Assessing the use of computer-based assessment-feedback in teaching digital accountants

Both assessment and feedback have a vital impact on students’ learning. Using computer-based assessment (CBA) with constructive and prompt computer-based feedback (CBF) reduces the attainment gap of the new generation of digital students. Action research methodology was employed to explore students’ view of utilising CBA and/or CBF in teaching and learning practice. A survey was administered to 537 undergraduate students in the Management School of a British university to collect data about their perceptions of using CBA and CBF to assess their progress. Findings from students’ survey show that students are generally appreciated the use of and benefits of CBA and/or CBF in teaching accounting modules. Findings also reveal that many participants valued working online compared to paper-and-pencil assessment and they also appreciated the timely and constructive feedback-feedforward they received. Information technology (IT), therefore, can provide an innovative type of assessment and feedback that students’ desire in an effective manner.     

Integrating enterprise resource planning (SAP) in the accounting curriculum: a systematic literature review and case study

This study investigates how an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software package SAP was integrated into the curriculum of an accounting information systems (AIS) course in an Australian university. Furthermore, the paper provides a systematic literature review of articles published between 1990 and 2013 to understand how ERP systems were integrated into curriculums of other institutions, and to inform the curriculum designers on approaches for adopting SAP, the benefits and potential limitations. The experiences of integrating SAP into an AIS course from both the students and teaching staff perspectives are described and evaluated. The main finding was the importance of resourcing the instructors with technical and pedagogical support to achieve the learning outcomes. The paper concludes by proposing critical success factors for integrating ERP effectively into an AIS course.     

The effectiveness of using spreadsheets to teach financial accounting

There have been numerous attempts to integrate micro-computers into the teaching of accounting courses in higher education. Two of the reasons that have been suggested for using computers on accounting courses are: firstly, the educational benefits and, secondly, that students will then be equipped with the computing and spreadsheet skills that they will require in the workplace. One method of using the computer is to use it as a computational tool, allowing the student to develop models from scratch. Such an approach was developed by Marriott & Simon (1990a). However, as there is little evidence regarding the educational effectiveness of using such methods, a rigourous and structured research project was conducted using first–year accounting degree students at Cardiff Business School. This article outlines the rationale for the project and analyses the results obtained. The results indicate that while spreadsheets can be successfully integrated into an accounting course, their use had no measurable impact on test performance. However, the use of computers can still be deemed to be worthwhile as the students' computer skills are enhanced and it permits further integration in other courses where educational benefits may be more readily obtained.     

Computer packages as cognitive paradigms: Implications for the education of accountants

Computer packages are playing an increasingly dominant role in the life of most business organisations, which in turn is reflected in a greater role for packages in education. These packages both presuppose knowledge on the part of the user, and also “contain” knowledge of accounting as well as mathematical and other concepts. This paper suggests that packages function not just as information processing tools, but as “paradigms” which structure the approaches taken to cognitive tasks—although there may be an important distinction between expected and actual paradigms. The change to package-based paradigms represents a substantial shift in cognitive framework. The paper discusses the implications of this for package users and for the educational process. Three important themes are emphasised: first the importance of students learning about packages on a “meta” level rather than simply learning to use them; second the suggestion that treating packages as “black boxes” may sometimes be inevitable and desirable; and third the possibility that computer packages may, to some extent, serve as a substitute for education.     

Teaching Innovative Accounting Topics: Student Reaction to a Course in Social Accounting

Accounting students experience degree programmes with a fairly ‘traditional’ range of topics that are taught with an emphasis on technique and learning the ‘status quo’. To the extent that a topic may challenge this pattern by emphasizing new concepts, questioning existing concepts, being more concerned with what accounting ‘might be’ rather than current practice, or some combination of these, some topics may be considered ‘innovative’ additions to the curriculum. Social accounting is an innovative accounting topic that has attracted considerable attention in the literature. This paper reports on an implementation dilemma encountered in a course on social accounting resulting from a clash between preferred student learning attributes and those embodied in social accounting. The use of action oriented teaching strategies to counteract this dilemma is identified. Similar problems and solutions may be applicable for other innovative accounting topics.     

A Critical Learning Outcome Approach in Designing,Delivering and Assessing the IT Knowledge Syllabus

Although the accounting profession has embraced a competency-based approach in the education and training of students, some educators struggle to adapt the delivery and assessment of their accounting programmes to bring them in line with these outcomes. The challenge for all educators is to seek ways to marry the curriculum, the design and delivery of the syllabus and assessment in such a way as to maximize students’ learning in relation to priority goals. The aim of this paper is to discuss how the IFAC curriculum on the general knowledge of IT (IEPS 2) could be analysed using an alternative approach based on critical learning outcomes to develop a syllabus that would enable educators to deliver and assess it in line with the learning outcomes and competency requirements. The newly-developed syllabus should direct educators to adopt a holistic approach in the delivery and assessment of the IT course. This approach should ensure that students understand how information technology can support them as accountants in producing information in the format required by users.     

The evolution of a graduate capstone accounting course

This paper discusses how the design of a graduate capstone accounting course evolved over 3 years, taking into consideration input from various stakeholders. The course has three, 5-week modules: accounting ethics, earnings management, and business strategy. The accounting ethics module emphasizes codified principles of ethics and professional behavior in accounting. The integrating theme of the last two modules is how accounting professionals can detect earnings management being used as a short-term solution to a longer-term strategic problem. Materials are included that may assist other schools contemplating a capstone accounting course in their 150-hour program.     

Accounting Students' IT Application Skills over a 10-year Period

This paper reports on the changing nature of a range of information technology (IT) application skills that students declare on entering an accounting degree over the period from 1996 to 2006. Accounting educators need to be aware of the IT skills students bring with them to university because of the implications this has for learning and teaching within the discipline and the importance of both general and specific IT skills within the practice and craft of accounting. Additionally, IT skills constitute a significant element within the portfolio of employability skills that are increasingly demanded by employers and emphasized within the overall Higher Education (HE) agenda. The analysis of students' reported IT application skills on entry to university, across a range of the most relevant areas of IT use in accounting, suggest that their skills have continued to improve over time. However, there are significant differential patterns of change through the years and within cohorts. The paper addresses the generalizability of these findings and discusses the implications of these factors for accounting educators, including the importance of recognising the differences that are potentially masked by the general increase in skills; the need for further research into the changing nature, and implications, of the gender gap in entrants' IT application skills; and the low levels of entrants' spreadsheet and database skills that are a cause for concern.     

Organizing information into useful management reports: Short cases to illustrate reporting principles and coding

The accounting information systems course snatches students from their comfort zone of debits and credits and drops them into the position of czar of information needed by managers to make decisions and manage their day-to-day operations. Instructors of this course have the daunting task of teaching students how to report information in a way that it is meaningful to managers. These reports must adhere to principles not necessarily pertinent to the financial statements with which students are already familiar. These principles of management reports include concise and timely reports, inclusion of physical as well as monetary data, and exception reporting. The authors have developed and used three different teaching cases that resemble real-world experience to help students understand and apply these reporting principles. These cases can be used individually, and instructors might choose to use more than one of them in their AIS course. In addition, these cases challenge students to develop data coding methods that must be used to enable the generation of reports adhering to these principles. Learning objectives, implementation guidance, and teaching notes are provided. Feedback from students on the use of these cases has been overwhelmingly positive. The cases were administered at two universities (the authors’ university and another university) during the fall 2013 semester. The questionnaires administered to the instructor and the students are provided. Results included in this paper suggest that both the students and the instructors found the cases interesting and useful.     

Do students’ judgment models of instructor effectiveness differ by course level,course content,or individual instructor?

Student evaluations of teaching (SET) are commonly used to evaluate classroom instruction, but their validity in assessing teaching effectiveness is not firmly established. This study investigates a question not previously studied in the literature: the consistency with which students utilize information in evaluating different instructors and courses. Specifically, the study examines students’ relative weightings of six factors in their judgment models for instructor effectiveness. Significant differences (p≤0.0001) are found between the models used to evaluate instructors in upper-level and lower-level accounting courses, instructors in cost/managerial and financial accounting courses, and even different instructors teaching the same course. The data are from the SET instrument used at a major state university, and cover a 6-year period. The findings imply that, in comparing and rewarding instructors based on summative evaluations, one needs to be aware of contingencies that affect students’ judgment models. Some of the differences in models are normatively appropriate, but personality or other extraneous environmental variables may inappropriately influence students’ judgment models of instructor effectiveness.     

Monetary valuations of university course delivery: the case for face-to-face learning activities in accounting education

Student preferences for delivery options were obtained within a monetary framework by asking students to purchase their ideal course structure. Results show that accounting students prefer to spend more on tutorials but purchase less lecture time; the difference due to the higher cost of tutorials compared to lectures. Face-to-face classes were preferred to web-based materials. Within lectures and tutorials students prefer more time devoted to teacher-centred activities than student-centred activities. Monetary valuations, where students must take into account the cost of delivery as well as effectiveness, provide insights for teaching staff and administrators, who need to simultaneously enhance teaching and learning, satisfy student preferences and operate with limited resources. Online and/or student-centred learning may not be compatible with preferences of accounting students. Teachers need to balance calls to change educational delivery and learning activities with preferences of accounting students, or ensure they educate students on why non-preferred approaches are undertaken.     

Effect of graphical presentations on insights into a company's financial position: an innovative educational approach to communicating financial information in financial reporting

This article focuses on the graphical presentation of the financial ratios of the firm. Following an earlier plea for visualizing the financial report based on pacioli's treatise Divina Proportione, this study investigates the benefits of visualizing and reports on an experiment into the significance of visual information, designed to compare visual and numerical financial information. The experiment was conducted with the help of third-year accounting students. The study demonstrates an alternative teaching method and indicates that this can be a very effective and stimulating process of accounting education and training. Further the co-operation between teacher and students makes an intersting contribution to the development of better accounting education and training. The exploratory research indicates that presentation of graphical information produces time-gains in comparison with numerical information alone. Memory plays a very important role here. The conclusion are: first, that visual information can be considered as very important in providing a clear insight into the financial position of the firm, thus improving communication; and second, that the integration of accounting research and teaching is a very promising way of preparing academically and professionally future accounting practitioners.     

Heterogeneous student perceptions of accounting course importance and their implications for SET reporting and use

This research tests for an association between student perceptions of accounting course importance (PCI) and student evaluation of teaching (SET) ratings of satisfaction with instructor performance, course quality, and grading procedures. The study also investigates whether instructor rankings constructed from SET ratings vary across student groupings based on PCI. Using responses from students enrolled in introductory accounting classes at three AACSB-accredited accounting programs we find that SET ratings vary significantly with PCI. We also find that instructor rankings constructed from SET ratings vary with PCI. These findings suggest that, when heterogeneous perceptions are present, satisfying all students enrolled in a course may not be possible and that reliance on aggregated SET data may obscure important differences in student opinion. In this circumstance, disaggregating SET data by PCI and emphasizing the feedback of students holding higher (stronger) perceptions of course importance may enhance SET diagnostic value.     

Continuing Professional Development – The IFAC Position1

Within the context of accounting education, this paper explores the impact of computer-aided learning (CAL) on students' learning experience, on teaching costs and on staff time available for research activity. The findings of two experiments are reported. The findings of the first experiment suggest that there was no significant adverse effect on the examination perfofmance of those students who opted to use CAL rather than attend lectures on management accounting. However, questionnaire responses from the students who opted to use CAL suggest that CAL had an adverse effect on their interest in accounting. The findings of the second experiment suggest use of CAL in a supplementary role did not improve student's examination performance in a course on financial reporting. The analysis in the paper suggests that CAL, when used in a supplantive role, has the potential, in certain circumstances, to reduce costs and to increase the staff time available for research activity. The paper concludes that if academic managers can be reasonbly confident that students' examination performance will not be affected adversely by the use of supplantive CAL they may consider its introduction in order to capture the benefits of reduced costs and the additional staff time available for research activity. However, in making such a decision, academic managers should bear in mind that saupplanbtive CAL can have an adverse effect on stuedents' interest in accounting.     

The use of microcomputers in accounting education

Developments in the microcomputer industry promise to revolutionize American business. Recent projections show 1983 retail sales to be almost 8 billion dollars.Four years ago Brigham Young University began using microcomputers to assist in accounting education. This article explains how the micro is used in a variety of undergraduate and graduate classes and for administrative purposes.The micro is a very powerful tool that has many future uses in accounting education. Examples include: accounting and data base packages and as an auditing or research tool.The use of the micro, however, is not without problems. For example: funding, training, student assistance, and quality teaching materials.Accounting educators must train their students in the use of the microcomputer since failure to do so would result in their missing one of the most significant trends in American business.     

An Exploratory Examination of the Relationship between a Short Form of the Keirsey Temperament Sorter and Success in an Introductory Accounting Course: A Research Note

This Research Note examines the relationship between specific questions in the Keirsey Temperament Sorter personality preferences test and performance in an entry level accounting course. It develops a structural equation model linking specific questions in the Keirsey Temperament Sorter personality preferences test to grades obtained by majors in business disciplines other than accounting enrolled in an introductory accounting course at one mid-sized, public university located in the USA. The results indicate that six (6) questions in the Keirsey Temperament Sorter may be associated with success in the introductory accounting course. Those teaching an introductory accounting course may elect to take a few minutes to administer these six questions at the beginning of their first class period. Students who, through their responses to these six questions, do not demonstrate a predisposition for accounting could then be counseled as to what steps they may need to take in to succeed in the course.     

The Effects of Different Teaching Approaches in Introductory Financial Accounting

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to examine the effect of the two different teaching approaches in the first accounting course on student performance in a subsequent finance course. The study compares 128 accounting and finance students who took introductory financial accounting by either a user approach or a traditional preparer approach to examine their academic performance on a subsequent finance course. The results indicate that there is no significant difference in the finance course grade between students who took the traditional introductory accounting course and students who were taught under the user approach. These findings support the argument that the user approach has no impact on subsequent finance course grade and either method can be used to teach introductory financial accounting. Three factors were found to affect subsequent performance in an introductory finance course: GPA prior to taking the finance course, grades in macroeconomics, and statistics.     

基础会计手工实验教学改革的探讨

基础会计手工实验课程是经济管理类院校会计学各专业及相关专业开设的必修课程,是在讲授完会计基础理论之后进行的实验教学环节,与传统的会计基础理论教学相比较具有一定的优势,如增强了学生对会计基础理论和基本知识的感性认识,增强了学生对会计业务的识别、阅读能力等,但在教学中也体现了一些不足,本文从改变传统教学模式、改变传统教学方法、更新教育理念三个方面提出对基础会计手工实验进行教学改革的措施。     

Computer Aided Learning (CAL) and its impact on the performance of non-specialist accounting undergraduates

This study examines the factors affecting students' performance on an introductory UK undergraduate financial accounting course and changes in students' attitudes and perceptions towards Computer Aided Learning (CAL) and accounting. It differs from previous research in that non-specialist accounting students taught using CAL are studied here. Questionnaire data was collected at the beginning and end of the module and is statistically analysed. Multiple regression analysis on student performance shows that age and attitude towards accounting are significant influences, but that attitude towards CAL and students' entry qualifications are not. Students' perceptions of CAL appear to be affected negatively by its use. The study shows that students are significantly more likely to perceive CAL as easy to use, but significantly less likely to view it as flexible, helpful or useful in improving computer literacy. Students' perceptions of accounting as a subject are also negatively affected. They are shown to be significantly less likely to choose to study accounting and significantly more likely to view accounting as a boring subject, following the completion of a CAL course. The negative impact on students' perceptions and attitudes towards CAL and accounting has implications for extending the use of CAL in order to efficiently redirect limited staff resources. However, given that there is no significant effect on performance this may warrant further consideration by higher education institutions.     

Improving Ethical Attitudes or Simply Teaching Ethical Codes? The Reality of Accounting Ethics Education

ABSTRACT

Ethical instruction is critical in accounting education. However, does accounting ethics teaching actually instil core ethical values or simply catalogue how students should act when confronted with typical accounting ethical dilemmas? This study extends current literature by distinguishing between moral/ethical and legal/ethical matters and then re-evaluating the effectiveness of ethics training. A cohort of final-year accounting students with significant ethical training evaluated ethical scenarios. Half were moral (non-legal) and half contained legal as well as moral components. After further ethical instruction they re-evaluated the scenarios. Ethical attitudes towards legal/moral issues improved, but attitudes towards moral-only issues did not. This questions previous studies which purport to demonstrate the effectiveness of ethical instruction and queries the benefits of accounting ethics education. Are fundamental ethical principles being ignored in an effort to prevent more obvious accounting wrongdoings? Accounting ethics training needs to be reassessed if true ethical improvement is to be achieved.