Reinventing the
Introductory Accounting Course
Candy Bianco
Cristi Lindblom
Mary Marcel
Karen Osterheld
Bentley University
Waltham, MA
Preview
• Revision of General Business Core
• Integrating Accounting and Finance
• Unique aspects of the Course Sequence
• Academic Support
• Survey Results
• Discussion
Basic Course Overhaul
• General business core courses reviewed
• Accountancy and finance chairs decided
– to combine their introductory courses
– add Introduction to Business
Basic Course Overhaul
Two three-credit courses combining
– Introduction to business
– Financial accounting
– Finance
– Managerial accounting
Basic Course Overhaul
Funding
• Bentley won a $400,000 5-year grant
• from Ernst & Young Foundation
• to support research and teaching activities
Basic Course Overhaul
Faculty team formed including:
• Accounting
• Finance
Basic Course Overhaul
Info design & corporate communication for
• oral
• written
• visual
components of the course
Integrating AC and FI
• AC and FI typically taught by separate dept.s
But
• AC and FI not separate in the business world
Integrating AC and FI
Topics explicitly shared
• Cash flows
• Financial statement analysis
• Time value of money
• Working capital
• Debt and equity
• Decision making and budgets
Integrating AC and FI
Topics implicitly shared
• Financial statements
• The accounting cycle
• Interest rates
• Risk and return
• Cost behavior
• Overhead allocation
• Cost-volume-profit analysis
Unique Aspects of the Course
• Enron Movie during First Week
• Custom Text
• Instructional Narrative
• Financial calculator
• Custom Slides and Teaching Notes
• Course-wide Consistency
Enron Movie
• Shown to all freshmen before school starts
• Reading sent out ahead of time
• Movie is stopped at specific points to ask
them questions
• Homework assignment
Custom Text
Includes chapters from
• Business Essentials
– 10th ed. by R. Ebert and R. Griffin
• Financial Management: Principles and Applications
– 12th ed. by Titman, Keown and Martin
• Financial Accounting
– 10th ed. by Harrison, Jr., Horngren and Thomas
• Managerial Accounting
– 4th ed. by Braun and Tietz.
• Auditing and Accounting Cases: Investigating Issues of Fraud
and Professional Ethics
– 4th ed. by Thibodeau and Freier
Instructional Narrative
• Two volumes
• Twenty-one chapters
• Technical material in a conversational tone
Instructional Narrative
•Life cycle of a business
•Financing
•Preparation of Financial Statements
•Budgets and Variances
•Internal Controls
•SOX
•Corporate Social Responsibility
Financial Calculator
• Replaces tables for time value of money
• Introduced as a tool
• Used in class and on exams
Custom Slides and Teaching Notes
Provides support for
– finance faculty teaching accounting
– accounting faculty teaching finance
– Consistent learning objectives
• Blackboard site for faculty
Course-Wide Consistency
Common
• syllabus
• homework assignments
• online quizzes
• final exam
Unique Aspects of the Course
• Outside speakers
• Online library tutorials
• Team skills instruction
• Quiz on first course
• Trading room sessions
Outside Speakers
• Evening Program
• EY senior managers and partners in class
– Role of the auditor
– Earnings management and Fraud
• Presentations to young EY Professionals
Online Library Tutorial
• Replaces a physical visit
• Reference librarian designed
– Slides
– Voiceovers
– questions for students to answer
• If not completed successfully, student must
attend a live session in library
Team Skills Instruction
• Developed by management faculty
• Designed around course project in first course
• Team contracts
• Meeeting worksheets
• Peer evaluations
Quiz on First Course
Objectives
• Identify students at risk
• Reinforce carryover from prior course
• Encourage students to review basics
Quiz on First Course
• 25 multiple choice questions
• Covering topics from the first course
• Must score 70%
• Two attempts permitted
• Must meet with professor if unsuceessful
Trading Room Sessions
• Requiring the use of
– software
– databases
• Sessions specific to the assignments
• Students required to attend in first course
Academic Support
• Academic Services
• Review Sessions
• ACELAB/Eco-Fi Lab
• Graduate Assistant Office Hours
Survey Results: Majors
Majors %
of total
UGs
Fall
2009
Fall
2012
Spring
2013
Spring
2014
AC + AIS
9.1%
11.9%
11%
11.1%
FI
8.3%
10.5%
11.2%
12.7%
CFA
8.0%
8.4%
9.5%
8.7%
Survey Results: AC & FI Integration
How connected?
Fall
End of sequence survey 2010
Same
0%
Spring
2011
2%
Spring Spring
2012 2013
1%
2%
Very connected
72%
69%
62%
59%
Slightly connected
21%
24%
30%
32%
Slightly disconnected
4%
3%
6%
5%
Very separate
3%
2%
2%
2%
Survey Results: AC Majors
How connected?
End of sequence survey
Fall
2010
Spring
2011
Spring Spring
2012 2013
Same
0%
.55%
.8%
Very connected
78.3%
72%
66.1% 64%
Slightly connected
16%
25.1%
25.4% 32%
Slightly disconnected
5.8%
1.6%
6.1%
1.7%
Very separate
0%
1.9%
1.5%
1.7%
.8%
Survey Results: CFA
How connected?
End of sequence survey
Fall
2010
Spring Spring
2011 2012
Same
1.15% 2.8%
0%
2.2%
Very connected
84%
78%
68.1%
Slightly connected
11.5% 9.0%
18.8%
26.4%
Slightly disconnected
1.15% .6%
2%
1.1%
Very separate
2.3%
1%
2.2%
86%
1.1%
Spring
2013
Conclusion
AC and FI typically taught
• As stand-alone topics
• In separate departments
• By faculty with AC or FI degrees
Conclusion
We’re fortunate to be able to challenge the norm
• Energized faculty
• Better prepared students