| Effectively Integrating
Information Technology Jay C. Thibodeau, Ulric Gelinas, and Elliott Levy
In the information age, it may be that the effective integration of information technology (IT) into the accounting curriculum is the single most important initiative for accounting faculty. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) recently identified technological adeptness as one of its five core competencies in its final report for the CPA Vision Project. Specifically, the report stated that accountants must be able to “utilize and leverage technology in ways that add value” (AICPA 1999, 18) in today’s economy. This competency requires that accountants be aware of the latest advances in technology so that they may adopt such technologies to improve their overall performance. For the professional auditor, the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) identified specific types of IT knowledge, including the ability to test a system (system validation), evaluate data integrity, and use report generators, data retrieval software, and a broad range of computer-assisted audit techniques (CAATs) (AICPA 1996). Levels of Integration
In level two, educational institutions seek to produce more IT specialists. This level may involve the creation of new degree programs designed to produce candidates that will be demanded in the marketplace, typically at high starting salaries. Creating new degree programs will generally involve recruiting new faculty to prepare these specialists. In today’s highly competitive market for IT faculty, a new degree program is an expensive proposition for most schools. In level three, the content of the curriculum changes, which not only involves how a given course is being taught, but also transformation of what is being taught in the classroom. Level three is likely to be the most difficult level of integration to reach. It involves infusing non-IT courses with IT applications. Such infusions usually involve heavy time commitments from the faculty, especially those not adept at the use of IT or its application in non-IT courses. Ascending to Level
Three Integration in Auditing The Norwood case introduces students to the most commonly used audit software in the marketplace, ACL. We decided to use ACL because it is used extensively throughout the world (Glover et al. 2000), and because of feedback from alumni and practitioners. In a recent survey of auditors, ACL was recognized as the leading audit software in use today (see http://www.acl.com). ACL Services Ltd. was very cooperative, granting a free site license to use the software on the college computing network and to give copies of the software to students for use on their own computers. The software is the actual package distributed commercially, restricted only in terms of the size of the database that could be used with the software. Overall, the case assignment was unique in the sense that it connected an actual software package, being used by many practitioners, with course learning objectives. It was not simply a keystroke assignment nor was it a forced use of an IT application. Rather, students were able to better master course content by completing the case assignments. The learning that occurs comes in steps. In the first assignment, students are introduced to the software and then challenged to use their analytical skills to apply the software to the case data. Next, in the second assignment, students were required to step back from the technology and assess the risks and audit procedures needed to address the case company’s situation. Last, in the third assignment, students had to effectively use the software to perform audit tests that they had recommended. As an example of how the case integrates technology objectives with course learning objectives, the second assignment requires students to identify important audit risks that exist on the Norwood Office Supplies, Inc. audit. One risk that is often identified by students is that inventory is not valued in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (i.e., the lower of cost or market rule). Once the risk is identified, students are then required to specify an audit procedure to gather evidence related to this risk that can be performed using ACL. This step allows students to learn how technology tools, like ACL, can help complete an audit in an efficient manner. That is, students learn that by analyzing the inventory file using ACL, an auditor can easily generate a list of all inventory items whose selling price is less than the cost of the inventory. Response from
Students and Campus Recruiters Overall, this article presented a brief overview of the case we used to integrate IT into the auditing course. We believe that integrating cases such as Norwood can help professors incorporate technological learning objectives into the auditing course in a way which will improve students’ IT capabilities. At Bentley College, we have seen firsthand that the integration of meaningful technological objectives into the curriculum greatly enhances student learning, faculty reputation, and the College’s standing in the eyes of employers, alumni, and students. We believe, for example, that with this case students can better assess risks and develop audit procedures to address those risks because they see, and must summarize, the results of their audit tests. Also, recruiters have begun to specifically target students with ACL expertise, a fact not lost on our students. For more information, see our forthcoming publication (November 2001) in Issues in Accounting Education. That article presents details of the case, including assignment material, teaching notes and a dedicated web site address. For more information about the content of this article, contact Jay C. Thibodeau at jthibodeau@bentley.edu, Bentley College, 175 Forest Street, Waltham, MA 02452, (781.891.2564). References
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