MERLOT: Enhancing Course Delivery with Technology
Susan M. Moncada, Indiana State University
The effective use of technology for delivering accounting instruction often
requires considerable expertise, extensive faculty training, and significant
development time. Enhancing accounting courses with MERLOT is one feasible
alternative. Just what exactly is MERLOT? An acronym for Multimedia Educational
Resources for Learning and Online Teaching, MERLOT is a robust repository of
sharable learning modules that includes simulations, tutorials,
drill/practices, quiz/tests, animations, presentations, collections, and
resources. Business is just one of thirteen broad disciplines represented
having over 1,300 digital learning objects catalogued. Within the business
discipline, links to approximately 84 accounting, 145 information systems, 135
finance, 41 e-commerce, and 15 business law modules exist.
The mission of MERLOT is to improve the effectiveness of teaching and
learning by expanding the quantity and quality of peer-reviewed digital
learning materials that can be easily incorporated into already functioning
courses. Goals include making existing learning materials accessible to faculty
and providing formal recognition for the scholarship of teaching. Also hosted
by MERLOT through its Teaching Well Online (MERLOT-TWO) component are links to
resources and guidance on successfully designing and delivering
technology-mediated instruction. For example, MERLOT-TWO addresses policies,
procedures, and laws of which faculty teaching online should be familiar. In
addition, links to instructional design materials, online assessment resources,
teaching strategies, course management system comparisons, product reviews, and
learner support resources can be found. As a result, MERLOT-TWO can be used in
various phases of designing and delivering technology-enhanced instruction.
MERLOT is a free and open resource. However, unlike other web resources,
MERLOT continuously monitors URLs posted, deleting dead links and updating
those that have changed. From the MERLOT home page, accounting faculty can
browse materials, visit the tasting room, and become a member. MERLOT materials
are searchable by discipline, subdiscipline, title, author, date, rating, type,
and keyword. Within accounting materials are classified as being applicable to
auditing, ethics, financial accounting, information systems, introductory
accounting, managerial, not-for-profit, and tax. They are also cross-listed
should modules be pertinent for more than one area. For each module posted in
MERLOT, a unique learning profile is created. The purpose of the learning
profile is to provide a brief description of the module and identify the
author, affiliation, target audience, and essential technical requirements.
Each learning profile also has links to member/user comments, the peer review,
and assignments, if available. Membership enables faculty to contribute
teaching materials and add informal member/user comments or assignments to the
MERLOT repository. In addition, a member profile is created that provides a
record by date of an individual's contributions to MERLOT. All learning
modules, member/user comments, and assignments contributed are catalogued. As a
result, an individual's MERLOT learning profile can be printed and included as
supporting documentation in a faculty portfolio submitted for an annual
performance review.
The MERLOT Peer Review Process
Once someone contributes a learning module to MERLOT, it becomes eligible
for peer review. University faculty with commensurate expertise serve as MERLOT
reviewers and follow explicit guidelines to evaluate modules using criteria in
three areas: quality of content, potential effectiveness as a
teaching-learning tool, and ease of use for students and faculty. A
five-star rating system is applied with features of excellence and concern
identified for each criterion. A "one-star" rating indicates the
materials are not worth using at all. A "two-star" rating indicates
the materials do not meet minimal standards, but might have some limited value.
Materials meeting or exceeding standards, but having some significant concerns
have a "three-star" rating. A "four-star" rating indicates
materials are very good overall with a few minor concerns. Finally, learning
materials judged excellent all around are given a "five-star" rating.
A MERLOT business editorial board member synthesizes individual reviews in
order to form a composite review that ultimately becomes posted as part of the
module's learning profile.
Assessing quality of content involves evaluating the accuracy and
validity of the concepts being taught. Content receiving a five-star rating
should be clear, concise, current, and relevant; completely demonstrate or
explain concepts, models, or skills; and include an adequate amount of material
that effectively integrates and summarizes theories, assumptions, and
constraints.
Potential effectiveness as a teaching tool looks at whether
prerequisite knowledge and learning objectives are identified, relationships
between concepts demonstrated, and concepts progressively reinforced. Assessing
effectiveness means determining whether the materials are likely to improve an
accounting instructor's ability to teach concepts and students' abilities to
learn them.
Ease of use involves evaluating the extent to which the module is
visually appealing, has clear instructions, is effortless to use, requires
participant interaction, encourages active engagement, and is generally
designed well.
Providing ratings in three dimensions allows accounting faculty to review
different aspects of the learning material to determine whether the module can
be adapted to their needs. For example, medium quality, low potential teaching
effectiveness, and high ease of use might be interpreted to mean the module
contains exceptional content that is easy to navigate but may require extensive
background knowledge to be effective. Not only do MERLOT review standards help
accounting faculty assess the usability of existing modules, MERLOT evaluative
criteria can also serve as guidelines for individuals to consider when
developing new multimedia driven instructional materials whether or not they
plan to contribute them to MERLOT.
Clearly, MERLOT not only champions the scholarship of teaching, but also
provides a viable alternative to help faculty enhance course delivery with
technology. Once contributed to MERLOT, teaching and learning materials become
documented, are publicly available, and have the potential to be peer reviewed.
Member/user comments and peer reviews lend credibility to the quality of the
instructional pieces. By providing access to digital learning objects through
MERLOT, teaching materials can be replicated or improved upon by other
individuals. The fact that 23 systems and institutions of higher education, the
National Science Foundation, and EduSource are currently financially supporting
MERLOT is an indication of the benefit attributed to this valuable resource. To
improve teaching and learning with technology, visit MERLOT at
http://www.merlot.org.
CHECK OUT THESE MERLOT ACCOUNTING MODULES
Basic Financial Statements, authored by Sharon Garrison of The
University of Arizona, resides on the Studyfinance.com website. The tutorial
provides a self-paced online introduction to the following principles of
financial accounting concepts: the accounting equation, double-entry
accounting, the classified Balance Sheet and Income Statement. Practice quizzes
have been included that provide online feedback (Rating: Content
Quality—5, Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool—5, Ease of Use—5).
Writing Skills for Tax Professionals—The Judicial Brief is the
last segment of the M. Tx Writing Website developed for the Master's of
Taxation Program at Georgia State University. The module explains how to create
a judicial brief with links to a sample case and brief written for it. The site
is a great resource for both undergraduate advanced tax and graduate tax
research courses (Rating: Content Quality—5, Effectiveness as a Teaching
Tool—5, Ease of Use—5).
Created by Cecilia Zanetta, University of Tennessee, Cost Benefit
Analysis Toolkit is a downloadable Excel program organized into seven
worksheets that enable students to conduct cost benefit analysis. It is
suitable for managerial and cost accounting courses. This decision support
system is both a simulation and tutorial that helps students focus on capital
budgeting concepts as well as interpreting results. (Rating: Content
Quality—4, Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool—4, Ease of Use—4).
To peruse other accounting modules in the MERLOT repository, visit
http://www.merlot.org. To volunteer as an
external peer reviewer, contact MERLOT Business Discipline Editor, Cathy
Owens-Swift at cswift@gasou.edu.
Susan Moncada is currently an Associate Editor of the MERLOT Business
Editorial Review Board. Susan is one of eight faculty from the state who were
competitively selected by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education to
participate in the MERLOT project. She has been involved with MERLOT since Fall
2000 when the state of Indiana joined the MERLOT partnership.
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