Studying a way to bring more realism into accounting courses, a team at Arizona State University created a simulation of a public accounting firm based on the graphical Microsoft® Windows™ environment. The result-more students are staying in the course and learning has become more effective.

College-level accounting courses, like many academic classes, have often lacked a crucial element of reality. These courses have taught accounting principles effectively, but have not communicated to students what it's actually like to work as an accountant. Yet many academicians believe "real world" experience is an essential component of effective learning.

That's the dilemma the Arizona State University School of Accountancy faced as it re-evaluated its introductory accounting courses. Frustrated by the limitations of traditional procedural courses and encouraged by an association of the Big 6 accounting firms to develop more effective methods of teaching students how accounting information is used, the school began working on new ways of teaching accounting. "Our vision was to have an introductory accounting course that featured active rather than passive learning on the part of students," explains Dr. Ralph E. Smith, ASU professor of accounting. "We also knew that a student's first accounting course is critical in forming that student's impressions of accounting, and we wanted to make as positive an impression as we could."

When Smith brought the problem to Rick Birney, ASU director of instructional technology, Birney immediately suggested an interactive system. "These systems are an excellent way to simulate a real-world environment for students," says Birney. "They enable students to actively synthesize learned skills and knowledge with the relevant application of the skills and knowledge."

Working with grants from the Accounting Education Change Commission, McGraw-Hill Publishing, and Microsoft Corporation, Smith and Birney set out to find the most effective way to create and implement the interactive accounting course they envisioned.

Creating a Realistic Simulation

Birney says he began work on the interactive system with the premise that it needed to be as realistic as possible. "We wanted to mirror as closely as we could the experience of working in an accounting firm," he says.

To Birney, achieving this realism meant just one thing: a graphical user interface. "A graphical front end would enable us to present all the elements we felt were essential in the simulation," he explains. "We wanted these elements to include the student/accountant's actual workspace-his or her desk and its calendar, notepad, calculator, and other items-along with the various tools of the accountant's trade, such as journals, ledgers, and balance sheets."

Birney selected Microsoft Windows as his graphical environment, noting that "if you're going to teach something using a computer, you don't want to end up having to teach the computer." Birney says he felt the intuitiveness of the Windows interface would enable students to start working with the application quickly. Next, Birney chose Asymetrix® ToolBook® as his authoring system. "We felt it gave us a great deal of flexibility, especially in the richness of its graphical options," he notes. "We also liked the way we could easily attach events to graphical objects."

The accounting lab is offered as part of a four-credit introductory accounting course that includes three classroom hours and three hours of lab activities per week. Classroom time is used to expose students to a problem-solving environment and to a rich assortment of collaborative learning activities. The computer lab component is used to teach much of the mechanical and procedural material, using computer-assisted instruction techniques, and to provide a variety of interactive activities to enhance the learning process. The computer lab is also used to administer student exams and quizzes.

Learning By Doing

The simulation created by Birney and Smith places students into an office environment as if they are working for a public accounting firm. As the students work their way through the simulation, they are offered job and salary promotions based on their work performance. Accordingly, the work assignments-all based on actual accounting work-become more challenging and demanding. Birney says that the ease of use of the graphical Windows-based system allows even students with limited computer skills to use the program.

Instruction is provided through on line reference books, which appear as actual books on the student's "desk." The program gives students immediate feedback as they complete each task. "If an answer is wrong, the student must use the reference books to try to determine the correct approach," explains Birney. If a student is unable to determine the right answer, he or she can click a "hint" or "show me" button. The hint button offers guidance, but does not give the answer. The show me button tells the student what should be done to solve the problem, then shows the suggested answer with an explanation.

The program also includes an on line review mode that allows students to see their previous mistakes and to access on line text explaining the answer. Computerized practice exams help students assess their comprehension of the material, and practice exams provide content-specific feedback to each question. Final competency exams are administered on the computer, too. Students can review their performance on all "company" assignments through "time sheets" generated by the program.

Another vital part of the program is its computerized record-keeping. "The basic program provides the instructor with a fully integrated computerized record-keeping system," says Birney. In addition, the program is designed to tie into Microsoft Excel, which offers instructors a powerful way to analyze data and assess students even more closely. Instructors have complete information about student performance and progress. The program also maintains individual student responses for all assignments to allow for further evaluation of student learning difficulties.

Attrition Rate Down, Grade Performance Up

Early results indicate that students not only enjoy this new method of teaching, but are also learning the material more effectively. "During the first two semesters the course was offered, drop out rates decreased dramatically to less than five percent," says Birney. "At the same time, student grade performance increased dramatically."

Just as important, initial results indicate that students who have completed the computer-based lab are at least on a par technically and procedurally with traditional accounting students. The success percentage of students in the lab over the first three semesters, based on a performance of "C" or better, was 100 percent for those completing the course.

Students are enthusiastic about the computer lab too, based on student evaluations of the course. "I like the whole idea of learning through computers," said one student. "Accounting can be tedious and frustrating to learn, but the computer made it fun."

Birney says the Windows-based system also proved its ease of use immediately. "We offer instruction in computer basics for students who feel they need it," he says. "But not a single student has requested this help through four semesters of the lab."

Extending the Reach of the Lab

Birney says there has been a tremendous amount of interest in ASU's new approach to teaching introductory accounting from schools across the United States and around the world. "The software is being tested at more than 30 different schools in 16 states," he says. "In addition, requests for more information about the software have been received from schools in Australia, Switzerland, Mexico, and South America."

According to Birney, the accounting courseware will be available commercially through McGraw-Hill Publishing. The program has also spurred development of other computer assisted instruction throughout the ASU College of Business.

"We're excited about not only this initial program, but also its potential," says Birney. Above all, he adds, this new approach to instruction is delivering benefits exactly where they were intended to go: to the students.

Solution Overview

        School Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
      Solution Computer-based introductory accounting lab
  Architecture Interactive, graphical simulation of public accounting firm
 Products Used Microsoft Windows
               Microsoft Excel
               Asymetrix ToolBook
       Benefit Reduced the drop-out rate from introductory accounting course
               to five percent; produced a 100 percent success rate among
               students who completed the course; provides advanced tools 
               instructors can use to evaluate student performance

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