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WebTychoPUAD 524
University of Maryland University
College
Distance Education
Term 2: Oct 30 - Mar 2
Instructor: Dr. Kathy J Boyd
Graduate Programs - Europe
University of Maryland
Unit 29216, APO AE 19102
Consultation: As the course will be conducted entirely via Internet using WebTycho, I strongly recommend that you send an email message to kboyd@faculty.ed.umuc.edu. I will be working at the Rota Naval Base in Spain Oct 20 - Dec 15 and from my home in France Jan 13 - Mar 2. Once I have obtained a telephone number of some kind in Spain, I will give it to you. My home number in France is +33-478-93-97-47. You should feel free to call me, but be prepared!! My husband speaks very little English!
Course Description: The purpose of this course is to provide you with the basic concepts, principles, and practices of public budgeting. The course concentrates on the development of resources in support of programs and the allocation of those resources in response to demands at the national, state, and local levels. Performance budgeting, PPBS, and zero based budgeting are evaluated.
Required Text: Mikesell, John, Fiscal Administration: Analysis and Applications for the Public Sector, Fifth Edition. Harcourt Brace & Company (Forth Worth, TX: 1999).
Course Objectives: This course enables you to understand:
- The political, economic and managerial implications of budgeting in the public sector
- The role of reform in the budgeting process
- The different budget types
- The current issues in budgeting
Participation: The overall success of the course is dependent upon your active and continuous participation and interaction. Traditional college courses require approximately 3 hours of preparation time for every hour spent in the classroom. Online courses require at least the same amount of your time, and possibly more. Please arrange to have access to the course during travel assignments, even if that means using a local internet cafe. Everyone has reason to miss class; my policy is to not pick and chose among the reasons. Your failure to participate in conferences and study group assignments (for good reason, bad reason, or no reason at all) will count against you.
Webliography: The internet presents us with a wealth of resources buried in a universe of junk! Finding good web sites, with credible, documented information, is sometimes challenging. During the first 7 weeks of the course, we will use the Webliography tool in WebTycho to build a community library of "academic quality" online sources to aid everyone in doing the research for their major paper in this course as well as in other graduate courses. You will identify at least 3 online resources and participate in evaluating the usefulness of the sites identified by your classmates.
Paper: You will be required to develop a traditional graduate level term paper on a subject related to the class. During the 3rd week of the course we will engage in a conference discussion to decide upon topics, and agree on style, format, length, etc. One purpose of the paper is to further hone your research skills using electronic libraries. Another purpose is to further develop your critical thinking and writing skills. A third purpose is to enrich the classroom with your knowledge and expertise.
Exam: The week of Feb. 24 - Mar 2 is exam week. You will have
one week and access to whatever resources are at your personal disposal
to prepare answers to a series of questions designed to aid you in preparing
for the Comps.
Assessment Instruments
| ITEM | POINTS | DUE DATES | COMMENTS |
| Participation | 30 | Constant | You will participate 2-3 times per week, every week throughout the duration of the course in conferences and study groups. |
| Webliography | 10 | Nov 11-Nov 24
Nov 25-Dec 15 |
You will identify at least 3 online resources for research purposes and then participate in evaluating the usefulness of those provided by your classmates. |
| Paper | 35 | Feb. 16 | You will develop a graduate level research paper and publish it in the document sharing area of the course. |
| Exam | 25 | Mar 2 | You will have one week and access to whatever resources are at your personal disposal to prepare answers to a series of questions designed to aid you in preparing for the Comps. |
Grading Scale
| 90-100 | A | This student performed at a graduate level on all fronts, prepared and submitted coherent, timely contributions to class discussions, engaged in scholarly debate with classmates, identified credible online research resources, and wrote a well researched, documented and argued paper. |
| 80-89 | B | This student performed at a graduate level on most fronts but occasionally failed to participate in discussions or did so strictly from a "personal/anecdotal" level, identified some credible "academic quality" online resources but was inclined to use less reliable sources as well, and wrote a research paper with minor problems. |
| 70-79 | C | This student often failed to participate in class discussions or did so from an uninformed/personal perspective only, was unable to distinguish between credible online resources and unreliable, undocumented editorializing attached to commercial or personal pages, and/or wrote a paper with important grammatical problems or which demonstrated a failure to adequately research the topic. |
| 0-69 | F | This student either engaged in academic dishonesty, stopped participating altogether, failed to deliver the final paper or the final exam, or systematically failed to meet the requirements of the class. |
Course Schedule:
- Module 1 - Oct 30-Nov 10: Course Introduction
- Week One - Introductions, Read and Discuss Course Policies
- Week Two - Read and Discuss Chapter 1 of Mikesell
- Webliography - identifying resources
- Course Content - additional reading/lecture material
- Conferences - discussions on assigned topics
- Study Group Federal Budget Assignment
- Text: Chapter 1-5
- Webliography - evaluating resources
- Course Content - additional reading/lecture material
- Conferences -discussions on assigned topics
- Text - Chapters 6-10
Module 4 - Jan 13 - Feb. 2: Revenues - Continued
- Week One - Welcome Back
- Conferences - discussion on assigned topics
- Study Group Municipal Taxes Assignment
- Text - Chapter 11-13
- Conferences -discussion on assigned topics
- Text - Chapter 14-15
- Assignment - Publish Paper in Document Sharing
- Discuss/Evaluate Papers