.
8. Analyze the Phillips curve and the quantity theory of money, and apply open-economy tools — comparative advantage, the trade balance, exchange rates, and the balance of payments.

4. Required materials

No textbook purchase required. Each week's readings and videos are provided as links to external resources (e.g., Khan Academy Macroeconomics, Marginal Revolution University, CrashCourse Economics, and the OpenStax Principles of Macroeconomics text used as a free linked reference). Any real-world data is linked to an authoritative source (the BEA for GDP, the BLS for prices and jobs, FRED for time series, the Federal Reserve for monetary policy). You will also use a free graphing tool (Desmos) or a spreadsheet, a calculator, and one approved AI chatbot (see §7). You pay nothing for materials.

5. Grading

Letter-standard scheme. Assignment groups and weights:

Per-item points: quizzes 10 · discussions 20 · assignments 100 · Model Workshops 50 · midterm & final 100 each.

Letter scale: A 90–100 · B 80–89 · C 70–79 · D 60–69 · F < 60.

Late policy: 10% per day late, up to 5 days, unless you arrange an extension in advance. Life happens — talk to me early.

6. Weekly rhythm & schedule

Most weeks follow the same shape, so you always know what's due:

• Read/watch the week's linked resources → Lecture Tutorial (with an approved chatbot) → Practice (ungraded reps) → Quiz (closed to AI) → Discussion → Assignment → Graph & Model Workshop.
• Typical due cadence: discussion initial post Fri, quiz/assignment/workshop and discussion replies Sun 11:59 p.m.

Campus holidays (no class): Labor Day (Sep 7), Veterans Day (Nov 11), Thanksgiving (Nov 26–27). The midterm covers Weeks 1–7; the final is cumulative.

7. AI-use policy (load-bearing — read carefully)

This course uses AI deliberately and transparently. You will use one approved chatbot — Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT (free versions are fine) for several activities, and you will submit the conversation share link as evidence.

AI may be used (and is built into the activity):

• Lecture Tutorials — completed with an approved chatbot acting as your tutor. Submit the chat share link + the Completion Summary.
• Discussions (adaptive) — you hold a real-time dialogue with an approved chatbot about the week's question, then post the AI's summary report + the chat share link as your initial post (then reply to peers).
• Assignments (adaptive) — an approved chatbot coaches you through problems and grades each against an embedded rubric; you submit the self-scored report (first line STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100) + the chat share link.
• Graph & Model Workshops — AI is used for the AI-critique moment: you have the chatbot solve or interpret the problem, then catch its macro errors (the wrong multiplier, the wrong curve or wrong direction in AD–AS, real-vs-nominal confusion, fiscal/monetary mix-ups, a reversed Phillips-curve tradeoff). The judgment is yours.
• Practice exercises and general studying.

AI may NOT be used:

• Quizzes, the Midterm, and the Final are closed to AI and must be entirely your own work.

This course is configured "adaptive learning." Both the adaptive and a traditional version of each discussion and assignment are included in this sample so you can see the difference; in an adaptive section, the AI dialogue is the activity, and the share link documents your work — no separate disclosure is needed. For any other graded work, add a one-line note of which tool you used and how. Integrity violations include fabricating or doctoring a submitted chat, submitting AI text as your own original writing where original writing is required, and using AI on the closed assessments. (Tie-in to the institution's academic-integrity standard: [PLACEHOLDER — insert official policy].)

8. Policies

• Attendance & participation. Attendance is tracked but not graded; consistent attendance strongly predicts success. More than [X] absences may affect [participation] per institutional policy. [PLACEHOLDER]
• Late work. 10%/day up to 5 days; arrange extensions in advance.
• Academic integrity. [PLACEHOLDER — institutional academic-integrity statement.] See §7 for the AI specifics.
• Disability & accommodations. [PLACEHOLDER — institutional disability-services statement.] Students with approved accommodations: contact me in the first two weeks.
• Title IX / nondiscrimination. [PLACEHOLDER — institutional Title IX statement.]
• Respectful discourse. Macro's policy questions (stimulus vs. austerity, the Fed's choices, the deficit and debt, trade) are genuinely and politically contested. We model the economic norm: separate positive analysis (what the model predicts) from normative judgment (what we value), present the Keynesian and classical/monetarist cases at full strength, and engage competing arguments and evidence in good faith — no partisan verdicts, from me or from your AI.

This syllabus is finalized against the locked assessment schedule; weights total 100% and the schedule matches the Course Profile spine.