Accounting

The following articles are featured in the Summer 2018 issue of Accounting Instructor’s Report. Enjoy!         TRENDS & TOPICS  The Relationship between Accounting Students’ Personality, Professional Skepticism and Anticipatory Socialization Belverd E. Needles, Jr., Ph.D., CPA, CMA Editor, Accounting Instructors’ Report (AIR), DePaul University   Creating a Rubric with Specific Tasks: an Effective Strategy for Beginning Accounting Projects Michael J. Krause MS, CPA (NY & IN), Professor Emeritus, Le Moyne College   Balanced and Efficient Summative Peer Evaluation In Group Work in Accounting Education Tom Downen & Steven Leerberg, University of North Carolina Wilmington    A Common-Sense Approach to Teaching Cost Variances: No Cheat Sheets Required Margaret N. Read More…

Authors:

James M Emig, PhD, CPA, Villanova University Robert P Derstine, PhD, CPA, West Chester University Thomas J Grant, Sr., M.B.A., CMA, Kutztown University Many schools schedule managerial accounting after students have completed the financial accounting course. For those students not exactly enamored with their experience in financial accounting, imagine their ‘delight’ in now being forced to take your managerial accounting course. It can be a struggle to get those students to do little more than ‘memorize’ and be satisfied with just surviving the course. Using our combined 125+ years of teaching experience, we have developed ‘tricks and techniques’ to make Read More…

Author:

Margaret N. Boldt, Ph.D., CMA, College of Business, Southeastern Louisiana University This paper presents an alternative way of presenting cost variance calculations that helps students correctly solve typical cost variance problems and focus on the size of the variances rather than the labels of ‘favorable’ and ‘unfavorable’. This method uses three modifications to traditional methods of instruction to avoid some common pitfalls that may lead students to incorrectly perceive unfavorable variances as negative and needing attention while favorable variances are positive and do not need attention. The three suggested modifications to traditional instruction are easily implemented with any existing course Read More…

Authors:

Tom Downen Assistant Professor of Accounting & Steven Leerberg, Graduate Student (alumnus), Cameron School of Business, University of North Carolina Wilmington  As more university courses include group work, the need for student peer evaluation (SPE) grows ever stronger. In fact, students seem to have developed an expectation for group work and for a requirement or opportunity to evaluate their peers. A variety of SPE tools are used, often with different attributes (point scales, elements of evaluation, etc.) These different SPE tools often have varying application in different courses and for different collaborative tasks. This paper presents a brief summary of Read More…

Author:

Michael J. Krause MS, CPA, (NY & IN), Professor Emeritus, Le Moyne College To accomplish a project’s desired learning outcomes, a well-designed rubric becomes the principal task organizer and the key student motivator. During project development or during a prototype test, the rubric could contain broad generally described tasks. However, once an author/instructor has obtained experience with a learning event, the rubric can best function with exact performance tasks especially when assignments target undergraduate beginning accounting students. With more advanced academic study and relevant work (intern) experience, undergraduate beginning accounting students are better able to benefit from the alternative of Read More…

Author:

Belverd E. Needles, Jr., Ph.D., CPA, CMA, School of Accountancy, DePaul University   Professional skepticism is an essential component of every audit. It is the foundation for detecting fraud and maintaining an independent attitude (AICPA, 2002). There has been an increased emphasis on professional skepticism in the last decade due to the large-scale accounting fraud cases that were the catalyst for regulatory reforms such as Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) in the US, increasing complexities transactions and the expanded use of estimates and fair value which require more accounting judgement. The lack of professional skepticism has been the case of the majority of Read More…

The following articles are featured in the Spring 2018 issue of Accounting Instructor’s Report. Enjoy!         TRENDS & TOPICS 
Do Learning Styles Matter in Introductory Accounting
Belverd E. Needles, Jr., Ph.D., CPA Financial Statement Analysis as a Capstone Event in Introductory Accounting Courses:
Four Years of Success
Michael J. Krause MS, CPA (NY & IN)
Professor Emeritus
Le Moyne College Accounting Labs as Scaffolding: Effect on Student Learning and Performance in
Introductory Accounting Courses
Devon Baranek
Nandini Chandar
Margaret O’Reilly-Allen
Rider University Intersections of Service Learning in an Introductory Accounting Project
Glenn Skrubbeltrang
Staci Kenno
Brock University Using An Read More…

Author:

Chris McCullick, CPA, & Ashley Minnich, CPA, William Jewell College This paper will document the process of designing, constructing, and implementing an accounting-themed escape room. This activity was designed to capitalize on the massive popularity of escape-themed games, while also incorporating knowledge in the field of accounting. Through this activity, students in an introductory-level accounting course were provided with the opportunity to engage with financial accounting information in an interactive, team-based environment. Embedded in the activity’s design were course learning objectives that were matched with objectives in each of American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Pre-Certification Core Competency Read More…

Author:

Glenn Skrubbeltrang & Staci Kenno, Brock University

Experiential education, or more specifically in this case service learning, is becoming an important piece of post-secondary education.

We outline a Team Service Learning Project (See Appendix A) implemented in a first-year managerial accounting course at a Canadian institution and highlight how it relates to the academic, work and community aspects that are key to students’ learning experiences.

Read the Full Paper

Authors:

Devon Baranek, Nandini Chandar & Margaret O’Reilly-Allen, Rider University This paper analyzes the impact of creating a mandatory accounting lab intended to provide support and structure to freshmen accounting majors following a key departmental initiative to move the “Introduction to Accounting” course from the sophomore to the freshmen year. The goals of the accounting lab, facilitated by an outstanding upper-class accounting major are: (1) to increase understanding of classroom material through added explanations, reinforcement of key concepts, and additional practice and testing; (2) to help students transition from high school into college by providing added structure and support; (3) to Read More…