Proposal draft

d escription of n eed 1

Methods And Procedures 2

detailed work plan and schedule 2 -3

Projected costs 3

conclusion 3

Appendix 4-7

figure 1 4

figure 2 4-5

figure 3 5

references 6-7

FIN0801 Proposal

FIN0801 Proposal

Introduction

This proposal presents a request for creating an elective 1-credit, 7-week class in the Fox School of Business. The class will be called “FIN0801: Basics of Investing in the Stock Market” and will consist of three major components: basics of stock investing, investment strategies, and a StockTrak Simulation (Dowd, n.d.). A description of each component is listed below:

1. Basics of stock investing will cover core concepts that students must understand before investing in the stock market such as what a stock index is, what a stock exchange is, and the difference between bear and bull markets (O’Shea, 2017).

2. Investment strategies will teach students how to diversify their asset portfolios by investing in a variety of different stocks. This portion of the class will teach students the difference between high risk and low risk investments and how to identify companies that will help them satisfy their own individual risk tolerances (Reiss, 2017).

3. The StockTrak simulation will test students’ real-world knowledge of the stock market in a virtual simulation by providing them with $250,000 that they can use to invest in stocks to maximize the returns on their investments (Scott, 2016).

Background

Research shows that there are financial benefits of investing earlier rather than later in life. According to TheStreet, a website that provides daily financial news and services, if millennials invest $1000 in their twenties, they are likely to get ten times more on the return on their investments than if they had invested the same amount in their forties. Additionally, millennials who did not learn how to invest early in their lives have faced repercussions in the past. For example, students who graduated from college between 2007-2010 continue to have depressed earnings because of the impact of the Great Recession. If they had learned how to invest in the stock market during college, they would have been impacted much less by the Great Recession (FBB Capital Partners, 2018). Figure 1 in the appendix depicts how investing in the stock market is a lucrative long-term investment strategy because investors can ride out stock market drops during severe economic downturns (Fidelity Viewpoints, 2018).

Description of Need

Currently, the Fox School of Business has no course solely dedicated to educating students on stocks and investment strategies for the stock market. The closest class to the proposed class is FIN0822: Investing for the Future (FIN0922 honors version). Even though FIN0822 has a small StockTrak simulation component, it has many other course objectives unrelated to stocks such as teaching students how to save for graduate school and how to save money to buy cars and houses. Additionally, FIN0822 is a 4-credit class that many students do not have room in their schedule for while the proposed class FIN0801 is only a 1-credit, 7-week class that many students can easily fit into their schedule (Scott, 2016).

Methods and Procedures

Grading for the course is described below:

· Midterm Exam (20%): This exam will consist of 30 multiple choice questions and 1 short response and will encompass core concepts from the “basics of stock investing” portion of the course.

· Final Exam (20%): This exam will consist of 30 multiple choice questions and 1 short response and will encompass core concepts from the “investment strategies” portion of the course.

· StockTrak Results (25%): Students will be graded on their attempts to diversify their portfolio, application of investment strategies learned in the course, and their final returns on their investments. The final return will only be 5% of the total 25% for this portion.

· StockTrak Paper (15%): Students will write a 4-5 page paper about their StockTrak simulation. Students will identify strengths and weaknesses in their investment strategies and write about what they would do differently in the future.

· Attendance (20%): Each student will be given a maximum of 4 excused/unexcused absences after which each absence will reduce the total 20% by 5%. After 8 total absences, a student will receive 0% for attendance. Students may contact the professor for extenuating circumstances.

Detailed Work Plan and Schedule

A detailed schedule for the proposal of this class is shown below:

The schedule above allows the finance subcommittee three months for its initial and secondary reviews to ensure that the finance subcommittee has ample time to conduct its reviews. A visual depiction of the timeline is shown in Figure 2 of the appendix (“Temple University,” n.d.).

Projected Costs

Three plausible per-semester costs based on who is asked to teach the course are outlined below (professor costs are estimated from U.S. averages):

Option 1: The first budget assumes that a non-adjunct professor who does not have a full course load teaches FIN0801. This option would cost $0 because no overloading would be necessary, so it is the recommended option. The recommended professor is Thorsten Moenig, who already has experience with stocks because of his experience teaching Advanced Theory of Interest.

Option 2: The second budget assumes that an adjunct professor is hired to teach the course or that a non-adjunct professor teaches this course by overloading on credits:

Option 3: The third budget assumes that a non-adjunct professor drops a 3-credit class to teach FIN0801 and an adjunct professor is hired to teach the dropped 3-credit class:

See Figure 3 of the appendix for a visual depiction of all budget possibilities (Guerra, 2018). Space and administration costs are low (not included) since Fox has ample space in Alter Hall.

Conclusion

The main benefit of the proposed course is to teach vital skills to students at Temple University. Students will learn how to invest their money to save for retirement, and the investment strategies they will learn will help them ride out economic downturns. These students may feel so happy with the education they received at Temple that they will donate more as alumni, thus increasing Temple’s alumni donations. Consequently, Temple’s U.S. News and World Report ranking may increase since alumni donations is a contributing factor (Morse & Mason, 2018).

Additionally, the StockTrak simulation that the class provides will help students make a connection between the theoretical information they learn in class and the real world. This class may also attract students to the finance major because they may be intrigued by the real-world concepts they learn in this class. Finally, because of the financial repercussions associated with not learning how to invest early in life, implementing a 1-credit, 7-week class could be a simple solution to a major issue faced by many students at Temple (FBB Capital Partners, 2018).

Appendix

Figure 1: History of Stock Market Returns After Economic Downturns

(Fidelity Viewpoints, 2018)

Figure 1 demonstrates how investing in the stock market is a lucrative long-term investment strategy. Investors who ride out economic downturns are rewarded in the following years since there is a high return on stocks following economic downturns. For example, after the Great Depression, investors who rode out the drop in the stock market were rewarded in the next five years with a 367% cumulative 5-year return on their investment (Fidelity Viewpoints, 2018).

Figure 2: Timeline for Proposal Request

Figure 2 displays a visual depiction of the timeline in the “Detailed Work Plan and Schedule” section of the proposal (“Temple University,” n.d.).

Figure 3: Projected Costs for Three Proposed Options

Figure 3 depicts all three options for teaching FIN0801 presented in the proposal (Guerra, 2018). Option 1 is recommended since it is the cheapest and easiest since Temple would not have to search for a professor externally. Professor Thorsten Moenig would most likely do a great job teaching FIN0801 given his success in teaching Advanced Theory of Interest, a much more complex class than FIN0801.

References

Dowd, M. (n.d.). How to Write a College Course Proposal. Retrieved October 3, 2018, from https://classroom.synonym.com/write-college-course-proposal-4840495.html

Guerra, T. (2018, June 29). The Average Adjunct Pay at Community Colleges. Retrieved October 8, 2018, from https://work.chron.com/average-adjunct-pay-community-colleges-18310.html

FBB Capital Partners. (2018, July 30). Message to Millennials: Now Is the Time to Start Investing. Retrieved October 3, 2018, from https://www.thestreet.com/investing/stocks/message-to-millennials-now-is-the-time-to-start-investing-14665370

Fidelity Viewpoints. (2018, June 21). 3 reasons to invest in stocks. Retrieved October 3, 2018, from https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/retirement/why-you-need-stocks

Morse, R., Brooks, E., & Mason, M. (2018, September 9). How U.S. News Calculated the 2019 Best Colleges Rankings. Retrieved October 9, 2018, from https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/how-us-news-calculated-the-rankings

O'Shea, A. (2017, July 28). Investing for beginners: Here's how to get started. Retrieved October 3, 2018, from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/06/stock-market-basics-what-beginner-investors-need-to-know.html

Reiss, D. (2017, April 12). 5 Reasons to Invest in the Stock Market. Retrieved October 3, 2018, from https://money.usnews.com/investing/articles/2017-04-12/5-reasons-to-invest-in-the-stock-market

Scott, J. (2016). Investing for the Future. [PDF file]. Retrieved October 8, 2018 from https://gened.temple.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Fin-0822-Syllabus-S16-v1.0.pdf

Temple University. (n.d.). FAQ « The General Education Program. Retrieved October 8, 2018, from https://gened.temple.edu/faculty/faq

Submit to Department Chair Jonathan Scott (January 2018)

Finance subcommittee review (March - May 2018)

Make necessary revisions (May - August 2018)

Secondary review by finance subcommittee (August - September 2018)

Anticipated approval of course (September 2018)

First semester of FIN0801 (January - March 2019)

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