Presenter:
Robert L. Webster, Ouachita Baptist University
Description:
Active learning has been described as anything students do in class other than just sitting and listening to a lecture. This session describes and gives examples of some active learning techniques that have been successfully used to enhance, not replace, classroom lectures and bring about increased levels of student interest and learning. The session describes and provides examples of active learning exercises that can be employed on both an individual student basis and group basis. The exercises discussed and displayed were successfully used in the principles of accounting first course and cover subject matter including the accounting cycle (including worksheets, adjusting and closing entries, financial statement preparation, and after-closing trial balance preparation); cash management; notes receivable and discounting; inventory methods; and depreciation methods. The session will provide handouts of exercises, when and how the exercises might be used, and will give participants another tool to help motivate and teach first-year accounting students. Participants may find the use of active learning exercises will improve not only student interest and learning, but may improve student evaluations of both the course and the instructor. This session may be especially helpful to new instructors or experienced instructors seeking to modify the classroom experience.
