Essentials Economics

About This Course

Economic decisions affect us every day of our lives. Understanding economics means thinking about how scarcity, or limited resources, requires us to make choices and evaluate one option against others. In this course, students will recognize examples of economics in your daily life. Students will see how the economic choices of larger groups, like businesses and governments, affect students and others. As students’ progress through the course, students will recognize that the costs and benefits of choices connect individuals and groups around the world. The purpose of this course is to help students become a smart consumer who understands the flow of an economy between individuals, businesses, governments, and the rest of the world. The course also covers important concepts related to personal financial literacy. Prerequisites: None

Course Objectives: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to...

• Define the study of economics and the way it influences our daily lives
• Apply the concepts of scarcity and opportunity cost to explain why choice is necessary
• Create and analyze demand curves and supply curves
• Analyze factors that impact supply and demand and demonstrate how the equilibrium price of a product is determined by the interaction of supply and demand in the marketplace
• Explain the functions and identify characteristics of money supply
• Relate wants and needs to the concepts of scarcity, choice, and opportunity cost
• Explain the Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns
• Explain what people can do to make more informed education, job, and career decisions
• Differentiate between gross and net income and between direct and indirect taxes
• Explain differences between savings and checking accounts, including non-traditional savings accounts and how they impact return on investment
• Understand factors influencing consumer decisions about purchases of goods or services
• Identify and compare types of credit, the significance of credit scores, credit reports, bankruptcy, and how to calculate total cost of a loan
• Understand how insurance policies work and the various types of insurance policies that are available
• Explain and construct a one-year budget based on a specific career path
• Define entrepreneurship and analyze the contributions of entrepreneurs to the developing US
• Define factors of production -- land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship and why these factors are necessary in business operations
• Define and compare characteristics of monopoly, oligopoly, monopolistic competition, and pure competition and explain the purpose of “natural monopolies” and how the government regulates these firms
• Define GDP, inflation, contraction, trough, recession, growth, unemployment, and peak
• Identify relationships between consumers, banks, and the Federal Reserve System
• Identify tools and explain goals of fiscal policy including whether or not a balanced budget should be required by law
• Differentiate theories of prominent economists and analyze those which they most agree with
• Identify traditional, market, command, and mixed economies and how these systems differ in approach
• Define and identify barriers to trade and the costs and benefits to trade
• Identify and explain inflation and inflation’s impact on society
• Define and identify positive and negative externalities and analyze the impact of the externalities on consumers and society

Course Outline:

Module 1: Why Study Economics?

Module 2: Managing Money

Module 3: Taking Care of Business

Module 4: The Role of Government in the Economy

Module 5: International Trade and Globalization

Module 6: Circular Flow and Rational Decision-Making

Resources Included: Online lesson instruction and activities, opportunities to engage with a certified, online instructor and classmates, when appropriate, and online assessments to measure student performance of course objectives and readiness for subsequent academic pursuits.

Additional Costs: None

Scoring System: Michigan Virtual does not assign letter grades, grant credit for courses, nor issue diplomas. A final score out of total points earned will be submitted to your school mentor for conversion to their own letter grading system. Total course points may vary per student based on the items students test out of. The total points in the course may vary per student based upon the number of lessons which each individual demonstrates mastery through scores earned on lesson pre-tests. Students will be exempted from the points possible on a lesson quiz associated with successfully passing a related lesson pre-test.

Time Commitment: Semester sessions are 18-weeks long: Students must be able to spend 1 or more hours per day in the course to be successful. Summer sessions are 10 weeks long: Students must be able to spend a minimum of 2 or more hours per day, or about 90 hours during the summer, for the student to be successful in any course. Trimester sessions are 12-weeks long: Students must be able to spend 1.5 or more hours per day in the course to be successful.

Technology Requirements: Students will require a computer device with headphones, a microphone, webcam, up-to-date Chrome Web Browser, and access to YouTube.

Please review the Michigan Virtual Technology Requirements: https://michiganvirtual.org/about/support/knowledge-base/technical-requirements/

Lightweight devices such as Apple iPads, Google Chromebooks, and tablets have limited support for Java or Flash which still appear in a small percentage of our catalog. While FLVS does not offer technical support for these devices, FLVS is working to remove Flash from their remaining course content. Students will need extra work-around steps or alternate browsers to engage with some portions of those courses. FLVS recommends students have a Windows or Mac based computer available to complete coursework in the event that your selected mobile device does not meet the needs of the course. Fully supported Operating Systems for FLVS courses include Windows (10 or higher) and MacOS (11 or higher). Supported Browsers include the most recent versions of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Apple Safari on devices that support Java and HTML5. Browsers need to be up to date, and some FLVS courses may require installation or enabling of the following Plug-ins: JavaScript enabled, Cookies enabled, Java installed. https://www.flvs.net/student-parent-resources/more/system-requirements

Instructor Support System: For technical issues within your course, contact the Customer Care Center by email at customercare@michiganvirtual.org or by phone at (888) 889-2840.

Instructor Contact Expectations: Students can use email or the private message system within the Student Learning Portal to access highly qualified teachers when they need instructor assistance. Students will also receive feedback on their work inside the learning management system. The Instructor Info area of their course may describe additional communication options.

Academic Support Available: In addition to access to a highly qualified, Michigan certified teacher, students have access to academic videos and outside resources verified by Michigan Virtual. For technical issues within the course, students can contact the Michigan Virtual Customer Care by email at customercare@michiganvirtual.org or by phone at (888) 889-2840.

Required Assessment: Online assessments consist of formative and summative assessments represented by computer-graded multiple choice, instructor-graded writing assignments including hands-on projects, model building and other forms of authentic assessments.

Technical Skills Needed: No special skills are required beyond being able to operate a computer and use word processing software.

Additional Information: This course permits students to test out of content and therefore are not NCAA eligible. If you are enrolling a student athlete for Credit Recovery purposes, we recommend our full-length Plus courses. This course does NOT fulfill Personal Finance credit requirements for the 2028 graduation year (missing coverage of standards: PF4.1 and PF7).