Auditor's Report Content PageAdding Value to Audit Education Through the Web
Saeed Roohani and Steve G. Sutton, Bryant College
For some time, accounting faculty have struggled with the need to integrate technology into the education process while maintaining and/or enhancing core education objectives. Oftentimes technology integration is perceived to hinder the process rather than enhance the delivery of accounting knowledge. The challenge for the faculty member becomes one of identifying how technology integration can be used in a manner that demonstrates to students that technology use can benefit them in completing future tasks and in a manner that promotes (rather than limits) the pedagogical objectives of the course. The Web represents one such technology that holds tremendous potential for achieving all of these goals.
The purposes of this brief essay are to provide introductory information that will facilitate beneficial application of the Web in audit curricula, provide some thoughts on how the web may be applied in an audit course to enhance student understanding of auditing, and to explore some very fundamental ways in which the Web can be used to enhance the efficiency of course interaction. To achieve these purposes, the remainder of this essay is divided into several small sections that address use of the Web as a research tool, to facilitate cases and simulations, to support housekeeping activities and to disseminate and share pedagogical materials. Additionally, discussion is provided on some of the advantages and disadvantages of using the Web based on our prior experiences.
The Web as a Research Tool
Perhaps one of the most powerful uses of the Web is as a business research tool. Never before have we had access to such a volume of diverse data that could be relatively easily searched with available key word search engines. The insert displayed here provides a small list of several such sites that provide extensive coverage of corporate annual reports, audit standards, accounting standards, financial market data, etc. The availability of such data makes it much more feasible to implement varied research-oriented projects into the audit course. A handful of such opportunities are briefly discussed in this section.
Most of our personal experience has actually centered on the use of the case we presented at the Midyear Meeting. This case uses the Jenkins Report as the foundation for having students search the Web to aggregate information from a variety of sources to piece together an aggregate picture of a given firm. Information available on the Web for a given company generally will include both financial and nonfinancial data—in some cases close to the level recommended in the Jenkins Report. As students complete their report, we are able to discuss issues related to the reliability of information on the Web and to the recently released AICPA report on the future of assurance services. Similarly, the recently released AICPA Practice Alert 97-1 that raises issue over the actions of some companies who are providing unaudited information on the Web alongside audited information can also be discussed. One of the key issues here is whether the public can discern between the two types of information when they are disseminated on the Web.
Similar projects could also be developed and used to cover more traditional audit concepts such as risk analysis and analytical procedures. From a risk analysis perspective, information can be found on the Web related to industry trends, competition and prospects. Additionally, information specifically related to the client company may be available from a number of independent parties via the Web. Certainly, information on such issues as customer satisfaction is broadly available. Similarly, for analytical procedures students may find comparable companies on the Web whereby comparisons can be made between the client company’s financial information and that of similar companies. The depth of such a project would vary depending on the instructor’s needs, but could certainly go into the detail of identifying comparable companies, running comparisons with such companies and with overall averages, and even demonstrations of downloading the information into spreadsheets for analysis. In each of these instances, the Web is demonstrated as a powerful business research tool while at the same time allowing the instructor to provide depth and application in areas that have traditionally required far more energy and time commitment from both the instructor and the students.
Cases and Simulations
Frequently, audit instructors will develop databases for demonstrating specific audit techniques or will even develop entire simulated businesses for comprehensive examination. In such cases, one of the biggest struggles for faculty will simply be the dissemination of course materials—whether these be paper documents or electronic data. In many cases, if the instructor wanted to load the information onto a computer network, there would be significant hassles and red tape to overcome through a central network manager. The Web generally provides a feasible and more friendly alternative. Most instructors have control of their own Web sites and have control over the posting of files to these Web sites. Hence, documents and electronic data can be easily made available to students via these Web sites and likewise, can be easily updated by the instructor on a real-time basis as necessary.
This process has been greatly simplified with the new releases of personal productivity software (e.g., Microsoft Office, etc.). This new software (e.g., in Microsoft’s case the Office ’97 package) allows files to be saved as HTML files (i.e., web ready form) and also allows Web URL Addresses (i.e., site location addresses on the Web) to be embedded into programs on a connected workstation. In simpler terms, the instructor can now easily post documents created with a wordprocessor onto the Web where students can search through the documents and print (or download) those that they need. Similarly, databases can be posted to Web sites and students can now use database or spreadsheet software to pull data off of the databases to complete sampling and/or other audit tasks.
Course Housekeeping
The preceding discussion on the development and posting of files to the Web holds equal promise in facilitating course housekeeping activities. At the extreme, the Web could be used as the sole source for all course handouts (excluding copyrighted materials). Using the new personal productivity software, syllabi, cases, handouts, assignments, etc., can all be easily saved as HTML files and posted to the Web for easy access by students. Even presentation slides (e.g., Powerpoint) can be posted to the Web for student access.
Beyond saving a few trees, this also has the added benefit of allowing the instructor to easily communicate with students between class meetings, which may be as much as a week apart. Updates, corrections and general news can easily be distributed. For instance, the instructor might identify an article that would be beneficial for the students to read before the next class session. A quick posting to the Web page and students can be notified of the addition.
Dissemination of Pedagogy
Beyond its use in an instructor’s own course, the Web also provides an excellent vehicle for facilitating the sharing of ideas between faculty and different institutions. Much of this is already happening with the numerous listservers that have sprung up in accounting. For instance, the ANet project that originated out of Southern Cross University (Australia) and is mirrored at the Rutgers Accounting site, provides discussion groups in virtually every area of accounting. Similar lists exist for other groups including many practice focused lists (e.g., New England Chapter of ISACA). These lists provide a quick way to pick up on the hot topics facing practice or on how other faculty are approaching complex pedagogical issues. Admittedly, you generally also have to cipher through a lot of postings that are of little personal interest.
Perhaps of even greater importance, the Web provides an opportunity to disseminate knowledge into developing countries that often have limited access to current versions of textbooks, pedagogical approaches, contemporary research and a network of colleagues to discuss issues. While in many cases they are still without access to the Web, the situation is changing rapidly. The Web is an excellent access to materials our colleagues around the world otherwise might be unable to access.
Advantages and Disadvantages
There are a number of advantages to choosing the Web for technology integration into audit curricula. First, the use of Web browsers is extremely easy to pick up personally and to teach students. Typically, we spend at most one to two hours in actual classroom training and practice. Second, students tend to enjoy the Web more than many other technologies and as a result it is generally a little easier to motivate them to jump in and use it. Finally, the Web is also a good tool for students to learn to use in presentations. As many of us have experienced, presenting with technology can be challenging and practice can make future experiences much less stressful.
There are potential pitfalls of course. When using the Web in class it is not unusual for it to slow to a crawl. This can make it very difficult when you want to quickly demonstrate something on the Web. Our experience has also led to several occurrences of Web pages being changed overnight and when an instructor or her students begin to demonstrate something on the Web, they will find that today’s page is not the same as the one from yesterday that they wanted to demonstrate. Finally, in searching the Web, for-fee providers are oftentimes encountered. In these cases, the user often does not know exactly what they will get before they pay their money. Several of our students have made decisions to pay for something only to find there was no value-added provided. For instance, in one case the students paid two dollars to access corporate financial information only to find exactly the same information was available free in the SEC’s Edgar database. All of these can, of course, be turned into valuable learning experiences.
Closing Thoughts
On an overall basis, the Web holds tremendous potential for facilitating the pedagogical objectives of audit courses. In many cases, it is a win situation on all dimensions as faculty chores are made easier, the educational experience is enriched and student learning is enhanced. However, as the cliché goes—nothing ventured, nothing gained. If you have questions or comments, venture out to see us at http: //keynes.bryant.edu/~ssutton/ or email us at sroohani@research1.bryant.edu.