A Proposal for a Blended Teaching Method in Financial Accounting to Engage Students

• In Event: Reception with Effective Learning Strategies Displays
  In Poster Session: Poster 1

Abstract

Educators are frequently searching for the best teaching method for the Financial Accounting course in higher education. This first accounting course is a critical component in the business schools’ curricula for the 21st century student. The important focus of this course is to prepare accounting majors for higher-level accounting courses, while also providing the necessary foundation for other business and non-business majors. The attempt by educators to make this course interesting, challenging, and useful for this diverse group of student majors creates difficulty for accounting educators today. The primary design for this course has been the face-to-face method. In this teaching method, research indicates increasing failure rates and boredom on the part of the students. As a result, the online environment has evolved to meet the demands of these students. The online method has satisfied students’ needs for technology and flexibility through synchronous and asynchronous communication. However, social benefits are lacking in online courses. Merging the face-to-face and online teaching methods assist students with the social benefits from the face-to-face classroom with the technology and flexibility from the online teaching component. The blended teaching method is the result of this integration of the face-to-face and online environments. The proposal for a blended teaching method in a first accounting course involves redesigning and improving the face-to-face and online environments. There are many different steps that can be taken in the proposal and creation of a blended teaching method in financial accounting. This poster presentation reviews some of the many ways involved in the proposal of a blended teaching method. The desired outcome is to search and discover ways to reach the many different types of learners by engaging, challenging, and capturing the attention of this diverse group of students in the first accounting course.

Author

• Gregory John Krivacek, ROBERT MORRIS UNIVERSITY