An International Meeting of the American Accounting Association 2005 Annual Meeting August 7–10, 2005 San Francisco, California Come to the City by the Bay!

Effective Learning Strategies Forum
Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Session 2
"The Personal Schedule": Allowing Student Flexibility in Learning

Presenter:
Margaret Shackell-Dowell, University of Notre Dame

Description:
My educational concept is "The Personal Schedule." Traditional assessment of two midterms and a final does not prepare for uncertainty, and it doesn't recognize student differences. Students differ along many dimensions, including the strengths and weaknesses that they possess, their learning abilities, and their interests. I allow all 105 of my students to choose which assignments they will do and which ones will be graded. This encourages student investment in learning and responsibility for learning. Students have responded very positively to the menu of choices. They have become very creative in what they choose to do. Some of the projects that I have received include: videos; a class to teach high school students about accounting; analyses of industries or companies; "study guides" for the whole semester including "student related" cost accounting examples; board games; company analyses; budgets; outsourcing problems; cost allocation problems and solutions; cost benefit analysis problems. Personal schedules allow students to: "front load" work; schedule around tough weeks in other classes; choose items that they find interesting. Despite the administrative costs of this program, I value it highly as an important opportunity for students to have input into what and how they learn.

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