Textbook

The book for this course is Macroeconomics and uses a book from OpenStax which was created by Rice University.

Videos

Images for videos come from the following sources with voice over from Professor Richard Gosselin at Houston Community College who is solely responsible for their content. There are 179 videos for the macroeconomics course with an average run time of about five minutes each. They were produced using three sources - desktop screen capturing via Screenflow which is a product of Telestream, as well as One Button Studio and the Learning Glass for live in-person mini-lectures filmed in a studio. Nearly all the video have been closed-captioned for the hearing impaired using professionals rather than automation. There are also downloadable transcripts embedded for each video and a download feature for users. Houston Community College footed the expense of the closed-captioning service. I would like to thank the college administration as well as Ruben Duran, Senior Media Developer at the college for assisting with this.

OpenStax Macroeconomics, Second Edition

Principles of Economics is adapted from a work produced and distributed under a Creative Commons license

(CC BY-NC-SA) in 2011 by a publisher who has requested that they and the original author not receive attribution. This adapted edition is produced by the University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing through the eLearning Support Initiative. This adaptation has reformatted the original text and replaced some images and figures to make the resulting whole more shareable. This adaptation has not significantly altered or updated the original 2011 text. This work is made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

Test Bank

The original test bank provided by Open Stax provided 1158 questions, 955 were multiple choice and 203 were short answer questions. Under this grant there were no additional short answer questions added however, there are now 1418 questions in the new test bank which is the result of adding 260 questions of the following variety - multiple choice, fill in the blank, numerical questions, multiple drop-down questions, multiple-response questions, matching and formula questions which present each student with different values and parameters. Images in the test bank, unless otherwise noted are licensed under the Creative Commons and most are the product of unknown authors.

Review PowerPoint Slides

These were provided by Intellus Learning Open Courses

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (Links to an external site.) License. The material for these slides and the image come directly from Macroeconomics OpenStax, Second edition.

Discussion Questions

These were authored by Richard Gosselin at Houston Community College and are licensed under the Creative Commons. There are over 70 discussion questions available.

Flash Card Powered by Quizlet

These were authored by Richard Gosselin with a couple of exceptions. They are based on the terms in Macroeconomics, Second edition. They are also licensed under the Creative Commons and are freely distributable. There are 21 such quizzes, one for each chapter.

Excel Exercises and Videos

26 Excel assignments were created including practice assignments and videos to assist students with basic features of Excel which help them create a file, save data, sort data, create tables, line graphs, bar graphs and pie chart and much more.

This is a Principles of Macroeconomics course utilizing exclusively Open Educational Resources and designed in Canvas. This course is mapped to the Learning Outcomes for ECON 2301 as established under the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Academic Course Guide Manual. This course is based on Openstax Principles of Macroeconomics 2e textbook and incorporates key components from EDUC 1301: Learning Frameworks, designed to enhance the student’s experience as well as to improve overall student learning.
The course was developed by a faculty team from Collin College as part of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board OER Course Development and Implementation Grant Program.

This is the full course material for a Principles of Macroeconomics Course. It includes study notes, lecture notes, and video lectures.

Economists divide their discipline into two areas of study: microeconomics and macroeconomics. In this course, we introduce you to the principles of macroeconomics, the study of how a country's economy works, while trying to discern among good, better, and best choices for improving and maintaining a nation's standard of living and level of economic and societal well-being. Historical and contemporary perspectives on the role of government policy surround questions of who gains and loses within a small set of key interdependent players. These beneficiaries include households, consumers, savers, firm owners, investors, government officials, and global trading partners.
Consider how microeconomists and macroeconomists analyze price fluctuations. In microeconomics, we focus on how supply and demand determine prices in a given market. In macroeconomics, we focus on changes in the price level across all markets. Microeconomics studies firm profit maximization, output optimization, consumer utility maximization, and consumption optimization. Macroeconomics studies economic growth, price stability, and full employment.

Macroeconomic performance relies on measures of economic activity, such as variables and data at the national level, within a specific period of time. Macroeconomics analyzes aggregate measures, such as national income, national output, unemployment and inflation rates, and business cycle fluctuations. In this course, we prompt you to think about the national and global issues we face, consider competing views, and draw conclusions from various perspectives, tools, and alternatives.

This curriculum covers a broad range of economic concepts and models. Students will learn foundational concepts like scarcity, opportunity cost, marginal analysis, and distinguishing between positive and normative claims. Core microeconomic topics include supply and demand, elasticity, market efficiency, consumer/producer surplus, and government intervention. Macroeconomic topics span GDP, unemployment, inflation, business cycles, growth, fiscal policy, monetary policy, and stabilization tools.

The microeconomics section builds an understanding of how individual buyers and sellers interact in markets. Students analyze supply and demand equilibria, surpluses, and shortages. Elasticity concepts are applied to understand how quantity supplied and quantity demanded respond to price changes. Market outcomes are evaluated using consumer/producer surplus and efficiency criteria. The effects of government price controls and taxes are analyzed.

The macroeconomics portion develops models to explain economy-wide outcomes. Students learn to calculate GDP, unemployment rates, inflation, and price indices. The AD-AS model illustrates macro equilibrium and the causes of business cycles, inflation, and stagnation. The Keynesian and Neoclassical frameworks are compared. Fiscal and monetary policies are explored as stabilization tools, with analysis of their mechanisms, limitations, lags, and appropriate applications.

International economics connects micro and macro concepts. Using theories of comparative advantage, students evaluate the impacts of trade and trade policies on consumers, producers, and the macroeconomy. The determinants of exchange rates and trade balances are analyzed.

This curriculum provides both theoretical frameworks and practical applications of economics. Students build analytical and mathematical skills for modeling and evaluating economic outcomes. Policy tradeoffs are examined from multiple perspectives. Upon completion, students will be equipped with core microeconomic and macroeconomic ways of thinking to apply in their careers and lives.

The economic or economizing problem is identified to be the efficient use of scarce resources to meet the unlimited wants of society. The wants are verified to be unlimited. The resources are cataloged. The economic problem is studied with the help of the production possibilities curve which shows that a choice is necessary and that economic growth is only possible if resources are efficiently used and expanded.

The intended audience of the textbook is first-year undergraduates taking courses on the principles of macroeconomics and microeconomics. Many may never take another economics course. We aim to increase their economic literacy both by developing their aptitude for economic thinking and by presenting key insights about economics that every educated individual should know.

Macroeconomics examines the fundamentals of the American economy as it relates to social welfare. Emphasis is on basic economic concepts and theories as they effect domestic and international markets. This course integrates behavioral social sciences to present solutions to real world problems. Macroeconomics includes measurements of GDP, fiscal and monetary policy.

Principles of Macroeconomics is an adaptation of the text, Macroeconomics: Theory, Markets, and Policy by D. Curtis and I. Irvine, and presents a complete and concise examination of introductory macroeconomics theory and policy suitable for a first introductory course.
Examples are domestic and international in their subject matter and are of the modern era -- financial markets, monetary and fiscal policies aimed at inflation and debt control, globalization and the importance of trade flows in economic structure, and concerns about slow growth and the risk of deflation, are included.

This text is intended for a one-semester course, and can be used in a two-semester sequence with the companion text, Principles of Microeconomics. The three introductory chapters are common to both books.

Lyryx develops and supports open texts, with editorial services to adapt the text for each particular course. In addition, Lyryx provides content-specific formative online assessment, a wide variety of supplements, and in-house support available 7 days/week for both students and instructors.

Recognizing that a course in economics may seem daunting to some students, we have tried to make the writing clear and engaging. Clarity comes in part from the intuitive presentation style, but we have also integrated a number of pedagogical features that we believe make learning economic concepts and principles easier and more fun. These features are very student-focused. The chapters themselves are written using a “modular” format. In particular, chapters generally consist of three main content sections that break down a particular topic into manageable parts. Each content section contains not only an exposition of the material at hand but also learning objectives, summaries, examples, and problems. Each chapter is introduced with a story to motivate the material and each chapter ends with a wrap-up and additional problems. Our goal is to encourage active learning by including many examples and many problems of different types.

Principles of Macroeconomics 2e covers the scope and sequence of most introductory economics courses. The text includes many current examples, which are handled in a politically equitable way. The outcome is a balanced approach to the theory and application of economics concepts. The second edition has been thoroughly revised to increase clarity, update data and current event impacts, and incorporate the feedback from many reviewers and adopters.Changes made in Principles of Macroeconomics 2e are described in the preface and the transition guide to help instructors transition to the second edition.

Principles of Macroeconomics 2e covers the scope and sequence of most introductory economics courses. The text includes many current examples, which are handled in a politically equitable way. The outcome is a balanced approach to the theory and application of economics concepts. The second edition has been thoroughly revised to increase clarity, update data and current event impacts, and incorporate the feedback from many reviewers and adopters.
Changes made in Principles of Macroeconomics 2e are described in the preface and the transition guide to help instructors transition to the second edition. The first edition of Principles of Macroeconomics by OpenStax is available in web view here.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Discuss the importance of studying economicsExplain the relationship between production and division of laborEvaluate the significance of scarcity

This shows how to run a stock project throughout the semester and includes the initial instructions for the students, a sample first report, and a sample final report for the students.  Students will learn how stocks are purchased, how markets react to news, and is an excellent way to discuss various topics throughout the semester.  Review the instructions for faculty for a more detailed explanation of how to make it work.

The Macroeconomics digital course enhancements is a comprehensive, open-access resource for economics instructors to adopt in whole or in part, and is designed to support flexibility for faculty and students. The content areas are divided into modules for ease of navigation or partial adoption as needed. We don’t have a required textbook even if we often refer to chapters in the OpenStax’s Principle of Macroeconomics. In addition, we provide suggestions for student activities and deliverables for each topic within the modules as well as reference videos and articles.
For the novice instructor, you will find an organized course structure highlighting key content areas and suggested activities. We provide various classroom activities so that instructors can pick and choose. For the new-to-online, this course offers a structure to follow and suggestions for engagement that can easily be adapted to online delivery. For the experienced faculty, our goal was to provide new ideas, engagement activities, and links to resources that could be shared with students seeking additional support. We’ve also curated additional resources that are open access and may be beneficial to instructors as supplemental materials.
In the course materials, we have included discussion prompt options, homework and activities, and quiz and exam. Below is a summary of each resource and how we envisioned use of these materials.
We provide extensive discussion prompt options that could be used in the classroom, in virtual class sessions, or as discussion board posts. We encourage instructors to consider these discussion prompts for online courses to enhance student engagement and provide a sense of community. They also lend themselves to deeper learning and application of the material.
In each module, we provide homework assignments including multiple choice questions, short-answer questions, exercises and problems. Most open source textbooks offer practice questions and a test bank so that you can easily adopt. Classroom activities could be graded or ungraded and provide students the opportunity to practice with the material.
Another suggestion to increase collaboration and engagement in the course is to have students use Google Docs or another collaborative tool to provide a test or quiz question related to the topics. Students could work in small groups to develop questions and earn participation or extra credit points for submitting accurate questions. This could even be developed into a competition between groups. This is one option for building a robust and unpublished source for quiz or exam questions. We suggest selecting a few of the top questions for quizzes or exams.
This Macroeconomics resource is intended to provide flexible adoption options for instructors. Instructors may use all of the materials in the modules or select what is most appropriate to enhance existing course materials. We hope this is a useful tool for economics instructors regardless of expertise level.

This is an introduction on day 1 for students to learn what it takes to have a solid retirement.  It walks them through how much they would need to save monthly starting at 25, 35, 45, and 55 with the goal of a million dollars by 65.  Use it as a way to get students excited about the course and a stock project if you run one.  Topics include compound interest, savings rates, and time value of money using real world material.