BU3210 Financial Management (Online) Fall 2016

Dr. Edward Harding (Ned)

PSU / ITS Helpdesk: (603) 535-2929

1. General Description: This introductoryfinance course explores quantitativemodels principally related to the financial management of corporations. The discipline is variously referred to as financial management, corporate finance, managerial finance, financial analysis or sometimes, simply, finance.

2. Objective: The course is designed to expose students to the theory, the concepts, and the models used by corporate financial managers and begins to build the foundation of skills and knowledge required for the successful management of finance for both businesses and individuals. There is an underlying assumption that students are already comfortable with the structure of financial statements from prior accounting courses, with the mathematics of algebra and statistics, and with the technological skills of spreadsheets.

3. Content Materials: Course contentis contained in the textbook Sketches in Finance 14OL sold exclusively through the PSU Bookstore. There are other variations of Sketches in Financeavailable, so students should be careful to get the variation specifically designed for this course, BU3210 ONLINE. The price of this text has been deeply discounted to make it affordable for every student and there is an ebook option available through the PSU Bookstore.

4. Weekly work: While most of the course is accessible online from the first day of classes, some exercises are updated with new market data throughout the semester. Therefore, the professor reserves the right to modify exercise up to 8:00AM on Monday of the week of the exercise. Students may preview upcoming work, but should not submit until the week that the work is due. Weekly exercises are due by midnight on Friday. Late submissions are generally accepted, but a grade penalty will be assessed. Grade penalties increase with time.

5. Exercises: The weekly exercises are all done in a spreadsheet format. The general approach is to give a disabled sample spreadsheet to the student who then copies the file to a local drive. The sample will show inputs and outputs to a model. The task is to understand the quantitative formulas that derive the displayed output, to write those formulas in spreadsheet notation such that the re-written spreadsheet becomes functional. Finished spreadsheets are then submitted to Moodle for evaluation. Exercises are graded by the instructor primarily on 1) on-time submission, and 2) the technical strength of the work.

6. Technical Forums: There arealso weekly “technical” forums for resolving problems with the weekly exercises. Students should seek help from their peers (and from the instructor) in these technical forums when they are overwhelmed by uncertainty, and students experiencing feelings of confidence should share their knowledge in response. The “give and take” in these technical forums is an effective method of learning the material. Students are encouraged to participate, but there is no grading of the comments in these technical forums.

7. Grades: There are14weekly graded spreadsheet exercises. These grades are calculated in conformance with the 4.0 system in which the maximum grade is 4.0 = A = 95 and points are deducted for errors. The final exam is a review of the previous exercises and is graded using the “percent correct” method with a maximum grade of 100%. Final course grades are based on the aggregate of the interim grades(50%) and a final exam (50%).

8. Tech requirements: The following are not administrative requirements, but are more practical considerations common to many on-line courses. The student systems required to take the course include:

a. High-speed internet access

b. Contemporary PC operating system (e.g.Windows 7,8,10Mac or Linux)

c. Access to, and competency using, MS Word, Excel (or equivalent), an internet browser and email.

d. a PSU email account.

e. Access to .pdf software readers [e.g. Adobe] and video viewers. Neither microphones nor cameras are required of the students.

f. local IT support and/or individual technical competence.

9. Help: For user tech issues relating to account maintenance, access and Moodle issues, contact thePSU Helpdesk in Lamson Library on the Plymouth campus, tel. (603) 535-2929.

10. Academic Integrity: This course adheres to PSU’s academic integrity standards. When a student submits a piece of work with his or her name attached, it is assumed that the work was created by that same student. If it appears that the work is a copy of someone else’s work, then it will be assumed that academic integrity standards have been violated and the work will be evaluated accordingly. Likewise, a student who allows his or her original work to be copied will be assumed to be an accomplice in a violation of academic integrity.

11. ADA Statement: PSU is committed to providing students withdocumented disabilities equal access to all university programs and facilities. If you thinkyou have a disability requiring accommodations, you should immediately contact the Disability Services Office (DSO) in the Center for Student Success in Mary Lyon(535-3065) to determine whether you are eligible forsuch accommodations. Academic accommodations will only be considered for studentswho have registered with DSO. If you have a Letter of Accommodation forthis course from DSO, please provide the instructor with that informationprivately so that you and the instructor can review those accommodations.

12. Catalog Description: Financial analysis, planning and control techniques for large and small businesses. Includes present value concept, ratio analyses, short-term, intermediate and long-term financing approaches. Falls and Springs. Prerequisite(s): (BU 1150 or BU 1152), (BU 2260 or BU 2262), and (BU 2240 or MA 2300).

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