FOCUS Understanding and overcoming
at Oklahoma State University—Oklahoma been an OSCPA member has previously served on the OSCPA’s Liaison with
By John Strange, CPA
textbook or do homework. Usually, there is too much material to cover in the given class time. Often, educators have both accounting and non- accounting majors in the same class with different wants, needs and attitudes toward accounting. However, some accounting education
issues are relatively new. Te CPA exam keeps evolving. Corporate finance needs for accounting information is evolving and expanding (IFRS, data analytics, AI, blockchain, etc.). Online courses have changed the landscape of presentation and assessment. Technology has convinced many students they will always be able to look up what they need, so there’s no real reason to internalize information. Textbook publishers are moving from traditional printed textbooks to online homework management software programs with a lot of features. One feature is adaptive learning where students answer short fill-in-the-blank questions and are forced to read if they do not answer the question correctly. Homework problems offer hints in the form of the same problem being demonstrated with different numbers enabling the student to see a problem worked out on demand. Test banks provide algorithmic questions with the same wording but different numbers so it is more difficult for students to compare answers. Also, many textbooks offer lectures in the form of brief demonstration videos. In general, these are all good for accounting education because students have different learning styles. Most textbook publishers provide Excel exercises, general ledger simulations and case studies that provide students with opportunities to practice in a more real-world backdrop (i.e. doing journal entries, which then post to the general ledger, trial balance and financial statements). Homework exercises can be used as quiz/exam questions which relate to
6 CPAFOCUS May/June 2018
ome issues accounting educators face have been around for decades. For example, students don’t want to read the
the simulation feel of the new CPA exam format. Students can do a journal entry by selecting the correct account title from a chart of accounts menu.
All of these features are good, but students still need to be taught to work it out using paper and pencil. Research shows that writing it out (as would be done in a math class), saying it aloud or teaching it to someone else are excellent retention tools. Accounting educators have a wealth of technology for recording audio and video lectures and embedding these lectures into the textbook. Tere is still a great need for instructor-led education. Instructors should not just rely on the bells and whistles of the textbook. When time constraints are a limiting factor, a topic may be introduced as an extra credit mini- project. Te instructor may choose an exercise which has embedded hints or textbook video. Students may then discover for themselves the solution without the time constraints of a quiz. Current educational research shows students need multiple ways to earn points. Assessments can be done easily in traditional multiple-choice, matching and true-false formats as publishers provide ample test bank questions. A downside to this is students have the ability to search the internet and even purchase some test banks that are readily available online. Algorithmic test banks and camera test proctoring are ways to alleviate this online issue. Students can easily make short videos and explain concepts to the instructor. Tese can be posted in the online classroom format. Some students learn better by explaining. Tis also works on the communication soft skills necessary for today’s business professional. Discussion threads can be used to help students explain topics to each other, for group assignments or for general motivation. One advantage of these technological aids is
that more time can be spent in the classroom in experiential learning. Games like Monopoly can
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32
