Academic Standards & Accreditation (applies only to Regular Students)

Method: Problem-Based Learning with a System of Bonus points and Grades.
The Material has been structured into modules covering different topics and sections with different levels of difficulty (the "Levels") ranging from "Basic", "Intermediate" (Masters) to "Advanced" (Quants). Student can choose the Level of their own studies depending on the mathematical background and the degree of refinement they want to achieve: an effort has been made to keep all the material self-contained for each level. The work in each module is organized as follows:

• the Students first carefully listen to the video lecture, browse through the syllabus and get acquainted with the new knowledge in a passive learning phase simply by following the Teacher's line of thought.
• In the second active learning phase, the Students reproduce the reasoning and test their understanding by changing the parameters in the applets. A computer quiz is provided in the syllabus on-line and should be carried out at the end of each active learning phase to ensure that the material has been correctly assimilated. Neither is graded nor rewarded with Bonus points.
• Questions are asked and answered anytime in the discussion groups (the "Forums") with help provided on a voluntary basis from peers (in the "World" Forum). Regular Students interact with each other in the classroom Forum (the "Classroom"), which is moderated by the Teacher and where individual contributions are rewarded (with 1-5 Bonus points depending on the quality of the question, the answer or the discussion).
• Assignments aim at applying the new knowledge and are designed to deepen the level of understanding in a problem based learning context. Regular Students submit their solutions to the Teacher and get feed-back in the form of suggestions for improvements or corrections until the solution is finally accepted and is then signalled as "Passed". The work is then rewarded with a predetermined 5-30 Bonus points depending on the assignment and evaluated with a Grade in the range 5-10 depending on the quality of the solution.
• Particularly nice solutions are generally shared as reference (the "Reference solutions") with other Students in the class as soon as they finish and Passed this assignment. Students who do not want to share their work as Reference solutions are kindly requested to contact the Teacher when the course starts.
• At the end of every module, the Students are kindly requested to fill-in an evaluation form, aiming for a continuous improvement of the Material as it is discovered during the course.

A. Self-learning course.
Independent learners who want to discover the material by themselves can print the syllabus download and install the complete java powered documentwith video recordings to study off-line. The problem solving environment is created to perform the assignments on-line, with help and advice that is exchanged on a voluntary basis in the public discussion forum. A small license fee is collected to support further development of the material. There is no accreditation delivered for this form of self-tutoring.

B. Intensive course (5 days).
Professionals from the financial industry who would like to improve their understanding of derivatives and acquire some breadth with a limited amount of feed-back are most likely to benefit most this scheme. In addition to the printed and java powered syllabus with videos, the learners are given full access to the problem solving environement. Elementary mathematics are sufficient to perform the assignments at the Basic level and get an immediate feed-back from the Virtual Tutor. Intermediate level problems are also offered with limited amount of support provided within 2-3 working days. The tuition fee covers the course material and the supervision from a real teacher.

C. Open masters course (10 days).
This is an equivalent to the masters level course from the Swedish Netuniversity and the Adelaide University, here offered in an open learning set-up without time and academic constraints. In addition to the printed and java powered syllabus with videos, the learners are given full access to the problem solving environement. This makes it possible to tailor the material and the assignments to the Level of difficulty (Basic-Intermediate-Advanced) that is chosen by the learner himself. Human advice, corrections and support are generally provided within 1-2 working days and is of sufficient quality to warrant a course certificate provided that the academic requirements are met. The tuition fee covers the course material and the supervision from a real teacher.

D. Private lessons (20 days).
These are really private lessons over the Internet with advice and corrections provided within 1-2 working days. A third week completes the Open master course with a number of extensions that are used by professionals and a fourth week allow Students to implement and study their own financial model in the form of a project. A small 1000-3000 words report is submitted and may be published for a broader audience on this Website. On successful completion, the Students receive a Certificate explaining that they meet all the academic requirements to pass a postgraduate course taught for an equivalent of 4 weeks full time work. The tuition fee covers the course material and the supervision from a real teacher.

Rules of conduct and Rights

Syllabus and the VMARKET applet

• To share the knowledge with everyone who is willing to learn irrespective of his origin, background and financial condition, the web edition of the syllabus is distributed free of charge. Copies may therefore be reproduced for non-commercial educational purposes provided that the copyright notice below is properly referenced.
• The VMARKET applet in particular can be used as much as you want: once loaded into your browser's cache, the only computing resources that are used are yours! It is however necessary to login to be allowed to modify the run parameters.
• In return for a free access to the syllabus, users are kindly asked to point out possible miss prints, particularly as the content is now constantly updated and expanded.

Registration / tuition fees / discounts

• Anybody with a valid e-mail address, who properly fills in the registration form and agrees with the Terms from this web page can open an account (the "Account") and register as Student in this Course.
• Students from outside the Swedish academic system have to pay a fee:
  1. Holders of American Express, Visa or Eurocard / Mastercard can use their credit card and perform the payment over the web at no extra cost using the secured PayPal service.
  2. A bank transfer to UBS, 1110 Morges, Switzerland, payable to André Jaun, IBAN-nbr CH92 0024 3243 G255 4465 1 (clearing-nbr 0243, swift address UBSWCHZH10A, account G2-554,465.1) is probably the quickest alternative. Please send an e-mail for information about your payment and allow for at least 3 working days processing time.
  Participants in special events (e.g. the Summer University of Southern Stockholm and the Netuniversity) courses pay their fee directly to the organizers and specify their payment during registration.
• To stimulate the work in groups and exploit your own recommendation to advertize the course, a 10% discount will be returned for every Regular Student who joins and explicitly mentions your name at registration time. Get 5 colleagues and knock-off 50% of your tuition fee; find 10 colleagues and participate free of charge!

User Account

• User Accounts are strictly personal and cannot be shared between different Students.
• For the protection of personal data, the user access code (the "Password") should remain secret at all times.
• To prevent other users who may have access to the same terminal from entering the Account without permission, steal or destroy data, it is the Student's responsibility to always LOGOUT and CLOSE the web browser at the end of each learning session. This will in effect empty the cache where an encrypted "cookie" is temporarily stored to grant temporary access.

Video-Lectures

• They replace the regular classroom lectures and are best viewed together with a web browser opened on the top of the syllabus to follow the Teacher's line of thought.
• The sound is transmitted without too much difficulty even over a 28 KB/sec modem, but a broadband network connection is more comfortable for a good picture quality.
• Recordings are available on demand in CD-ROM and DVD format.

Discussion Forums (important: read carefully!)

• The Forums are to be used exclusively for questions, answers and discussions related with the Course and its applications. The tone is informal and everyone identifies himself only with his / her user name.
• To prevent cheating and harassment, messages with an e-mail, telephone and indeed any kind of address that could establish a link between distance learning Students outside these Forums is prohibited.
• Three Forums are opened with increasing access permissions:
  • World. Opened to Self-learning Students for writing and to everyone for reading. Message are only displayed after one of the moderators (the "Moderator") verified that the conditions and the spirit for writing in this Forum are met. Advice is provided on a voluntary basis from all the users and the messages are posted with no judgment of quality, suitability or correctness from the Moderator, neither explicit nor implied.
  • Alumni. Former Regular Students who graduated from this course (the "Alumni") are given the possibility to keep contacts, exchange expert advice, advertise professional events and display job offers for their younger friends.
  • Classroom. Regular Students are given real-time (uncensored) write access and have therefore imperatively to follow the rules of conduct if they want to qualify for an academic accreditation.
• Direct help and advice from the Teacher is only provided through discussions with Regular Students in the Classroom.

Assignments

• To have the legal permission to publish the solutions of assignments on the web, the copyright belongs both to the Student and the owner of the website.
• The solutions web-pages will be stored for a minimum of 2 years after registration. To allow other students to benefit from the same distance learning environment, the solutions are not to be distributed and cannot be linked from the outside world.
• For a stable documentation of the work, Students are encouraged to download the solutions in Postscript format and to print them on regular paper that can be stored for reference.

General License for the Material on this Website

Copyright Notice

Permission
This License is intended to give you legal permission to download, edit and/or modify the Material from this Website for educational purposes including learning and teaching your own course, provided that:

• you properly fill-in the registration form,
• the copyright notice is properly referenced in your own course,
• the use of the Material is solely for non-commercial use and doesn't interfere with the activity promoted by this Website.

Terms

• A few minutes after registering, you will automatically receive an e-mail with your personal access code. You may then immediately access most the Material and start your studies.
• You are not allowed to communicate your access code and / or "mirror" the downloaded Material in the present or modified form on any other server.
• You may however distribute and / or publish part of the Material, provided that it is for non-commercial and educational use and the copyright notice is properly referenced in your course.
• You may not copy, modify, sub license, or distribute the Material except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sub license or distribute the Material is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
• You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the Material or its derivatives. These actions are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or distributing the Material (or any work based on the Material), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying the Material or works based on it.

No Warranty

• This Website could include inaccuracies or typographical errors. The Authors and the Third Party Providers may make improvements and / or changes in the Material described in this Website at any time without notice. Changes are periodically made to the Website and corrections / suggestions from licensees to the Webmaster are most welcome.
• Because the Material is exclusively for educational use and often builds on the forefront of research carried out in this field, there is no warranty to the extent permitted by applicable law. The Material is made available "as is"; should part prove defective, you assume the cost of all necessary servicing, repair or correction.
• In no event unless agreed to in writing will any copyright holder be liable to you for damages, including any general, special, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use the Material (including but not limited to loss of data or data being rendered inaccurate or losses sustained by you or third parties or a failure of the program to operate with any other programs), even if such holder or other party has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Third Party Content Disclaimer
The Authors are committed to respecting others' intellectual property rights, and we ask our users to do the same. Materials provided by Third Party Providers have not been independently authenticated in whole or in part by the Authors. The Authors do not provide, sell, license, or lease any of the Material other than the one specifically identified as being provided by them.