1. Reinventing the Introductory Accounting Course Candy Bianco Cristi Lindblom Mary Marcel Karen Osterheld Bentley University Waltham, MA

2. Preview • Revision of General Business Core • Integrating Accounting and Finance • Unique aspects of the Course Sequence • Academic Support • Survey Results • Discussion

3. Basic Course Overhaul • General business core courses reviewed • Accountancy and finance chairs decided • to combine their introductory courses • add Introduction to Business

4. Basic Course Overhaul Two three-credit courses combining • Introduction to business • Financial accounting • Finance • Managerial accounting

5. Basic Course Overhaul Funding • Bentley won a $400,000 5-year grant • from Ernst & Young Foundation • to support research and teaching activities

6. Basic Course Overhaul Faculty team formed including: • Accounting • Finance

7. Basic Course Overhaul Info design & corporate communication for • oral • written • visual components of the course

8. Integrating AC and FI • AC and FI typically taught by separate dept.s But • AC and FI not separate in the business world

9. 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

10. 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

11. Unique Aspects of the Course • Enron Movie during First Week • Custom Text • Instructional Narrative • Financial calculator • Custom Slides and Teaching Notes • Course-wide Consistency

12. 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

13. Custom Text Includes chapters from • Business Essentials • 10th ed. by R. Ebert and R. Griffin • Financial Management: Principles and Applications • 12th ed. by Titman, Keownand Martin • Financial Accounting • 10th ed. by Harrison, Jr., Horngrenand 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

14. Instructional Narrative • Two volumes • Twenty-one chapters • Technical material in a conversational tone

15. Instructional Narrative • Life cycle of a business • Financing • Preparation of Financial Statements • Budgets and Variances • Internal Controls • SOX • Corporate Social Responsibility

16. Financial Calculator • Replaces tables for time value of money • Introduced as a tool • Used in class and on exams

17. Custom Slides and Teaching Notes Provides support for • finance faculty teaching accounting • accounting faculty teaching finance • Consistent learning objectives • Blackboard site for faculty

18. Course-Wide Consistency Common • syllabus • homework assignments • online quizzes • final exam

19. Unique Aspects of the Course • Outside speakers • Online library tutorials • Team skills instruction • Quiz on first course • Trading room sessions

20. Outside Speakers • Evening Program • EY senior managers and partners in class • Role of the auditor • Earnings management and Fraud • Presentations to young EY Professionals

21. 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

22. Team Skills Instruction • Developed by management faculty • Designed around course project in first course • Team contracts • Meeeting worksheets • Peer evaluations

23. Quiz on First Course Objectives • Identify students at risk • Reinforce carryover from prior course • Encourage students to review basics

24. 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

25. Trading Room Sessions • Requiring the use of • software • databases • Sessions specific to the assignments • Students required to attend in first course

26. Academic Support • Academic Services • Review Sessions • ACELAB/Eco-Fi Lab • Graduate Assistant Office Hours

27. Survey Results: Majors

28. Survey Results: AC & FI Integration

29. Survey Results: AC Majors

30. Survey Results: CFA

31. Conclusion AC and FI typically taught • As stand-alone topics • In separate departments • By faculty with AC or FI degrees

32. Conclusion We’re fortunate to be able to challenge the norm • Energized faculty • Better prepared students