This paper presents the results of a study assessing the comparative effectiveness of teaching an undergraduate intermediate accounting course in the online classroom format. Students in a large state university were offered an opportunity to complete the first course in intermediate accounting either online or on-campus. Students were required to complete several objective homework assignments and write an essay on what is means to be a professional. In addition, students were asked to report their progress in achieving seven stated objectives of the course. Students in the online course performed as well as students in the on-campus course.
The United States has long been referred to as a melting pot. People from all cultures bring to our business world their values and beliefs. For the past two decades, accounting organizations have reached out and supported the education of minorities. Academic research in the area of ethical decision making has attempted to highlight factors that contribute to differences in ethical decision making. Culture, and possibly, religion have been the key variables examined as a basis for differences in an individual’s ethical decisions. As more and more minorities enter the profession of accounting in the United States, an important question that should be answered is “Will American minorities approach ethical situations similarly to that of their non-minority American peer group?”, or will their cultural backgrounds influence their ethical norms? This paper presents a research study that opens this conversation. As minorities are entering the accounting profession, it is reasonable to expect that Americans from different cultural backgrounds may react differently to ethical dilemmas. However, research on ethical beliefs of minority business and accounting students is rare. The authors developed a survey to determine if there were differences in ethical values based on ethnicity. It was tested using materials provided by KPMG. The survey used a case involving a student lying on his resume. It asked for answers to seven ethical situations and seven activities. The survey was administered in two different major- level accounting classes at a large public university. The results of the study show that minority and non-minority students generally agree on ethical issues and their likely action when a classmate lies on a resume in the process of getting a job. However, there were some interesting differences in the magnitude and direction of the responses by minority and non-minority students. Our findings also suggest that Minority students are more sensitive to ethical transgressions by their peers and feel more negatively impacted if someone lies in the process of getting a job. Accountants are often in a position where they must report violations. Our study suggests students from all backgrounds should engage in discussions about lying and suggest ways to deal with reporting such unethical behavior to authorities.
International financial reporting standards (IFRS) issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), have become respected by many countries and regulatory agencies. The European Union (EU) has determined for most publicly held companies that IFRS promulgated by IASB meet the standards for cross-boarder listing. This paper will present a brief history of the development of international accounting standards and discuss the factors that led to the EUs acceptance of them. The paper will then consider the case of the U.S. By examining the changes in the accounting environment in the U.S. and specifically looking at the role of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), this paper will consider whether the U.S. will follow the EU and accept IFRS for cross-boarder listings.
Increasingly, as part of a desire to improve student understanding of the integrative nature of business, more and more schools are introducing interdisciplinary courses into the curriculum. These courses may also assist students with their choice of major. Generally, courses of this type are offered at the introductory level and may be structured in a variety of ways. Many questions still exist about the overall effectiveness of these courses with respect to teaching an understanding of integration, the appropriateness of alternative course designs, and how they might influence the selection of a major. Our institution has had such an Introductory Business Course for more than a decade. The course has always contained a process of continuous quality improvement .The course has evolved rather significantly during the last decade. One of its most recent and substantive changes has been to move from having multiple faculty members teaching each section to having each section taught by a single instructor. We felt that it was critical to examine the effectiveness of this change with regard to teaching, and also to see if the use of the single instructor model impacted student selection of a business major. The paper evaluates the effectiveness of faculty members to teach material outside their discipline. It also examines for the possible influence by instructors on selection of majors in the instructor’s discipline in an introductory business course.
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