ABSTRACT

Online learning has been gaining widespread adoption due to its success in enhancing student-learning outcomes and improving student academic performance. This paper describes an online tutorial to teach resource-event-agent (REA) data modeling in an undergraduate accounting information systems course. The REA online tutorial reflects a self-study application designed to help students improve their understanding of the REA data model. As such, the tutorial acts as a supplement to lectures by reinforcing the concepts and incorporating practices to assess student understanding. Instructors can access the REA online tutorial at http://smu.sg/rea. An independent survey by the University's Centre for Teaching Excellence found a significant increase in students' perceived knowledge of REA data modeling after using the REA online tutorial compared to their knowledge prior to using the tutorial. Students also rated their overall satisfaction with and the effectiveness of the REA online tutorial as high.

ABSTRACT

The ability to understand, document, and analyse business processes is a key skill for accountants. The lack of business experience makes it difficult for many students to grasp the concept of a business process, to recognize business processes in practice and to prepare the necessary documentation. One of the most problematic areas for these students is the identification of data sources and data flows.

This step-by-step in-class exercise utilizes Amazon's order entry process, one with which the students have probably been engaged many times as customers without realizing the complication of the information system behind the website. This exercise allows for active/engaged student learning combined with intense instructor interaction. Additionally, the simple charting notation allows for easy transition to subsequent learning of flowcharting techniques. This exercise also provides an opportunity to touch on many subjects and themes that can be explored later in the semester. Students' feedback pertaining to this exercise was very positive.

ABSTRACT

A major issue for accounting departments is how to adopt a user's approach to teaching the Principles level courses and still have the accounting majors adequately prepared for upper level courses. One approach is to employ a practice set within the curriculum. However, the use of a manual practice set presents several problems. The use of a computerized practice set may solve many of these issues. This paper examines this issue by testing the student's retention of information about accounting processes and procedures. The test results indicate similar outcomes from using a computerized practice set where students manually post the transactions to those students using a manual practice set. Thus, students can gain the necessary knowledge while using a computerized practice set when they post transactions. However, the test results indicate students have inferior results when using a computerized practice set that automatically posts the transactions. This suggests that student involvement in the transaction is important.

Given the computerized practice set's advantages in decreasing the time and energy expended by the accounting faculty grading practice sets and the faculty's ability to help the students remotely, a strong argument can be made for using the computerized practice set when students post the transactions. Thus, accounting departments can be more confident, in certain circumstances, to choose to use computerized practice sets.

Abstract

This article provides our department's experiences with utilizing enterprise systems as part of teaching accounting concepts in a thoughtful, integrated fashion across the accounting curriculum. We describe how a specific enterprise system (SAP) has been used to design integrated accounting and technology experiences across an accounting curriculum. The description of our curriculum integration design, our integration process, and preliminary outcomes presented in this paper can be useful background to accounting systems educators involved in similar efforts at their institutions.

ABSTRACT

This paper describes a case approach for teaching internal control evaluation (ICE) using an Excel spreadsheet patterned after software from Grant Thornton LLP (Grant) named INFOCUS. Although INFOCUS is not used or supported anymore by Grant, it was used for many years in training and development for ICE theory and application at the firm. Grant allows use of their software and approach for classroom use. From a conceptual pedagogy perspective, this approach is still applicable to current practice standards and guidelines for ICE and provides a systematic application to help students take the role of an auditor to document the accounting system, document the controls, select key controls, and make the preliminary control risk assessment. The case and spreadsheet application can also be applied to the COSO 2013 Framework focusing mostly on Risk Assessment, Control Activities, and Monitoring Activities to internal control systems. The spreadsheet application can accommodate cases that provide differing company sizes and levels of automated control environments for internal audit and management perspectives. This case and spreadsheet application provides students an opportunity to deeply understand and analyze the accounting processes, the internal controls, and the interrelationships between the processes and controls. Exposure to such a case and spreadsheet application helps prepare students to successfully complete internal control evaluations in the “real world.”