FIN 310 Applied Accounting & Finance

INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION

Instructor / Dr. Glen Tenney
Office / Pahrump Center
Phone / Office: 775-727-2009; Cell: 775-513-4853
E-mail / Use email within WebCampus under Inbox.
E-mail Outside of WebCampus /
Office Hours / 9:30 - 11:00 Monday through Thursday
Class Time / Tuesdays, 7:00 - 9:45 p.m.
Credits / 3

Wisdom teaches what is right in matters
of life and conduct. It guides and supports
us better than all other possessions.

Hans Sennholz.

EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY

Human beings are somewhat unique in that they have the ability, responsibility, and even necessity, to use reason on almost a continual basis. Society acts wisely when it fosters the cultivation of reason in its members. Formal education is a conscious, organized effort to impart in individuals the qualities and characteristics that will enhance and encourage the use of reason.

In today’s setting of “information overload,” the role of the college instructor is to teach what he believes to be truth, and the role of the student is to strive to learn that material. The student has no obligation to necessarily accept as “truth” all that is taught as “truth,” but to the extent the teacher has prepared himself as an expert in his field, the student would do well to appreciate the wisdom of the teacher and consider his instruction as a likely candidate for being true.

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Catalog Description:This course is designed to provide the student with the keys, concepts, and tools used in understanding the financial functions of a business enterprise. For those students with no previous education or experience in accounting, the course will include an introduction to the essential concepts necessary in understanding formal financial statements from the user’s perspective. Prerequisite: Completion of an associate degree.

Expanded Course Description:This course is highly computational. While an understanding of calculus is not required, there will be a lot of ordinary algebraic calculations in the course of learning finance. Indeed, the financial calculator will be the student’s best friend in this course.

LEARNER OUTCOMES AND MEASUREMENTS

Listed in the table below are the expected learner outcomes of the course, and the methods that will be used to measure students’ success in achieving these outcomes. In addition to these internal measurements, this course is part of the Bachelor of Applied Science degree program in which the students’ overall progress is measured at the program level upon entrance and graduation.

Expected Learner Outcomes / Outcome Measurements
Upon completion of the course a successful student will be able to: / These expected outcomes of the course will be measured by:
  • Grasp the basic concept of a risk/return tradeoff, and be able to separate the various risk premiums included in returns on various securities.
/
  • Module 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 12 Quizzes
  • Module 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 12 Homework
  • Midterm Exam
  • Final Exam

  • Utilize standard financial statements in analyzing the operating activities, the financial condition, and the cash flows of a business firm.
/
  • Module 3, 15, and 16 Quizzes
  • Module 3, 15, and 16 Homework
  • Midterm Exam
  • Final Exam

  • Use time value of money concepts in the calculation of present value, future value, and annuity amounts, and to estimate economic values of debt and equity securities.
/
  • Module 5, 7, 9, 10, 11 Quizzes
  • Module 5, 7, 9, 10, 11 Homework
  • Midterm Exam
  • Final Exam

  • Provide appropriate accept/reject decisions on proposed investment projects using standard approaches such as net present value, profitability index, and internal rate of return.
/
  • Module 10, 11 Quizzes
  • Module 10, 11 Homework
  • Final Exam

  • Recognize various strategies and tradeoffs in relation to securing short term financing, dividend policy, and working capital requirements.
/
  • Module 12, 13, 14, 15 Quizzes
  • Module 12, 13, 14, 15 Homework
  • Final Exam

TEACHING METHODS & PROCEDURES

The student starts his or her study in this course from WebCampus, which is the platform used for online courses at Great Basin College. This site is accessed from a link on the GBC Home Page, located at The opening screen of WebCampus provides information on the student’s User ID and Password, which will be needed to access and use the system during the semester. There are five aspects of learning the material in this course, and students should be actively engaged in all five of these aspects as they are explained below. Each of these activities is accessed from the “Weekly Learning Modules” link on the Fin 310 Home Page.

PowerPoint Presentations

These presentations are closely correlated with each of the readings under consideration, and should be used as a quick review or overview of the material. If the student does not have the PowerPoint software, free alternative software can be obtained from GBC that will allow the viewing of the presentations. Please call the technical help desk at 775-753-2167 if you need this software or if you are having trouble viewing the presentations. Students may find that they need to press the Control key while clicking on the Power Point link for each module.

Discussion Board

For each module of the course (except for the exam modules), students are expected to be active in the discussion board. It is highly recommended that students make their initial posts early in each module, and then students should return several times during the module to respond to what others have said on the discussion board.

Students should be aware of two specific aspects of this part of the course. First, the instructor will be quite active in the discussion boards during each module of the class. He will read posts, and will make comments as the discussions progress during each module. All student posts should therefore be of high quality, using good grammar, spelling, and reasoning. This means that posts should be made in complete sentences, with capital letters at the beginning of sentences. Opinions should be held to a minimum. With respect to thecontentof the discussion boards, the instructor has provided a few topics or questions for students to consider in their discussions for each module. These topics or questions will be the starting point for the discussions for each module. Students can, however, post additional topics or questions that pertain to the material being learned for the module. Again, students are encouraged to useeconomic reasoningin these discussionsrather than idle opinion.

For grading purposes, on the other hand, students should understand that quantity and timeliness (rather than quality of content) are the key features of the grading policy. One point is given for each post made during the time period for each module, with a maximum of three points per module. This policy is extraordinarily liberal and flexible, and there will beno exceptionsto this grading policy for any reason.

Repeatable Quizzes

For each module, students are required to take a short, 10-question quiz. Students may take each quiz as often as they like, and only the highest score obtained will be counted toward their grade. Some of these quiz questions may show up on the midterm exam or the final exam, so students should make good use of this opportunity to preview possible exam questions. Students should not wait until the deadline to take these quizzes. By taking the quizzes early, students will have the opportunity to study the material again, and take the quiz again to improve their scores and to expand their understanding of each topic. Each time each quiz is taken, students will obtain a different version of the quiz. So, after taking each quiz several times, students will be exposed to a wide variety of questions for that module’s subject-matter. Repeatable Quizzes must be taken during the time period for each module.

Periodic Examinations

There will be two major exams in the course—a midterm exam and a final exam. The exams will be made available to students during the 8thand 16thmodules of the course. Students will have three hours to complete each exam once it has been started, which means that they will have some time during the exam to review any textbook material that they would like. Students are, however, cautioned against leaving their studying until they have started the exam. The three-hour time limit for taking each exam will probably not be sufficient time to look up the answers if the student is not already familiar with the material. Furthermore, the nature of some of the questions on the exams will be such that the answer cannot be simply looked up in the textbook materials. Rather, some of the questions will require some application of principles to scenarios that are not specifically addressed in the reading materials. Upon completion of each exam, and after the due date has passed, students will be provided with the answers and their grades on each exam.

Homework Assignments

For each assigned chapter of study, students are required to complete a “Homework” assignment. Students will create a spreadsheet that address a series of questions, and then upload the file for grading. These assignments must be completed during the week that they are assigned. While a basic working ability with Microsoft Excel is helpful in doing these assignments, this ability can be acquired in a relatively short time for those students without such ability.

Summary of Activities

In short, for each module, students should click on the barrel for that module in the Weekly Learning Modules section of the course, and be actively engaged in doing the assignments within that module.

TEXTBOOK AND MATERIALS

Required Textbook:Fundamentals of Financial Managing, 3rd edition,by Frank Werner and James Stoner, published by Textbook Media Press. This textbook can be viewed online and/or ordered in hard-copy format from this website: ISBN: 1-930789-43-2.

This textbook can be obtained by following the instructions provided by the publisher inboldbelow.

Go to. Register. It will take about 60 seconds. You will be taken to My Account. You will see “You currently have no books to view.” To find your book, click on Booklist. Locate the book and click on Pricing Details. You will have four options for the format (e-book, pdf, and loose-leaf print or bound print). Read the descriptions and make your choice. Click on Add to Cart, then Checkout. Then you’ll see a page for Review Order. Once processed, ebook orders will be in My Account. Print orders may take up to seven business days, but you’ll have the online book immediately in My Account.

Mobile/tablet versions are available through Chegg ().

Required Financial Calculator: A financial calculator is also required for the course, and theHP 10BIIis the preferred model. This model is rather inexpensive, and class discussions will often assume the use of this calculator. If the student wishes to use another model, he or she is free to do so, but the HP model noted above will be the one that the instructor will use and demonstrate. The textbook for the class highlights the use of this particular calculator, so trying to use other calculators may cause confusions.

GRADES AND GRADING CRITERIA

Passing grades for the course will range from A to D, and will be determined based on the student's performance on the exams, the chapter quizzes, the homework assignments, and the discussion board posting assignments. The relative importance of these items is described in the chart below.

14 Discussion Board postings @ 3 points per module / 42
14 Homework Assignments @ 10 points per module / 140
14 Repeatable Quizzes @ 10 points per module / 140
2 Exams @ 100 points each / 200
Total Points Possible / 522

The following table is a representation of the percentages and points that are required for specific final grades in the course. Pluses and minuses may be applied in the upper and lower portions of these categories at the discretion of the instructor.

Percentage of
Total Points / Actual Number
Of Points / Final
Grade
90 – 100% / 470 – 522 / A
80 – 89.9% / 418 – 469 / B
70 – 79.9% / 365 – 417 / C
60 – 69.9% / 313 – 364 / D
Less than 60% / Less than 313 / F

EXTRA CREDIT

Grades for the course will be determined in accordance with the point scale listed above, and those criteria will be the only criteria for grading purposes. This means that, for grading purposes, students should focus on these criteria in order to get the grade they desire. Any request for something “extra” to do—in order to bring one’s grade up to some desired level—will be soundly rejected. This does not mean, however, that students are not allowed to do extra work of any kind in the class. The instructor encourages all students to be as engaged in learning finance and economics as they desire, and for some students this will mean extra activities of a variety of types. But again, please do not expect these extra activities to take the place of the graded activities mentioned above and detailed below.

PARTICIPATION AND ATTENDANCE

Preparationfor class means reading the assigned readings & reviewing all information required for that week.Attendancein an online course means logging into WebCampus on a regular basis, usually at least once per day, andparticipatingin the all of activities that are posted in the course.

POLICY ON LATE ASSIGNMENTS/EXAMS

Students are given ample time for completion of the assignments and exams. Because of this very liberal time frame, students should not ask for special privileges in this regard, and they should not expect to be given additional time to complete the assignments or exams.

Assignments Summary:

Date / Details
Sun Sep 4, 2016 / Module 1 (Ch 1) Discussions / due by11:59pm
Module 1 (Ch 1) Homework / due by11:59pm
Module 1 (Ch 1) Quiz / due by11:59pm
Sun Sep 11, 2016 / Module 2 (Ch 2) Discussions / due by11:59pm
Module 2 (Ch 2) Homework / due by11:59pm
Module 2 (Ch 2) Quiz / due by11:59pm
Sun Sep 18, 2016 / Module 3 (Ch 3) Discussions / due by11:59pm
Module 3 (Ch 3) Homework / due by11:59pm
Module 3 (Ch 3) Quiz / due by11:59pm
Sun Sep 25, 2016 / Module 4 (Ch 4) Discussions / due by11:59pm
Module 4 (Ch 4) Homework / due by11:59pm
Module 4 (Ch 4) Quiz / due by11:59pm
Sun Oct 2, 2016 / Module 5 (Ch 5) Discussions / due by11:59pm
Module 5 (Ch 5) Homework / due by11:59pm
Module 5 (Ch 5) Quiz / due by11:59pm
Sun Oct 9, 2016 / Module 6 (Ch 6) Discussions / due by11:59pm
Module 6 (Ch 6) Homework / due by11:59pm
Module 6 (Ch 6) Quiz / due by11:59pm
Sun Oct 16, 2016 / Module 7 (Ch 8) Discussions / due by11:59pm
Module 7 (Ch 8) Homework / due by11:59pm
Module 7 (Ch 8) Quiz / due by11:59pm
Sun Oct 23, 2016 / Midterm Exam / due by11:59pm
Sun Oct 30, 2016 / Module 9 (Ch 9) Discussions / due by11:59pm
Module 9 (Ch 9) Homework / due by11:59pm
Module 9 (Ch 9) Quiz / due by11:59pm
Sun Nov 6, 2016 / Module 10 (Ch 10) Discussions / due by11:59pm
Module 10 (Ch 10) Homework / due by11:59pm
Module 10 (Ch 10) Quiz / due by11:59pm
Sun Nov 13, 2016 / Module 11 (Ch 11) Discussions / due by11:59pm
Module 11 (Ch 11) Homework / due by11:59pm
Module 11 (Ch 11) Quiz / due by11:59pm
Sun Nov 20, 2016 / Module 12 (Ch 12) Discussions / due by11:59pm
Module 12 (Ch 12) Homework / due by11:59pm
Module 12 (Ch 12) Quiz / due by11:59pm
Sun Nov 27, 2016 / Module 13 (Ch 14) Discussions / due by11:59pm
Module 13 (Ch 14) Homework / due by11:59pm
Module 13 (Ch 14) Quiz / due by11:59pm
Sun Dec 4, 2016 / Module 14 (Ch 15 & 16) Discussions / due by11:59pm
Module 14 (Ch 15 & 16) Homework / due by11:59pm
Module 14 (Ch 15 & 16) Quiz / due by11:59pm
Sun Dec 11, 2016 / Module 15 (Ch 17 & 18) Discussions / due by11:59pm
Module 15 (Ch 17 & 18) Homework / due by11:59pm
Module 15 (Ch 17 & 18) Quiz / due by11:59pm
Fri Dec 16, 2016 / Final Exam / due by11:59pm