Review for Second Closed-book Assessment

The review sheet for the second closed-book assessment is now available. The test will take place on the final day of class, next Thursday, April 25th. I have scheduled a review session for will be scheduling a review session this coming Wednesday, April 24th at 5:30 PM in Buckman 212. When the details are available I will post them here.

Midterm Course Evaluations

Today, I handed out progress reports assessing your performance in this course to date. Now, I would like you to assess my progress.

Please head to the link below and fill out the midterm course evaluation. Most of the questions are required, excepting the final free response question. It should take you five minutes, at most.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5T7XJXJ

I am looking to get 75% saturation on this survey (in our class, that's only 14 responses) and I won't stop bugging you until I get it.

Unlike end-of-course evaluations, these will actually help me make this class better, rather than the next one I teach. Thus, if you think you can benefit from some changes (or strongly believe things should stay the same), here is your chance to let me know--anonymously.

Review for First Closed-book Assessment

Your first Closed-book Assessment is Thursday, February 21. There will be a review session will be in our usual classroom (222 Buckman) from 4-5 PM on Monday, February 18. The review sheet is available for download.

The instructions for the test are as follows:

• Provide your own blue exam booklet.
• Closed-book during the full 1:15 period (no notes or electronics)
• You will respond to three short essay questions.
• These essay questions are from the review sheet above.
• You will be offered three pairs of questions to answer, and you may answer one question per pair.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask me via email or stop by during office hours (or make an appointment).

Required Readings

Welcome to the Spring 2013 semester at Rhodes College. As we begin our IS 311 course, please make sure you have access to the required readings.

There are three textbooks. The first is Pietra Rivoli's Travels of a T-Shirt in a Global Economy, a fun examination of the political economy of international production and trade. Make sure you get the second edition.

The second is Jeffry Frieden's Global Capitalism, an in-depth and engrossing history of the global political economy since the start of the twentieth century.

The third is Nate Silver's The Signal and the Noise, a new book investigating the science of prediction from the man behind Baseball Prospectus and the NY Times FiveThirtyEight blog.

In addition to the required texts, make yourself familiar with the Readings tab at the top of this blog. This is where you will find the supplemental readings listed in the syllabus.