Syllabus
How can poor societies become prosperous and overcome obstacles to do so? Professor Sir Paul Collier is one of the world’s leading scholars on this question, and in this economics
Course Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- identify the role of government and the key political, social and economic processes that affect development;
- understand why societies need
polities that are both centralised and inclusive, and the process by which thesepolities develop; - understand the social factors that are necessary for development, including the importance of identities, norms, and narratives;
- recognise the impact of economic processes on development, including discussion about how government policies can either promote or inhibit the exploitation of scale and specialisation;
- identify the external conditions for development, including trade flows, capital flows and labour flows; and
- apply the concepts learned by completing a final assignment that allows learners to practice the analysis of development challenges using the concepts of the course.
Assessments
Your participation in the course will be evaluated through four types of assessment: quizzes, discussion forum participation, final assignment, and participation in the optional surveys.
The quizzes will give you a chance to review your understanding of the main concepts presented in the module. Each module will end with a quiz, which consists of multiple-choice questions. You may take the quiz as many times as you need to get the answers correct. There are five quizzes in the course.
The discussion forum will give you an opportunity to present your ideas and insights to the other participants in the course, and in turn, learn from them. There are six discussion forum assignments in total, five are graded.
The final assignment will allow you to practice the analysis of development challenges using the concepts of the course. This assignment will consist of three questions, and you will be expected to answer each question in 200-300 words. Peer assessment will be used to grade the final assignment. This means your peers will assess your final assignment answers using a pre-defined assessment guide (rubric), and you will do the same. Each student is only required to assess three assignments.
NOTE: You will not receive grades for your final assignment submission unless you submit your assessment of your peers' answers.
The optional surveys will allow us to learn more about you and your experience in taking the course, which will enable us to better serve all learners in this course and future courses. There
Assessment release times and due dates
Update: The submission deadline for the final assignment has been extended to Friday 7 April 2017 at 23:00 UTC. The deadline to submit the peer assessment portion remains the same at 11 April 2017 at 09:00am UTC.
The quizzes and discussion topics on the forum are released together with the modules on Tuesdays at 00:00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). We recommend that you submit the quizzes and discussion forum posts each week, but you will be able to submit them at any point until 4th April 2017.
The final assignment will be released on Tuesday 28th March 2017 at 00:00 UTC, and you will have until Tuesday 4th April 2017 at 09:00 UTC to submit it. You will then be requested to assess some of the final assignment answers of your peers. The peer assessment will be released on Tuesday 4th April 2017 at 12:00
The pre-course survey will be released on Tuesday 21st February 2017, and the deadline to submit it is Tuesday 28th February 2017 at 00:00 UTC. The post-course survey will be released on Tuesday 28th March 2017 at 00:00
How to Earn a Certificate and Succeed in this course
To succeed in this course, you are expected to:
- watch all videos;
- take all quizzes;
- reflect on what you’re learning;
- share your ideas with your fellow learners in the discussion forum; and
- apply what you learnt to complete the final assignment.
In order to pass the course and qualify for a verified certificate, you must receive an overall grade of 60% or higher. Your grade will be calculated as follows:
- 20% for completing the five multiple-choice quizzes at the end of the modules (please note that you can attempt to answer the quizzes as many times as you'd like).
- 20% for participating in the five graded module discussion forums.
- 55% for completing the final assignment and assessing your peers’ work. The final assignment details will be released in module 6. The final assignment will be assessed by your peers using a pre-defined assessment guide (rubric), and you will also be expected to assess your peers’ work as part of the grade.
- 5% for completing the optional pre-course and end-of-course surveys.
Course Assessment:
Note: Certificates do not indicate your score, only that you have passed. Your certificate will be issued by edX under the name OxfordX.
Overview of course content
This course is organised into six modules, one for each course week. The sixth module is the final assignment. In addition to the six modules, the course also includes a Getting Started section and a Post-Course Survey section.
We will release the course material associated with each module on Tuesdays at 00:00 UCT. The course material consists of lecture videos and texts, additional readings, quizzes, and discussion topics. The Course Schedule provides a complete overview of the release dates for all course components.
Below is a brief guide to the content of each module:
Getting Started
What is From Poverty to Prosperity: Understanding Economic Development? Learn more about what the course offers and how to navigate through it. Tell us more about yourself by taking the pre-course survey and answering the discussion questions.
Module 1: From Anarchy to a Centralised State
Economic development needs
- 1.1 Overview
- 1.2 Anarchy to Centralised State: The Six Steps
- 1.3 Why Not Everywhere?
- 1.4 Summary
- 1.5 Additional Readings
- 1.6 Quiz (Graded)
- 1.7 Discussion (Graded)
Module 2: From Centralised to Inclusive States
Economic development needs
- 2.1 Overview
- 2.2 Inclusive States
- 2.3 Why Not Everywhere
- 2.4 Summary
- 2.5 Additional Readings
- 2.6 Quiz (Graded)
- 2.7 Discussion (Graded)
Module 3: Power, Identities and Narratives
Economic development needs an alignment between power and identities. What happens when power and identities are misaligned and how can that misalignment be addressed?
- 3.1 Overview
- 3.2 Understanding Social Behaviour
- 3.3 Empirical Evidence
- 3.4 Identity and Power
- 3.5 Narratives and Norms
- 3.6 Social Networks
- 3.7 Summary
- 3.8 Additional Readings
- 3.9 Quiz (Graded)
- 3.10 Discussion (Graded)
Module 4: Growth through Urbanisation and Industrialisation
Economic development depends upon exploiting scale and specialisation, but poor societies start with neither. How can government policies promote or inhibit the exploitation of scale and specialisation both spatially (through urbanisation) and sectorally (through industrialisation)?
- 4.1 Overview
- 4.2 Urbanisation
- 4.3 Industrialisation
- 4.4 Summary
- 4.5 Additional Readings
- 4.6 Quiz (Graded)
- 4.7 Discussion (Graded)
Module 5: External Influences: Trade, Capital, and Labour flows
The political, social and economic processes covered in previous modules are fundamentally internal. External influences are peripheral but may still matter, for good or ill.
- 5.1 Overview
- 5.2 Trade Flows
- 5.3 Capital Flows
- 5.4 Labour Flows
- 5.5 Summary
- 5.6 Additional Readings
- 5.7 Quiz (Graded)
- 5.8 Discussion (Graded)
Module 6: Farewell and Final Assignment
The details of the final assignment and instructions on how to complete it will be available in this module.
Post-Course Survey
Tell us how you experienced this course by taking the post-course survey.
Time commitment and prerequisites
You should plan to spend between 2-3 hours per week on this course. There are no prerequisites for this course. However, students with some knowledge of economics will find it easier to complete the course.