Preparing Future Global Management Accountants Through COIL: Evaluation of Processes and Outcomes

Abstract

This chapter is an evaluation of the processes and outcomes of the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) project between the management accounting courses of RMIT Vietnam and RMIT University Melbourne’s Vocational Business Education. COIL is an educational platform that promotes twenty-first century student competencies such as cross-cultural competence, teamwork and problem-solving skills through a collaborative coursework participated by students from different countries. The Learning Outcomes Value Cycle Framework (Gavilanez, Ortlieb, & Carey, 2017) is used to analyse the key components of the project including the project learning outcomes, learning activities and assessments. The 6-week Global COIL Project was designed for students to apply their classroom learning to realistic business scenarios and develop skills necessary in the global workplace. One hundred sixty-one (161) Management Accounting students from the two campuses worked together and communicated virtually in teams using Google Hangouts and other social media technologies to analyse and develop a solution to a simulated business scenario. The component-by-component analysis of the project revealed several pedagogical and practical challenges of COIL project design and implementation. Despite these challenges, COIL proved to be a promising educational platform that provides students with ample opportunities to develop a range of employability skills. This chapter highlights the motivations and challenges of designing and implementing a COIL project. Strategies for enhancement are also identified to ensure achievement of project learning outcomes. This chapter provides a valuable resource for academics who intend to introduce COIL or other cross-cultural collaborative projects in their courses.