Above all, the presentation of material must be suitable for what I need for my own classes. The second principle I adopt is to aggregate public and private consumption and investment in the early stages of the presentation. This simplifies things considerably until the main model has been grasped. It also avoids the problem of having students learn a model whose structure incorporates the assumption that the government creates employment by produces nothing of value, and that the public is not forward-looking in its reaction to cuts in taxes. Ricardian equivalence is given mention but the presentation will leave students with the conventional conclusion that the government can increase aggregate demand and employment by judiciously increasing expenditure or cutting taxes.
Instructors using the modules can easily extend the analysis in any direction desired.
Throughout, every attempt is made to avoid taking sides in controversies about the usefulness of monetary vs. fiscal policy, rules vs. discretion, policy invariance, and so forth. That sort of thing is best done in class. The level of the presentation is kept as low as possible subject to the requirement that a simple generic model of the operation of the economy must be presented. This makes the material suitable for introductory courses, though not perhaps for those designed for students who want to learn economics without learning economic theory. My view is that even students who do not plan to pursue economics further are worthy of an intellectual experience that will develop their ability to think and leave them with an impression of economics that will not be outdated with the current fad.