ACCOUNTING 200-601 Managerial Accounting Fall, 2010 Instructor: Robin Thomas Phone: (919) 515-6150 Office: 3144 Nelson Hall E-mail: robin_thomas@ncsu.edu. Class Web Page: http://moodle.wolfware.ncsu.edu/ (login required) Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays from 1:30 3:00 (no appointment necessary) and by mutual appointment. Course Objectives: This course is designed to provide students with a basic understanding of managerial accounting concepts and procedures. Students will analyze accounting data that are useful in managerial decision making and in the control and evaluation of the decisions made within business organizations. In addition, students are provided a brief overview of key financial accounting and tax concepts. Course Format: This distance education course will be delivered using a learning management system (Moodle). The first four weeks of this course will be devoted to financial accounting and taxation topics while the remainder of the semester will be devoted to managerial accounting topics. The textbook has an accompanying online learning resource called CengageNOW. The code needed to access CengageNOW will come with your textbook package. Prerequisites: none I. Textbook and Other Materials A. Managerial ACCT for NCSU, 2010, Sawyers, Jackson, and Jenkins, South-Western, Cengage Learning. Student Edition Package (includes online access code to CengageNOW) ISBN: 97811116309645 (REQUIRED). Cost $97.50 (new). B. Non-programmable (non-graphing) calculator is required for exams (REQUIRED). The HP 10BII financial calculator is recommended. II. Grading Policies A. Calculation of Course Grade: Exam #1 20% Exam #2 20% Final Exam (comprehensive) 25% On-line Quizzes 20% (best 8 out of 9) Graded Assignments 15% (best 9 out of 11) 100%
B. Grading Scale: A+ 100 97 D+ 69 67 A 96 93 D 66 63 A - 92 90 D- 62 60 B+ 89 87 F Below 60 B 86 83 B- 82 80 C+ 79 77 C 76 73 C- 72 70 III. Exams, Quizzes, and Homework A. Exams: Students within a reasonable commuting distance are expected to come to the NCSU campus for two chapter exams and a comprehensive final exam. Additional exam information is as follows: Dates: See Moodle Calendar or the schedule at the back of this syllabus for exam dates. With respect to Exams #1 and #2, the date on the calendar is the preferred date however, students are permitted to take the exam either one day earlier or one day later than the preferred date. Students should plan to take the final exam sometime during the week of Dec 6 10. Place: Students within a reasonable commuting distance will take all exams at the Distance Education (DE) proctoring center located on Centennial Campus. Students must make a reservation to secure a test time. Taking an exam at the DE office is referred to as local proctoring. A link to the local DE testing website is at: http://distance.ncsu.edu/testing-services/local-testing.php. This link includes exam reservation information, location maps, and other important information regarding exam taking at the DE office. Reservations for all exams should be made by September 2. Students not within a reasonable commuting distance will be required to make approved proctoring arrangements at a remote proctoring site prior to September 2. Remote proctoring information can be found at: http://distance.ncsu.edu/students/remoteproctor.html. Exam Arrangements Survey Around the third week of classes, students will be asked to complete an exam arrangements survey documenting the approved proctoring arrangements they have set up for the entire semester. More information about this survey will be given as the semester progresses. Approved exam arrangements for the entire semester should be made no later than Friday, September 2. The links above will guide students in making their time reservations for all exams Duration: Exams #1 and #2 will be available for a two-hour time slot and will be 2
computer-based. The exam timer cannot be paused or stopped once the exam is begun, so students should be prepared to work straight through the exam. The final exam will be available for three hours and it will be a paper exam. Bring: Format: Picture ID, pencils, and non-programmable calculator. Scrap paper will be provided. Electronic devices (ex. cell phones and PDAs) are not allowed to be used as a calculator and are not permitted in the exam testing room. Please read the Proctoring Guidelines noted on the DE testing website. Online exams (Exam #1 and #2) will consist of multiple choice, true false, and fill-in-the-blank questions. Students should not have access to textbooks, notes, or other on-line tools while taking an exam. The final exam will be a paper exam and will consist of only multiple-choice questions. Makeup Exams: Only extraordinary circumstances warrant the taking of a makeup exam. There will not be any make-up exams given after exam answers have been released to the class. In some cases, you may be allowed to take the exam early if you know in advance of the excused absence. When an exam is missed, for excused absences only (see below for definition) or documented emergencies, you will be allowed to put the weight of that particular exam towards your final exam. For unexcused absences, the exam grade will be recorded as zero. You should contact me before the absence if at all possible, and, even in the event of an excused absence, you are expected to inform me of your excuse within one day of the absence if reasonably possible. Excused absences: See http://www.ncsu.edu/provost/academic_regulations/attend/reg.htm for the university s policy on specific details of what constitutes an excused absence. In summary, the following are excused absences: i) Official university functions (student should show official documentation) ii) Required court attendance as certified by the Clerk of Court (student should show official documentation) iii) Religious observances as certified by the Dept. of Student Development iv) Required military duty as certified by the student s commanding officer. In addition, emergency absences must be reported to the instructor as soon as possible. Examples are: illness or injury certified by attending physician, death or serious illness in the family when certified appropriately. Other absences not clearly covered in the university s policy will be carefully considered on a case by case basis by me. B. On-line Quizzes: On-line quizzes will make up 20% of your course grade. The purpose of on-line quizzes is to provide an assessment of the level of your understanding of chapter material. When taking on-line quizzes, you may use your books, notes, and learning modules but you should work independently. There will be a total of 9 on-line quizzes over the course of the semester. The best 8 will be used in determining the average for this portion of your grade. Some on-line quizzes will cover more than one learning module. 3
The first on-line quiz relates to the material gone over in this syllabus and the student orientation to Moodle learning module. Unlike other on-line quizzes, you will be able to take this first quiz up to two times with the highest grade being recorded in the grade book. Students should take this quiz within the first five days of class. Students who add the class after the official start of the semester will have five days from their first date of enrollment to complete this quiz. There will be only one attempt for on-line quizzes #2 - #9. Students should pay careful attention to the quiz settings to determine each quiz s due date. During the availability time window, as long as you do not finish the quiz and submit it for grading, you can come back to finish the quiz later. The quiz must be finished and submitted for grading prior to the cutoff date and time. Copies of on-line quizzes (with their solution) will be available at the end of the time window. For this reason, there are no make-ups for missed on-line quizzes for any reason. The lowest quiz grade (out of 9) will be dropped at the end of the semester. You are encouraged to take and submit the quiz early on within the time window to minimize the risk of unforeseen events occurring that could prevent your completion of the quiz. If you have computer difficulties prior to the end of the time window, you should immediately contact me in order to have the quiz reset and allow yourself time to complete the quiz before its expiration time. C. Graded Assignments: Graded assignments will make up 15% of your overall course grade. Most of the learning modules will have an assignment that should be submitted by the due date noted on the assignment setting as well as the Moodle calendar. Graded assignments will be submitted in Moodle. In the event a student misses an assignment, a grade of zero will be recorded in the grade book at the time of the assignment s due date. There will be a total of 11 assignments over the course of the semester. The best 9 will be used in determining the average for this portion of your grade. Copies of assignment solutions will be available after the assignment s time window expires. For this reason, there are no make-ups for missed assignments for any reason. The lowest two assignment grades (out of 11) will be allowed to be dropped. IV. Moodle: This distance education class will be administered through Moodle, a learning management system. Student access is via a university login. The course material is presented in the form of learning modules. Each learning module should be taken in sequential order. In order to be successful in this course, you should follow all the steps in each learning module as well as successfully complete all assignments and assessments. The best web browser for using Moodle is firefox. The firefox browser can be downloaded at http://www.mozilla.com/en- US/firefox/ie.html. Required: In order for you to familiarize yourself with Moodle, the first learning module is a Class Orientation. Please read through this written learning module completely along with this syllabus. Your first on-line quiz of the semester will be on course policies and the use of Moodle. The web address to access Moodle is located at the front of this syllabus. 4
If after the first day, you are not able to access this class through Moodle, please contact robin_thomas@ncsu.edu or HELP@ncsu.edu. Links and course content tools available from Moodle include: Syllabus Calendar Tool ** Announcements Tool Learning Modules Assignments Quizzes Forums Other Resources Each of the above links is gone over in more detail in the Class Orientation learning module. ** Rather than putting daily assignments on the Moodle calendar, due dates of assignments and assessments (on-line quizzes and exams) are shown. Students will need to be vigilant about pacing themselves in order to complete the learning modules, assignments, and assessments within the time frames set forth on the Moodle calendar. Students should look ahead on the calendar to see what will be due in the immediate future and make sure they have completed the required learning module before the due date of the assignment or assessment. To help students better pace themselves, another calendar showing the overall dates that certain chapters should be gone over is supplied at the end of this syllabus. You will notice that every day, including Saturdays and Sundays, is included. Students are not expected to have to work each and every day on Acc 200; instead, the suggested calendar gives students a general guideline with respect to the chapters they should be working on until the successful completion of the related learning module. Because of the unique and often flexible nature of on-line courses, students can conveniently tailor the dates in which they work on the learning modules around their own schedules, but please note that the assignment, exam, and on-line quiz due dates are firmly fixed. V. Sequence of Work: Each learning module is devoted to a particular section or chapter. Each module has a similar sequence of steps. In general, the steps in each module are as follows: Review the chapter objectives and read the chapter carefully. Read through additional class notes or handouts (if applicable). Optional: If applicable, watch the online videos related to the key chapter material. These videos are optional for students. Complete self-graded homework assignments and check your work against their solutions. The solutions are provided in a separate Moodle folder. Complete practice quiz questions and check your work against their solutions. Complete the homework assignment to be submitted for a grade. This assignment needs to be submitting before the due date noted on the calendar. Once graded, a solution will be sent back to you. If a student does not turn in the assignment by the due date, the solution will be available in a folder on the homepage of Moodle. When applicable, work and submit the section or chapter on-line quiz before the due date noted on the calendar. Some quizzes will cover just one section or chapter while others may cover two or more. 5
Forums (Discussion Boards): In addition to the above sequence of work, a public forum has been set up for each chapter. Students who have a question about any of the chapter material, should first go to the related chapter s forum to see if the question has already been asked by another student. I will be checking the discussion boards daily (Mon Fri) to answer discussion board questions. Students are encouraged to use the discussion board to pose questions they feel would be beneficial for other students to know as well. Students may also respond to other students questions but, make sure you have read through all the threads to a discussion in case a later clarification has been made. Graded assignment and graded on-line quiz questions should not be posted on the discussion board until the time for the assignment or quiz has expired. Please e-mail the instructor directly if you have a personal issue that should remain private. In order to become better acquainted with discussion board postings, students are encouraged to make a posting to the Introduce Yourself discussion. Your posting can be brief. Suggestions for what to post include your reason for taking this course, your major, your location, and whether or not this is your first distance education course. Please put your name in the topic. I have posted an introduction as well. VI. Other: A. Because learning modules and their related assignments and on-line quizzes will be open until their due dates, distance education students can work ahead to complete assignments and quizzes early. Many distance education students like this feature of an online class because it allows for some flexibility on the student s part. In order to be fair to all students, however, due dates of assignments and quizzes are generally not flexible. Student s who miss an assignment or quiz due to personal and/or work circumstances should not ask for extensions beyond the due dates, but rather, expect to apply the missed assignment or quiz towards the allowed drops or accept a grade of zero if the allowed drops have already been used. B. Students are encouraged to login to Moodle on a daily basis (Mon Fri) to see if there are any announcements forum postings. Likewise, I will make every attempt to login at least once during the day (Mon Fri, 8 am 5 pm) to answer e-mail or address forum questions. As a general rule, I will not be checking e-mail or discussion board questions between the hours of 5:00 pm and 8:00 am the following morning or on the weekends. C. Audits and Credit Only: If you are auditing this course or taking it for credit only, the minimum requirements are that you earn at least a C- in the class If you have signed up to take this class as an audit but you do not earn a C- or above in the class, a grade of NR (no recognition given for an audit) will be given. D. Incomplete: Only considered for a serious documented personal problem which prevents completion of the semester work. An incomplete may not be used as a substitute for a failing grade. It is only considered if making satisfactory progress in the class (C- or better). 6
E. Learning Disabled: NC State is committed to making students with disabilities full participants in its programs, services and activities through its compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 and, as such, NCSU has policies in place to ensure that students with disabilities have an equal opportunity to learn in the university environment. Therefore, with appropriate documentation from Disability Services for Students (DSS), appropriate accommodations will be made in this class. All requests for special class accommodations must come through DSS. In addition, students needing accommodations should meet or communicate with his or her instructor within the first two weeks of classes to discuss the appropriate testing and/or classroom arrangements as deemed necessary. Further information may be found at http://www.ncsu.edu/provost/offices/affirm_action/dss/students/. F. Honor Code: NCSU has an honor code which everyone is expected to adhere to. You will be asked to sign a statement attesting to your honesty on each of the on-line quizzes and exams. All exam and quiz assignments should be done on an individual basis. Violation of the honor code will result in a grade of F as well as be communicated to the Academic Affairs office at NCSU. 7
Calendar (subject to change at instructor s discretion) Suggested Section/Chapter student should be working on until the successful completion of the related learning module including its assignment, online quiz or exam. Assignment and On-line Quiz Due Dates Week 1 Wed Aug 18 Section 1 Student Orientation Quiz opens up (students should take within the first five days of class) Thu Aug 19 Section 1 Fri Aug 20 Section 1 Sat Aug 21 Section 1/2 Sun Aug 22 Section 1/2 Week 2 Mon Aug 23 Section 2 Tue Aug 24 Section 2 Wed Aug 25 Section 2 Thu Aug 26 Section 2/3 Sections 1 and 2 Assignment due by 8 pm Fri Aug 27 Section 3 *Online Quiz on Sections 1 and 2 due by 8 pm Sat Aug 28 Section 3 Sun Aug 29 Section 3 Week 3 Mon Aug 30 Section 3 Tue Sept 31 Section 3 Wed Sept 1 Section 3 Section 3 Assignment due by 8 pm Thu Sept 2 Section 4 *Online Quiz on Section 3 due by 8 pm Fri Sept 3 Section 4 Sat Sept 4 Section 4 Sun Sept 5 Section 4 Week 4 Mon Sept 6 Holiday Tue Sept 7 Section 4 Wed Sept 8 Section 4 Thu Sept 9 Section 4 Fri Sept 10 Section 4 Sat Sept 11 Section 4 Sun Sept 12 Section 4 Week 5 Mon Sept 13 Ch 1 and 2 Section 4 Assignment due by 8 pm Tue Sept 14 Ch 2 *Online Quiz on Section 4 and due by 8 pm Wed Sept 15 Ch 2 Thu Sept 16 Ch 2 Fri Sept 17 Ch 2 8
Sat Sept 18 Ch 2 Sun Sept 19 Ch 2 Week 6 Mon Sept 20 Ch 2 Ch 1 and Ch 2 Assignment due by 8 pm Tue Sept 21 Exam #1 (Sections 1 4 and Chapters 1 2) Wed Sept 22 Ch 3 Thu Sept 23 Ch 3 Fri Sept 24 Ch 3 Sat Sept 25 Ch 3 Sun Sept 26 Ch 3 Week 7 Mon Sept 27 Ch 3 Tue Sept 28 Ch 3 Ch 3 Assignment due by 8 pm Wed Sept 29 Ch 4 *Online Quiz on Ch 3 due by 8 pm Thu Oct 30 Ch 4 Fri Oct 1 Ch 4 Sat Oct 2 Ch 4 Sun Oct 3 Ch 4 Week 8 Mon Oct 4 Ch 4 Tue Oct 5 Ch 4 Wed Oct 6 Ch 4 Thu Oct 7 Fall Break Fri Oct 8 Fall Break Sat Oct 9 Ch 5 Sun Oct 10 Ch 5 Week 9 Mon Oct 11 Ch 5 Ch 4 Assignment due by 8 pm Tue Oct 12 Ch 5 *Online Quiz on Ch 4 due by 8 pm Wed Oct 13 Ch 6 Thu Oct 14 Ch 6 Fri Oct 15 Ch 6 Sat Oct 16 Ch 6 Sun Oct 17 Ch 6 Week 10 Mon Oct 18 Ch 6 Tue Oct 19 Ch 6 Wed Oct 20 Ch 6 Ch 5 and 6 Assignment due by 8 pm Thu Oct 21 Ch 7 *Online Quiz on Ch 5 and 6 due by 8 pm Fri Oct 22 Ch 7 Sat Oct 23 Ch 7 Sun Oct 24 Ch 7 Week 11 Mon Oct 25 Ch 7 Tue Oct 26 Ch 7 Wed Oct 27 Ch 7 Thu Oct 28 Ch 7 Fri Oct 29 Ch 7 Sat Oct 30 Ch 7 Sun Nov 31 Ch 7 Week 12 Mon Nov 1 Ch 7 Ch 7 Assignment due by 8 pm 9
Tue Nov 2 Prepare for exam Wed Nov 3 Exam #2 (Ch 3-7) Thu Nov 4 Ch 8 Fri Nov 5 Ch 8 Sat Nov 6 Ch 8 Sun Nov 7 Ch 8 Week 13 Mon Nov 8 Ch 8 Tue Nov 9 Ch 8 Wed Nov 10 Ch 8 Thu Nov 11 Ch 8 Fri Nov 12 Ch 8 Sat Nov 13 Ch 8 Sun Nov 14 Ch 8 Week 14 Mon Nov 15 Ch 8 Ch 8 Assignment due by 8 pm Tue Nov 16 Ch 9 *Online Quiz on Ch 8 due by 8 pm Wed Nov 17 Ch 9 Thu Nov 18 Ch 9 Fri Nov 19 Ch 9 Sat Nov 20 Ch 9 Sun Nov 21 Ch 9 Week 15 Mon Nov 22 Ch 10 Ch 9 Assignment due by 8 pm Tue Nov 23 Ch 10 *Online Quiz on Ch 9 due by 8 pm Wed Nov 24 Holiday Thu Nov 25 Holiday Fri Nov 26 Holiday Sat Nov 27 Ch 10 Sun Nov 28 Ch 10 Week 16 Mon Nov 29 Ch 10 Tue Dec 30 Ch 10 Wed Dec 1 Ch 11 Thu Dec 2 Ch 11 Ch 10 Assignment due by 8 pm Fri Dec 3 Ch 11 Sat Dec 4 Prepare for final Sun Dec 5 Prepare for final Week 17 Mon Dec 6 Final Exam * Tue Dec 7 Final Exam * Wed Dec 8 Final Exam * Thu Dec 9 Final Exam * Fri Dec 10 Final Exam * (comprehensive) 6:00 9:00 pm. Place to be announced. * Students should schedule to take his/her final exam sometime during the week of Dec 6 20. Allow three hours. Reservations must be made by Sept 2. 10