ECS1501/001/3/2021

Tutorial Letter 001/3/2021

Economics 1A

ECS 1501

Department of Economics

This tutorial letter replaces Tutorial Letter

101/3/2021 and contains important
information about your module.

BARCODE
 CONTENTS

Page
1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................ 3
2 PURPOSE AND OUTCOMES ....................................................................................................................... 3
2.1 Purpose ............................................................................................................................................................... 3
2.2 Outcomes ............................................................................................................................................................ 3
3 LECTURER CONTACT DETAILS .............................................................................................................. 4
3.1 Lecturers ............................................................................................................................................................. 4
3.2 Contacting the University ................................................................................................................................... 4
4 RESOURCES ................................................................................................................................................... 4
4.1 Prescribed book .................................................................................................................................................. 4
4.2 Study guides ....................................................................................................................................................... 4
4.3 Tutorial letters .................................................................................................................................................... 5
4.4 myUnisa ............................................................................................................................................................. 5
4.4.1 Announcements .................................................................................................................................................. 5
4.4.2 Online assessment .............................................................................................................................................. 6
4.4.3 Additional resources ........................................................................................................................................... 6
4.4.4 Lessons ............................................................................................................................................................... 6
4.4.5 Discussions ......................................................................................................................................................... 6
4.5 E-tutors ............................................................................................................................................................... 6
4.6 Face-to-face tutors .............................................................................................................................................. 6
5 STUDY PLAN .................................................................................................................................................. 7
6 CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT ..................................................................................................................... 8
6.1 General remarks ................................................................................................................................................. 8
6.2 Assignments ....................................................................................................................................................... 8
6.2.1 Format of the assignments .................................................................................................................................. 9
6.2.2 Release and due dates for assignments............................................................................................................... 9
6.3 Final mark ........................................................................................................................................................ 10
7 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................... 11

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1 INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Economics 1A, an introduction to Microeconomics. We hope that you will find this module
interesting and rewarding. We will do our best to make your study of this module successful. You will be
well on your way to success if you start studying early in the semester and keep on working throughout
the semester. Because this is a module with continuous assessment, you will need to use myUnisa to
study and complete the assignments for this module. You will, therefore, need to visit the ECS1501
module site on myUnisa frequently.
Before you start, please visit the First-Year Experience (FYE) Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) to
prepare yourself for studying at Unisa: go to the following link
https://www.unisa.ac.za/sites/myunisa/default/First%E2%80%93year-experience-at-Unisa/FYE-MOOC-
101

2 PURPOSE AND OUTCOMES

2.1 Purpose
When you are credited with this module, you will have a basic knowledge of microeconomic theory and
you will be able to apply, analyse and, interpret microeconomic concepts and principles. The purpose of
this module is to gain insight into the solving of economic problems in different economic systems and to
understand how households and firms make decisions and prices are determined.
2.2 Outcomes
The main outcomes of this module are the following:
You must be able to
 conceptualise and apply the main economic problem in different economic systems and use a
diagram to explain how the economy functions
 explain and conceptualise the interaction between consumers and producers in a perfectly
competitive goods market
 conceptualise, apply, calculate and evaluate the price decisions of firms under perfect market
conditions in both the short and the long run
 conceptualise the factors that influence the labour market
More detailed module outcomes and assessment criteria can be found in each topic.

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3 CONTACT DETAILS
3.1 Lecturers
Your lecturers (and their contact details) for this module are as follows:
 Mr Willie le Roux - Lrouxwj@unisa.ac.za 012 433 4707
 Ms Reinet Bezuidenhout - bezuir@unisa.ac.za 012 433 4705
 Mr Claude Byneveldt - ebynevcf@unisa.ac.za 012 429 2193
 Mr Herman Rudolph - rudolch@unisa.ac.za 021 433 4672
As your lecturers, we are responsible for compiling the study material, setting up the assessments and,
evaluating your performance in these tests. The lecturers allocated to this module may change. We will
inform you about such a change on myUnisa.
If you have any administrative (non-academic) queries, you can contact:

 Ms Nontsikelelo Ntwanambi - ntwannm@unisa.ac.za 012 433 4727

3.2 Contacting the University
If you need to contact the University about matters not related to the content of this module, consult the
brochure Study @ Unisa, which you have received with your study material. This brochure contains
information on how to contact the University (e.g. who to write to for different queries, important
telephone numbers, addresses, and details of the times certain facilities are open). Below you will find
some important e-mail addresses for the departments that you might need to contact.
You can also send your enquiry directly to the following addresses:
 despatch@unisa.ac.za, for study material queries
 finan@unisa.ac.za, for account queries
 Study-info@unisa.ac.za, for application and registration queries
 myLifeHelp@unisa.ac.za, for assistance with myLife e-mail accounts
 MyUnisaHelp@unisa.ac.za, for assistance with myUnisa

4 RESOURCES
4.1 Prescribed book
There is no prescribed book for this module.
4.2 Study guides
The fifteen topics covered in this module are included in Study Guide 1 and Study Guide 2.
 Study Guide 1 contains topics 1 to 8.
 Topics 9 to 15 are included in Study Guide 2.
The study guides cover all the academic content of the module.
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4.3 Tutorial letters

You will receive the following tutorial letters:
 This tutorial letter (Tutorial letter 001) which contains administrative information about this
module. Note, some of you might have received a Tutorial Letter 101, the information in that
tutorial letter is not valid any longer. Tutorial Letter 101 was replaced by the tutorial letter you
are reading now, that is, Tutorial Letter 001.
 Tutorial Letter 102 is a glossary that contains definitions of important Economics terms and
concepts in English, Afrikaans, isiZulu, isiXhosa, Northern Sotho, Sesotho and Setswana.
4.4 myUnisa
The myUnisa learning management system is the Unisa online campus where you can communicate with
your lecturers, with other students and with the administrative departments of Unisa. Since this module is
presented as a blended module, you must access myUnisa regularly. To go to the myUnisa website, start
on the main Unisa website at http://www.unisa.ac.za and then click on the orange myUnisa block. This
will take you to the myUnisa website. Or, to go to the myUnisa website directly, go to
https://my.unisa.ac.za. (You may consult the Study @ Unisa brochure for more information on myUnisa.)
On the myUnisa site, we will use the tools listed below to ensure effective communication and that you
receive information on time, that is, information that will help you keep to your study programme and due
dates.

4.4.1 Announcements
We will send out weekly announcements that you will receive in your myLife email inbox, but you can
access all announcements that have been sent out regarding this module on the ECS1501 webpage by
clicking on Announcements. Every Monday you will receive an announcement discussing the learning
activities for that week (based on the study programme). We also use the announcement tool to

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communicate general information about the module, such as reminders that an assignment is available or
that it must be submitted, errata for study material and other important information.
4.4.2 Online assessment
This is probably the most important tool you are going to use. This is where you will find your
assignments, and this is also the place where you submit your assignments. See section 6 below for a
detailed discussed of the continuous assessment approach we apply in this module.
4.4.3 Additional resources
Under Additional Resources, we provide
 Pdf copies of Study Guide 1 and Study Guide 2.
 PowerPoint presentations covering the various topics (note that it will not work to print these
slides, as they contain animation that will be lost when you print them).
 Quizzes which contain examples of typical assignment questions.
 Copies of some of the video clips used in the lessons tool.
4.4.4 Lessons
We have built a series of lessons covering all the topics that are prescribed for this module. Though the
contents of these lessons are the same as the study guides, we have made use of various multimedia
interventions like click-throughs, video clips and in-line activities, to make the presentations interactive.
The lessons start with an Introduction where we give a short overview of the module. The rest of the
topics are presented in the same sequence as they appear in the study guides.
4.4.5 Discussions
The discussions tool is the link to your online classroom. This is the space where you can interact with the
lecturing team and fellow students. Several forums are created under the discussions tool, for example,
 an admin forum where you can seek clarity on administrative issues,
 a study group forum if you want to form or join a study group (using one of the social media
platforms),
 a forum for each of the topics in the study guide and
 a forum for the quizzes.
4.5 E-tutors
You will not be allocated to a specific e-tutor, nor will you be linked to a specific e-tutor site for this
module. Instead, academic support is provided on the module webpage under the discussions link.
4.6 Face-to-face tutors
No face-to-face (F2F) tutor classes will be offered for this module.

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5 STUDY PLAN
The best way to be successful in this module is to work diligently from the start to the end of the
semester. The following study programme was drawn up to help you work through the module
systematically. The lecturers will also work according to this study programme.

Week Prepare and submit

Week Work through topic
commencing assignment
1 5 April 1. The study field of economics. 01
2 12 April 2. The economist’s toolkit.
3 19 April 3. Economic systems.
4 26 April 4. Production possibilities curve. 02
5 3 May 5. Circular flow model.
6 10 May 03
7 17 May 6.1 Demand. 04
8 24 May 6.2 Supply.
9 31 May 6.3 Market equilibrium. 05
10 7 June 7. Consumer and producer surplus.
11 14 June 06
12 21 June 8. Changes in demand and supply. 07
13 28 June 9. Government intervention.
14 5 July 08
15 12 July 10. Price elasticity. 09
16 19 July 11. Other elasticities.
17 26 July 12. Theory of demand. 10
18 2 August 11
19 9 August 13. Theory of supply. 12
20 16 August 14. Perfect and imperfect 13
competition.
21 23 August 15. Labour market.
22 30 August 14

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6 CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT
6.1 General remarks
ECS1501 is a “continuous assessment module”. As the term implies, you will be assessed throughout the
semester by completing an assignment every week or sometimes every second week. In total there are 14
assignments spread over the semester.
The marks you obtain for the assignments are used to calculate your final mark. In other words, all the
assignments contribute towards your final mark and you do not write a formal examination at the end of
the semester.
6.2 Assignments
In general, one can say the role of assignments is to develop and assess skills. Assignments that focus on
the development of skills sometimes referred to as assessment for learning (or formative assessment),
would typically concentrate on one key concept or building block. With these assignments, you and us
(the lecturers) can assess whether there are gaps in your understanding of the concept. Importantly, based
on your inputs and the identified gaps, you will get feedback and guidance. Also, with assessment for
learning assignments one gets an opportunity to do the assessment again, giving you the chance to apply
what you have learned from the feedback.
In contrast, assessment of learning (or summative assessment) assess whether you have mastered the
skills/outcomes of the content. Thus, a summative assessment is like a mini-exam.
How are assessment for learning and assessment of learning applied in this module?
The assignments focusing on assessment for learning
 are low stakes, they count only a few marks (3 marks)
 usually deal with only one topic or sub-topic
 few questions (between 3 and 6)
 provide individualised feedback
 give a second chance to do the assignment. If you do,
o the average mark of the two attempts will contribute to your final mark
o you will receive a different set of questions for your second attempt.
 can be taken any time during a 14-day period.
The “Assessment of learning” assignments
 count more marks (14 or 15)
 cover more than one topic
 consist of more questions (between 20 and 40)
 generic feedback is provided
 are timed (once you start an assignment you will have a set time in which to finish)
 are only available for a limited time (usually 2 days)
 can be seen as mini exams.
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6.2.1 Format of the assignments

The assignments will consist of multiple-choice questions only. Although it is open-book assignments,
you will need to study the work before attempting to complete the assignments (see Section 5 The study
plan).
6.2.2 Release and due dates for assignments
The assignments are available and can be submitted online on myUnisa only. You will not receive a
(printed) copy of the assignments and you cannot submit your answers using a mark-reading sheet. Do
not wait until the last date provided before you complete your assignments on myUnisa, as the system
might be very busy or down for routine maintenance. No extension can be granted. Once the due date has
passed, the submission link closes on the system.

Closing date for

Date available on Topic(s) covered in
Assignment Weight submission on
myUnisa the assignment
myUnisa
01 3 5 April 16 April Topic 1

02 3 26 April 7 May Topic 4

03 15 13 May 14 May Topics 1 to 5

04 3 17 May 28 May Topic 6.1

05 3 31 May 11 June Topic 6.3

06 15 17 June 18 June Topics 6 and 7

07 3 21 June 2 July Topic 8

08 14 8 July 9 July Topics 8 and 9

09 3 12 July 23 July Topic 10

10 3 26 July 6 August Topic 11

11 15 5 August 6 August Topics 10 to 12

12 3 9 August 20 August Topic 13

13 3 16 August 27 August Topic 14

14 14 2 September 3 September Topics 13 to 15

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6.3 Final mark
The marks obtained for all fourteen assignments contribute towards your final mark (= 100 or 100%). The
combined weighted averages of your assignment marks must be 50 (= 50%) or higher for you to pass the
module. For example:
The (average) mark
Assignment Weight Calculation Mark obtained
for the assignment
01 3 0,7 x 3 2,1
70%
(70% = 70/100 = 0,7)
02 3 50% 0,5 x 3 1,5

03 15 50% 0,5 x 15 7,5

04 3 40% 0,4 x 3 1,2

05 3 70% 0,7 x 3 2,1

06 15 50% 0,5 x 15 7,5

07 3 50% 0,5 x 3 1,5

08 14 40% 0,4 x 14 5,6

09 3 70% 0,7 x 3 2,1

10 3 90% 0,9 x 3 2,7

11 15 50% 0,5 x 15 7,5

12 3 100% 1x3 3

13 3 50% 0,5 x 3 1,5

14 14 90% 0,9 x 14 12,6

Final mark 100 58,4

If you receive less than 50 (= 50%) you will not be credited for the module and you will have to re-
register again.

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7 CONCLUSION
Do not hesitate to contact us if you are experiencing problems with the content of this tutorial letter or
with any aspect of the module. We wish you a fascinating and satisfying journey through the learning
material and trust that you will complete the module successfully.
Please work hard and enjoy this module.

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