Technology Use in the First Intermediate Accounting Course: Possibilities and Experiences

Transcription

1 Technology Use in the First Intermediate Accounting Course: Possibilities and Experiences Carla Carnaghan, University of Lethbridge CAAA Annual Conference 2016 St. John s 1

2 Overview Technologies Clickers Accounting Simulation Homework Management Systems Videos Communication Tools Text/Chat Meeting/video Discussion Points Why? What? Usage Experiences Things to Think About 2

3 Context: The Challenges of Intermediate Accounting Lots of material to cover in some way (even if students left to cover on their own) Often the first course in the major students may still not have right work habits, feel overwhelmed Students have forgotten key ideas from Intro Financial then stumble in Intermediate where there is little room for error Need to get students to practice 3

4 Clickers (Student Polling Systems) Why? Check that students understand what you are saying Allow the students to determine their own understanding Allow students to benchmark themselves Break up the class a bit Prompt questions from students Encourage students to keep up Provides a little bit of practice 4

5 Clickers (Student Response Systems) What? Many choices- see if your institution has a standard Turning Point iclicker Socrative TopHat Many now require no specialized hardware students can use smartphones, tablets, laptops with wifi; instructor just needs computer and wifi Currently using Reef Polling from iclicker no special hardware needed 5

6 Typical Polling Screen (Reef Polling) 6

7 Typical Polling Feedback Window (Reef Polling) 7

8 Clickers (Student Response Systems) Usage Usually ask 3-4 questions throughout a 75 minute class Try for reasonable level of difficulty ideally the majority get it right and some get it wrong Can also have several questions on same topic back to-back of increasing difficulty Give students 2 points for each question 1 for trying, 1 for getting answer right Individual thought, then small group discussion if they wish Make this worth 5% of course mark 8

9 Reef Polling Assessment Report Summary 9

10 Clickers (Student Response Systems) Experiences Fairly Positive A number of students really like being able to check their understanding as they go I found that useful too Some concerns about cost Was $9.99 for 6 months, now $14.99, for unlimited number of courses A little bit of work to upload to LMS (Moodle) But should work better now If manual, do a couple of times over term Ask your LMS Admin about integration Expect modest effects on learning outcomes 10

11 Things to Think About Will your clicker software work with any software/display (PP, Excel, Word, whiteboard)? Response types Need for specialized hardware (prefer not to need this) Integration with LMS (not required, but nice)? Sources of questions (Can base on textbook)? Free-riding problems Question difficultyability of software to mark responses Better to have a few marks assigned to responses, so marking needed 11

12 Accounting Cycle Simulation Why: To help students recollect what they learned in Intro Financial To help students practice something like a first co-op term financial statement preparation, with source documents To help students integrate knowledge across a wide array of accounting topics -see how things come together 12

13 Accounting Simulation What: Lyryx (lyryx.com) Provides an electronic accounting cycle simulation based on intro financial course Canadian Woodlawn Engineering (Wiley) Simulation based on intermediate accounting topics Canadian Bluesky Publishing (U.S.) Various Simulations 13

14 Accounting Simulation Usage (Lyryx - Case Study ) Assign at Start of Term 11 Parts to Project, corresponding to parts of accounting cycle Students must get at least the instructor threshold score on each part before being allowed to proceed to the next part (e.g., 90%) Worth 10% of course grade Takes a strong student hours, a a weak student hours 14

15 Accounting Simulation Usage (Continued) Lyryx Provides an Instructor Solution Algorithmic, so students get different companies/numbers, but same transactions to record, such as recording sales of product or note receivable payment I provide students with a tips document and a video introduction on Youtube to help them get started Also provide an optional lab to come with questions, and office hours 15

16 Accounting Simulation step 1: Journalizing transactions 16

17 Accounting Simulation sample source document 17

18 Experiences Accounting Simulation Have used this for about 7 years Very helpful as a refresher Can be very frustrating for weak students, esp. the first part which is long Simulation is deliberately set up to make brute force tactics hard entire part must be redone if threshold not met (though numbers stay the same) Helps many students realize they did not know how to apply their knowledge 18

19 Experiences Accounting Simulation Tips document is important to help students avoid some situations where multiple answers could be correct, but only one is considered acceptable, and to deal with common problems Some free-riding on this assignment I follow up with exam questions to check understanding Nearly all students end up with 90% or better; those who don t complete also tend to fail the course 19

20 Accounting Simulation Things to Think About Review simulation and solution carefully before using does it do what you want? Be prepared for some frustration Encourage students to come see you before they get really upset Weak students in particular will struggle Allow 4-6 weeks for students to work through simulation? 20

21 Homework Management Systems Why? To encourage students to practice problems To provide immediate feedback To reduce marking load on faculty 21

22 Homework Management Systems What All major publishers seem to have these, e.g. MyAccountingLab, Connect, WileyPlus Also independent sites like Lyryx provide support for some open source materials 22

23 Homework Management Systems Usage Have problem sets for each Chapter Worth a small amount of course grade (4%) Set up as three attempts per problem, right/wrong indicators for first two attempts, full solution after due date Students can redo problem sets for no marks after due date Optional problem sets for additional practice also provided 23

24 Homework Management Systems Experiences??? Really not sure Many students get marks without actually doing problems Solution quality/implementation can be questionable Are these better than pen and paper assignments????? Are they better than nothing? (Probably) 24

25 Accounting Videos (Screencasts) Why? To give students a chance to view and review approaches to complex problems To allow time in classroom for flipped approaches Preferred by majority of students to reading notes (survey results) 25

26 Accounting Videos What Many already on YouTube But often U.S. GAAP Good source of ideas on how to present videos Create your own with tools like Camtasia and imovie, or Snagit for basic videos ($29.95) If only using Powerpoint with voiceover, Adobe Presenter is also a possibility ($10/month for express version) $99 for Camtasia for Mac, $237 for PC version with some add-ins for interactivity 26

27 Accounting Videos Camtasia Screen before recording 27

28 Accounting Videos Camtasia window while editing 28

29 Accounting Videos Usage Camtasia for Mac to make 7-15 minute screencasts to post on YouTube Videos based on textbook problems or selfdeveloped problems Create a YouTube account (free) for posting Camtasia will upload directly to Youtube Videos set to unlisted on Youtube can be viewed if you have link, but not otherwise Put links in LMS, such as Moodle or Blackboard 29

30 Accounting Videos Usage (Continued) Set region to 720 HD in Camtasia Have documents ready to be filmed Keep cursor near where you might want to zoom in Make use of some basic features in Camtasia zoom in, annotations, cursor highlights, markers within video so YouTube makes table of contents Not sure if a script needed 30

31 Accounting Videos Experiences Keep videos short and simple max 6-8 minutes This means some topics need to be split across multiple videos Simpler means you are more likely to redo as needed Experiment!!! Try to set up documents so students can fill in then check their work Post documents as well 31

32 Accounting Videos Experiences Basic example video at Have documents ready to be filmed Keep cursor near where you might want to zoom in/add features Make use of some basic features in Camtasia zoom in, annotations, cursor highlights, markers within video so YouTube makes table of contents Start simple and learn 32

33 Experiences Accounting Videos Used Word and Excel as basis for screencasts as well Add some colour and annotations where possible Some great examples out there: Allan Mursau 7YvOuYmfw Rutgers 33 PKPI2JrE

34 Communication Tools (Chat and Video) Why? Improve out-of-class communication More efficient if students can see Q&A Have virtual office hours Good for evening classes, working adults 34

35 Communication Tools What? Text/Chat Ideally: multiplatform computer, tablet, smartphone, Android and IOS Notifications across platforms Free If less picky can use chat features on LMS Meeting/Video Share screens, VOIP, robust 35

36 Communication Tools Usage (text/chat) Hipchat Multiplatform, notifications across platforms Searchable Multiple chat rooms Band Multiplatform Multiple rooms Both have their problems 36

37 Communication Tools Usage (text/chat - continued) Slack looks promising Easy to invite Multiplatform Can set up members to join rooms automatically upon joining - Desktop notifications 37

38 Communication Tools - Slack 38

39 Communication Tools Usage (video) Webex Skype GoToMeeting; Adobe Connect Adobe Connect Have mostly used Webex Can use for groups up to 20 Not free VOIP Great screen sharing and annotation 39

40 Communication Tools - Webex 40

41 Communication Tools Experiences Not happy with Hipchat Very hard to invite people successfully Will be trying Slack Fairly happy with Webex Robust to variety of older computing systems Important given the variety of what students use! Good quality audio Use a headset or earbuds with mic to avoid echo problems 41

42 Further Reading McVay, G. et al (2008) Good Practices in Accounting Education: Classroom Configuration and Technological Tools for Enhancing the Learning Environment. Accounting Education Holtzblatt, M. et al (2011). Expanding Your Accounting Classroom with Digitial Video Technology. Journal of Accounting Education. Carnaghan, C. et al (2011) Using Student Response systems in the Accounting Classroom: Strengths, Strategies and Limitations. Journal of Accounting Education Smithrud, D. et al (2015). Pencil Paper Learning Should Be Combined with Online Homework Software. Journal of Chemical Education. Kinza, M. et al (2014) Mixed-Methods Study of Online and Written Organic Chemistry Homework. Journal of Chemical Education. Woolley, D. (2015). Which Helps Accounting Students More: Traditional Homework, Online homework, or Clickers? Academy of Educational Leadership Journal. Hahn, W. et al (2013). Online Homework Managers and Intelligent Tutoring Systems: A Study of Their Impact on Student Learning in the Introductory Financial Accounting Classroom. Issues in Accounting Education. Sargent, C et al. (2011). Improving Retention for Principles of Accounting Students: Ultra-Short Online Tutorials for Motivating Effort and Improving Performance. Issues in Accounting Education. 42

43 Thank You! 43