Spring 2027

Fundamentals of Accounting and Finance for Non-business Majors

An introductory course for non-business majors covering basic concepts, practices, and analytical methods in the market enterprise system, with a focus on accounting, finance, and business law.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Mark Laplante3.8/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Mark Laplante

Students found exams challenging, with some noting they were harder than provided preparation materials. Grading relied heavily on exams and a few response paragraphs.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Demonstrate the application of fundamental business terminology and concepts in the disciplines of economics, business law, finance, and accounting to effectively communicate with professionals across a given business organization

  • Explain the various reasoning businesses use to make decisions and the impact those decisions have on the firm and society

  • Reflect on their assumptions and predispositions regarding the role of business in society

  • Apply the common business processes and tools to develop professional, academic, and personal futures.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing or declared in the Business Exchange program

    • Sophomore standing
    • declared in the Business Exchange program
    take one
GENBUS 310 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Any of
    • Sophomore standing
    • declared in the Business Exchange program

Professors

Spring 2027

Mark Laplante

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.78/5 from 179 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 2.5/5 raw quality · 4.3/5 difficulty · 24 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Mark Laplante

Mark Laplante taught this online course with well-organized module readings, though students disagreed on lecture clarity. Exams were the primary assessment, with some finding them difficult and disconnected from the provided materials, while others noted they were straightforward if preparation was thorough.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.10 GPA, 44.3% A/AB (n=235 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.16 GPA, 51.1% A/AB (n=268 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.16 GPA, 49.2% A/AB (n=307 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

MARK LAPLANTE is recorded teaching in Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Online Only0 / 3500

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records

No records available.

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Mark Laplante

Mark Laplante teaches an online overview of basic business principles. Students described the course as demanding but manageable if they prepared thoroughly for exams.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.10 GPA, 44.3% A/AB (n=235 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.16 GPA, 51.1% A/AB (n=268 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.16 GPA, 49.2% A/AB (n=307 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Mark Laplante

Students found exams challenging, with some noting they were harder than provided preparation materials. Grading relied heavily on exams and a few response paragraphs.

Past student reviews · Mark Laplante

Feedback on the instructor was mixed, with some students valuing organized readings while others criticized his approachability and perceived lack of effort in recent terms.

Topics

  • Accounting, finance, and business law.
  • Basic concepts, practices, and analytical methods of the market enterprise system.
  • Fundamental business terminology and concepts in economics, business law, finance, and accounting.

Skills

  • Apply fundamental business terminology and concepts in economics, business law, finance, and accounting to communicate with professionals.
  • Explain the reasoning businesses use to make decisions and the impact of those decisions on the firm and society.
  • Reflect on assumptions and predispositions regarding the role of business in society.
  • Apply common business processes and tools to develop professional, academic, and personal futures.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.06 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
GENBUS 310 · Spring 2027

Fundamentals of Accounting and Finance for Non-Business Majors

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:231:023377",
    "course_id": "GENBUS 310",
    "course_uid": "course_da7d566104c10e964ae121ce",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "023377",
    "source_subject_id": "231",
    "title": "Fundamentals of Accounting and Finance for Non-Business Majors",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "0d91640e68752c523ccd4c201122615841d43891ab23731006ae669e7e2c2083",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}