Introductory Accounting Course Research Articles

Using in-class group assignments to improve low-achieving students’ performance in an introductory accounting course

ABSTRACT In the United States, a high portion of students do not pass their introductory accounting courses. In this study, In-class Group Assignments (IGAs) that require students to work in small groups are used to supplement traditional lectures in Introductory Managerial Accounting. In two groups of students attending this course, four experimental IGAs are given to one group (treatment group) but not the other (control group) to assess the pedagogy’s effectiveness, especially for low-achieving students at greater risk of failure. Results on student performance for exam questions related to topics of these IGAs are consistent with improved performance among low-achieving students. Additional evidence suggests that students view IGAs favorably and use them to study for exams. IGAs could be a solution for improving performance among low-achieving, less motivated students who enroll in introductory accounting across countries.

The Effectiveness of Blended Learning Assisted by Collaboration of Edmodo Probing-Prompting in Improving Learning Outcomes and Critical Thinking Ability of Students at Universitas Madura

Technological developments have a positive impact on education. Students are required to have knowledge and skills as a result of learning. However, the results of teaching and learning conducted at the University of Madura have not achieved the expected learning objectives. The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of blended learning assisted by probing-prompting Edmodo collaboration in improving learning outcomes and critical thinking skills. This research is quasi-experimental with a 2x2 factorial design. Determination of the sample using random sampling from 4 odd-even classes with a total of 65 students majoring in Accounting at the University of Madura. Data collection techniques used pretest-posttest with the help of the IBM Statistics-24 application. The normality test used one-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov and the homogeneity test used Levene with a significance of 5%. Hypothesis testing with two-way analysis of variance based on a 2x2 factorial design. The research data showed an increase in learning outcomes and critical thinking skills in the BLPP class from pretest to post-test was 0.39 and 0.80 with a total of 1.19 percent. While the PPF2F class increased from pretest to post-test by 0.42 and 0.63 with a total of 1.05 percent. Based on the results of the research data analysis, it was concluded that the blended learning model assisted by the probing-prompting collaboration Edmodo was effective in improving student learning outcomes and critical thinking skills in introductory accounting courses. The increase obtained in addition to internal factors is also due to the advantages that exist in the BLPP. Therefore, the selection of models and approaches used is one of the determinants of achieving learning objectives. So, the BLPP model is a learning model that can influence improving learning outcomes and critical thinking skills.

Enhancing learning of accounting principles through experiential learning in a board game

ABSTRACT This study presents an empirically validated serious game proposal to cope with the challenges of apathy and lack of security in freshmen studying accounting. A review of the literature on serious games in accounting education found a dearth of studies identifying the factors that promote their effectiveness. Therefore, this study first analyses the Accounting Marathon board game’s effectiveness in reinforcing the learning of accounting principles in an introductory accounting course. Secondly, since the Accounting Marathon is based on experiential learning theory, self-efficacy and learning motivation are proposed as mediating variables in the relationship between experiential learning and self-perceived academic performance. The sample consisted of 119 students who participated in the intervention. In terms of results, students who played the Accounting Marathon significantly improved their actual academic performance. Also, self-efficacy and learning motivation were significant mediator variables between experiential learning and self-perceived academic performance.

THE EFFECT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, SPIRITUAL INTELLIGENCE AND LEARNING BEHAVIOR ON THE LEVEL OF ACCOUNTING UNDERSTANDING

This study aims to determine whether there is an influence between emotional intelligence, spiritual intelligence and learning behavior on the level of accounting understanding . This accounting understanding is measured by grades in introductory accounting courses, intermediate financial accounting, advanced financial accounting . Emotional intelligence in this study was measured using self-knowledge, motivation, empathy, social skills. Spiritual intelligence was measured using being flexible, dealing with and overcoming pain, aversion to causing harm and being independent. Learning behavior was measured using the habit of following lessons, reading books, visiting the library, and taking exams. This research uses non probability sampling method with purposive sampling technique . The data processing technique uses SPSS 2 0 by performing multiple regression tests. This study uses a questionnaire distributed via google form with the number of respondents as many as 104 Batam State Polytechnic students. The results found that, firstly, emotional intelligence has a positive influence on accounting understanding . Second, spiritual intelligence has a positive influence on accounting understanding. Third, learning behavior has a positive influence on accounting understanding.

The impact of using a mobile app on learning success in accounting education

ABSTRACT We examine the impact of a gamified mobile learning application on students’ exam success in a mandatory introductory accounting course. The app was developed with the particular needs of first-year students in mind. It provides elements like quizzes as well as organizational and communicative elements helping students structure their daily life at university. The results indicate that serious app users achieve a significantly higher score in the final exam than non-serious users. We apply three approaches, including OLS and 2SLS regression, and an identification strategy based on students who re-take the course to show the app's positive effect. Especially the 2SLS approach, which addresses the issue of self-selection, may add valuable insights into the use of mobile technology in accounting education. This study not only contributes to the ongoing research on the effects of mobile technology in higher education but also sheds light on the determinants of student success.

Gender differences in the first course in accounting: An achievement goal approach

We examine whether gendered patterns can be observed in first-year students' achievement goals in an introductory accounting course; a question largely overlooked by prior literature. This investigation is motivated by perceptions of accounting as a masculine field involving gender role stereotypes and business schools as competitive and performance-oriented environments. Our findings suggest that male students tend to adopt performance-approach goal, implying that they are more competitive than female students, and that their performance is thus driven by a desire to outperform others. Our findings further suggest that male students' expectations of learning accounting are higher than those of female students. The expectations explain the gender differences in the performance-approach goal. Finally, we find that this performance-approach goal mediates gender differences in course performance depending on the mode of assessment; male students received higher grades for exams but not for teamwork. Overall, our study highlights the importance of considering contextual aspects related to competitiveness, masculinity, and the mode of assessment on an accounting course when addressing students’ achievement goals and expectations of learning accounting. We thus contribute to the understanding of how learning environment, accounting pedagogy, and the broader field of professional accounting intersects with individual student attributes, creating differential learning outcomes.

The Effects of a Second-Chance Exam Policy in a Large-Enrollment Introductory Accounting Course

The Effects of a Second-Chance Exam Policy in a Large-Enrollment Introductory Accounting Course

Connecting With Social Media: Using Instagram in Introductory Accounting to Enhance Student Engagement and Performance

This paper discusses ways to engage students in accounting outside of the classroom on a resource they’re already using, Instagram. Instagram can be used for a variety of activities, including practice questions to keep them thinking about accounting outside of class and interviews with professionals to share experiences with students that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to have in a classroom. By interviewing professionals and sharing their perspectives and experiences, insight and value are added to the course. After a semester of using Instagram in the introductory accounting course, survey data from students in the course stated they found it unique, engaging, and a fun way to interact with accounting and engage in the course material. Nearly 92 percent of the respondents involved in the Instagram activity agreed that it should continue to be used in the course.

Partnering Accounting and Excel

We incorporated the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Excel 2016 Certification Exam into our introductory managerial accounting class at Cleveland State University. The purpose was to increase student engagement, to show how Excel is used in day-to-day business applications, to stress the importance of technology skills in real life business environments, and to improve the relevance of this introductory accounting course for all business majors. This paper describes our experimental study which utilized the Certiport examination process, materials developed and provided to students to assist them to prepare for and be successful on the exam, and the results and feedback that we received from our students. Our analysis allowed us to evaluate our initial course work requirements and plan for an improved syllabus for the Fall of 2021. Even though we were hindered by COVID-19 restrictions, we were able to gather valuable data to share with our University.

Roles of gender, study major, and origins in accounting learning: A case in Thailand

Management students are required to pass several quantitative subjects, such as Accounting, Business Finance, and Mathematics, during their study at the undergraduate level. There are limited studies conducted in Thailand that explored students' learning achievement in accounting courses. This paper explored the learning achievement of undergraduate management students in the introductory accounting course at a public university in Thailand. It examined whether the achievement differs across the students' gender, study major, and origins. Data from 906 management students were taken as samples. This study relied on the independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA to analyze the data. The results suggested that the performance of undergraduate management students in the accounting course differs significantly across genders, majors, and origins of the students.

Finding an Easier Way to Explain the Statement of Cash Flows

The statement of cash flows is one of the required financial statements of public companies, and thus is required of all accounting majors. After learning the other required financial statements in an introductory financial accounting course and, again, in the first intermediate accounting course, accounting majors learn how to prepare the statement of cash flows in the second or last intermediate accounting course. Most accounting majors find the statement of cash flows significantly more difficult to learn than any other financial statements. Especially, students find it most difficult to understand the indirect method of preparing the statement of cash flows. Preparing the statement of cash flows using the indirect method, students go through the most difficult time, specifically, doing the adjustments that are made to net income to reconcile to cash flows from operating activities.In this paper, presented is a different way to explain the principles of indirect method of preparing the statement of cash flows with a focus on the reconciliation of net income to cash flows from operating activities. Different from the explanations in the textbooks available in the market, the approach presented in the paper is preferred by all the students who were taught the statement of cash flows. Also, pointed out in the paper are a few things that students are easily confused of in learning the statement of cash flows.

Engaging with Text: The Effectiveness of Content Literacy and Active Learning Strategies in Online Introductory Accounting Courses

Language and literacy are innate to learning. The accounting language is technical and specific, and students must become literate in the discipline to be able to critically read and understand accounting text and apply their knowledge. Introductory accounting courses are typically difficult for students, who struggle to simply pass the course. Students memorize the concepts but cannot internalize the information. Lack of active reading and literacy skills hinders higher order thinking needed to solve problems.
 The study discussed in this paper involves two fully online introductory accounting courses where one of the courses is taught leveraging literacy strategies (experimental course) and the other without literacy instruction (control course). Initial and final reading assessments are implemented in both courses and the results demonstrate an overall greater improvement in students’ comprehension, analysis, context and evaluation skills in the experimental class.

The Impact of Using a Mobile App on Learning Success in Accounting Education

This study examines the impact of a gamified mobile learning application on business and economics students' exam success in a mandatory introductory accounting course. The results indicate that students using the app seriously achieve a significantly higher score in the final exam than non-serious users. Controlling for other antecedents of student success from prior literature, app usage significantly explains academic performance. We apply three approaches, including OLS and 2SLS regression, and an identification strategy based on students who attempt the course for a second time to show the app's positive effect on student exam performance. Especially the 2SLS approach, which addresses the issue of self-selection, may add valuable insights into the use of mobile technology in accounting education. This study not only contributes to the ongoing research on the effects of using gamification and mobile technology in higher education but also sheds light on the determinants of student success.

Integrating Experiential Learning in an Introductory Financial Accounting Course to Enhance Learning: The FIFA Approach

The Fieldwork Introductory Financial Accounting [FIFA] approach was introduced to resolve the problem of lack of understanding of basic financial accounting among accounting students with no background in accounting for the Financial Accounting 1 (FAR 110) course. The FIFA approach stemmed from the initiative of the teaching lecturers to enhance students' understanding of the most significant and elementary accounting knowledge: (i) identification and classification of accounting elements (assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses & equities), and (ii) sources of documents. The main purpose of this paper is to determine the effectiveness of the FIFA approach in enhancing students' understanding throughout an introductory financial accounting course. A total of 79 students participated in this study, and were divided into 2 groups; the treatment group and the control group. The experimental design using a non-randomised control group pre-test-post-test design was utilised. This study revealed that the FIFA approach significantly enhanced the students' understanding of the most significant elementary accounting knowledge, which comprises identification and classification of accounting elements and sources of documents. The findings are expected to benefit higher-education institutions, particularly accounting academics and curriculum coordinators when performing Accounting-curriculum revision so as to embed the FIFA approach in their introductory accounting courses. Moreover, the results of this study are expected to encourage countless educators to incorporate more learning activities associated with the active-learning approach and pedagogies beyond the four walls, which could boost students' knowledge and skills. The findings of this study also provide evidence on how real-world exposure is vital in order to facilitate accounting knowledge and understanding.

Exploring Variation in Student Academic Performance: Can Achievement in an Immersive Case Study Project Predict Exam Score in an Introductory Accounting Course?

In modern university education, quantitative analytical skills seem best acquired through deep learning of complex, multi-faceted problems. Our quasi-experimental design tested whether student achievement in an immersive classroom case study might affect subsequent academic performance, presumably reflecting deeper learning of fundamental principles in an accounting course. We analyzed exam scores of three behavior-based student groups: (a) “OOP,” who Opted Out of the immersive case study Project, (b) “BMP,” who earned Below Median marks on the Project, and (c) “AMP,” who scored At least the Median on the Project. Results indicate that student academic performance declined at effectively equal rates among the three student groups in any given semester. Surprisingly, students’ self-reported deep strategy more strongly predicted their academic performance, accounting for more than 30% of exam score variation; group membership explained only 1.93% of exam score variation. These results underscore the need to document student learning approaches explicitly in order to complement observations of student classroom behaviors and academic performance.

Analisis Tingkat Pemahaman Akuntansi Mahasiswa Berdasarkan Hasil Belajar Matematika Ekonomi

This research aims to determine the correlation between mathematics economics courses and an introduction to accounting. The reason for choosing the title is because there are many economic principles that use mathematics. Accounting has a close relationship with mathematics. Many students who master mathematics are considered able to solve accounting cases well too. The concept of the dual aspect, which is the basic concept of accounting, is expressed as a mathematical equation, called an accounting equation. Accounting calculations such as the calculation of depreciation, determination of loan installments, determination of cash prices in the case of the purchase of a lease and installment system require the use of mathematical techniques. All of this requires mathematical knowledge where the mastery of basic mathematical concepts is important for accounting students to master well in the Introduction to Accounting course. The samples of this research are students enrolled in the 2018/2019 school year. The results of this research, calculation of the correlation coefficient (r) = 4. Based on statistical calculations, it can be concluded that the mathematics economics course has a positive effect on the introductory accounting courses to D3 Accounting students at the University of Pamulang.

Talent Development through Gamification in the Field of Accounting and Finance

Business professionals should enrich themselves with accounting knowledge which requires critical thinking, problem solving skills in addition to technical skills to succeed in the knowledge based economy. But it is often observed that entry level employees consider it as an abstract & boring field. Although the need of accounting & finance knowledge has been increased due to UAE shift towards VAT, block chain, industry revolution & their vision of being knowledge economy. In this paper, an exploratory research has been presented by introducing games as a complementary tool to theoretical training of Introduction to Finance Accounting to develop accounting talent in innovative way. It has been argued that the game can be used as a powerful tool in making accounting training more interesting, hence increasing engagement & motivation. This paper aims at showing the use of the gamification project in talent development as a practice that will stand-in the motivation of employees as well as their understanding of the basic accounting concepts. The perceptions of sixteen employees and six trainers from corporate training department in the United Arab Emirates relating has been studied. The impact of games in an accounting course were disclosed through semi structured interviews, prior to the sample being interviewed, they had been exposed to play three different types of games. The exploratory research found that trainers and trainees believe that games can motivate employees and help them in maintaining their enthusiasm and engagement in learning an introductory accounting course. They do agree that games should be used for making them understand real practical applications. The trainees highlights that games are one of the motivational factors to maintain interest consistently and excitement of applying the concept in real world. This exploratory research will give an idea of innovative method of developing talent through accounting and finance related training. It will assist trainers to understand the fact that the use of games can make absurd, complex and quantitative subjects like finance & accounting easy to understand and entertaining without sacrificing the quality of knowledge in the subject matter.

A PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF NON-ACCOUNTING STUDENTS PERCEPTION TOWARDS INTRODUCTORY ACCOUNTING COURSE AMONG PRIVATE INSTITUTION IN SABAH

The introductory accounting course is mostly covered at undergraduate level as one of the core courses in many business degree programmes for both public and private institution in Malaysia. This research came to the attention of the researcher due to the student’s poor performance, repeats and pre-conceive accounting as difficult and unattainable. The aim of this paper is to examine the perception of non-accounting students in introductory accounting course among private institution. A study was carried out covering 244 students from 8 different private institution in Sabah. The study focused mainly on aspects of program structure, assessment and external factor. Our preliminary descriptive findings suggest that the criteria of program structure have no effect towards their perception of introductory accounting course. Meanwhile for the assessment factor, time allocated during final examination, assessment which need to be matched with the course outcome and marks allocated address no impacts against their perceived perceptions. Yet, a small number of students strongly agree with the statement that the language/terms used in the questions are not understandable, the format of exam question do not consistent with the past year exam and exam questions are not clearly structured. External factors of family, facilities, transportation and relationship problems revealed no importance. The non-accounting student perceived these external factors to be insignificant in influencing their decision whether accounting course is acceptable or not in their learning environment. However, a big number of students perceived financial problems to be an important factor. Finally, results revealed that students are generally still in favour with the assessment and program structure of introductory accounting course.

Channel-Stuffing Reinvented: Earnings Management in Toshiba's Personal Computers Division

ABSTRACTThis case describes how Toshiba, a well-known Japanese conglomerate, creatively used the technique of channel-stuffing to inflate its earnings by $478 million during 2008–2014. Students evaluate the uniqueness of Toshiba's practice of channel-stuffing, determine whether Toshiba's financial statements faithfully depicted the economic reality of underlying transactions, and understand the spiraling effects of channel-stuffing on reported profits. Students also learn that the responsibility for integrity in financial reporting lies not just with the top management, but also with the junior employees. The case requires an understanding of only basic accounting concepts and can be used in a variety of courses, especially in the M.B.A. introductory accounting course, and in the intermediate accounting courses at the undergraduate or graduate level.

The Influence of Introductory Accounting Course Content on Students Choice of Accounting Major in Kenyan Universities

The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of Introductory Accounting Course content on students’ choice of Accounting Major in Kenyan Universities. Introductory Accounting Course content has been under attack by students in most Universities across the world. The course has been viewed as: difficult to pass, number oriented, not exposing students to practice, comprising of rules and regulations encouraging rot learning and therefore dull and boring. The negative perceptions by students towards the course have led to low uptake of Accounting Major. These facts notwithstanding, research shows that Introductory Accounting Course Content is the foundation on which accounting career is grounded. Students’ should be introduced well to the basics of the course, including the accounting cycle and accounting principles. Mastery of these concepts at the earliest opportunity possible not only heightens the comprehension of the course, but also perfects its application in the business world. This would bridge the mismatch that existed between skills posed by the fresh accounting graduates on entry into the job market and employers requirements and expectations. A descriptive cross sectional Research design was adopted. The study sampled students undertaking Bachelor of Commerce degree in twelve selected Kenyan universities and employed a mixture of purposive and stratified random sampling technique to select the Sample of students from the target population. The study adopted a logistic regression model. The research findings revealed that Introductory Accounting Course had a positive significant influence on students’ choice of Accounting Major in Kenyan Universities. The results can be used to make the course more attractive to students’ which would lead to increase in the uptake of Accounting Major in the universities. The study focused on Introductory Accounting Course content as opposed to other studies that previously focused on other aspects of Accounting Major such as earnings, job market conditions and career opportunities as influencers of career choices in accounting among students in universities. The study’s greatest contribution to the knowledge of accounting has been witnessed in its attempt to address the survival of accounting profession. This include: giving more attention to Introductory Accounting Course content by availing relevant teaching materials, application of appropriate delivery methods and employability of competent Introductory Accounting Course Instructors. Keywords: Introductory Accounting Course Content, Kenyan Universities, Students choice, Accounting Major DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-9-23 Publication date: March 31 st 2020