Presenter:
Ramesh Narasimhan, Montclair State University
Shifei Chung, Rowan University
Description:
Most accounting curricula are designed to teach Financial Accounting, Auditing, and Accounting Information Systems in discrete stand-alone courses. The disadvantage of this approach is that it does not induce desired learning outcomes in students and also does not facilitate the transfer of the concepts learned to practice as the issues faced by professionals always transcend traditional boundary lines drawn in the curriculum. Time is also wasted in advanced courses reviewing concepts that should have been learned earlier by students. We recommend a holistic, systems approach to teaching these three areas, wherein integration of the concepts is introduced in a timely manner throughout the curriculum. Traditionally, educators were limited in their design of curricula by available textbooks in the field. However, with the availability of course packages from textbook publishers, which can be tailored for particular needs of any curricula, materials to teach an integrated program can be made ready at any time. Participants of this session should be able to introduce integration into their curricula almost immediately after attending this meeting, as we will discuss our planned holistic curricula with them that will include a semester-by-semester layout of topics.
