Megatrends in Financial Accounting

By Roger A. Gee
San Diego Mesa College
Email: rgee1@san.rr.com

Last spring, my South-Western College rep shared the results of a student survey with me. One part of the survey really stuck out—our students complain that we professors don’t refer to the textbook enough in our lectures. “I’ll fix that,” I said. During the Fall 2000 semester I updated my PowerPoint slides so that my students always know where I am in the textbook.

I didn’t think that the added page numbers and other cues in my PowerPoint slides were a big deal. However, they got a larger than expected response during a speech I gave in Rhode Island in November. So, in this column I will share how I put together a PowerPoint lecture.

The first slide contains the chapter name and number. It’s projected on the screen as the students file into class. The second slide starts with a relevance hook. Relevance hooks connect my students with one or two important concepts discussed in the chapters. The idea is to get them thinking about accounting information from a user’s perspective. For example, I introduce the chapter on future and present values with expected (but not guaranteed) returns for a bond fund, a growth stock fund, and a humorous advertisement.

The next slide shows the chapter objectives. The slide’s title contains the page number and the word Objectives. I use key words to summarize the objectives. For example, one of the textbook objectives is Determine investment values and interest expense or revenue for various periods. I put the words Investment values as a bullet point on the slide.

The next slides [slide 1] [slide 2] illustrate a short speech geared to a student’s 10-minute attention span. Most slides have a page number with an exhibit number or a paragraph number. I then reinforce my speech with an end-of-chapter exercise. Next, I create another series of slides illustrating a short speech followed by another reinforcement exercise, etc. Most chapters in my textbook take two lecture days. I use slides to preview the homework at the end of my first lecture day. I use slides to review the homework at the end of my second lecture day. Email me if you want to see all the slide files that I created for financial accounting.