Advances in Accounting Education: Teaching and Curriculum Innovations: Volume 26

This study empirically investigates whether graduate degrees (MBA, MSA and MST) earned by candidates affect their performance on the CPA exam. By examining more than half million first-time exam sittings taken during the period 2005–2013, the authors find that candidates with a graduate degree performed better on each section of the CPA exam than those who only have an undergraduate degree. In addition, the authors find that the type of graduate degree also has an effect on the CPA exam performance. While candidates with an MBA degree generally performed better on the BEC section than those with an MSA or MST degree, those with an MSA degree performed best on the AUD and FAR sections; and those with an MST degree exceled on the REG section. This study contributes to the existing literature on the determinants of CPA exam success. In addition, this investigation provides valuable insights to candidates, academics and regulators. The findings of this chapter should be useful for academic administrators as they revise their accounting curricula to prepare for the new CPA licensure model. Furthermore, the results of this study should benefit accounting regulators in determining education requirements for future CPAs.

The authors examined the association between accountancy board composition in the continental United States and indicators of the supply of new accounting graduates. In particular, the authors studied the association between the number of CPAs as well as the number of college educators that serve on State Accountancy Boards (SAB) and two key indicators of the future supply of future accounting professionals – number of CPA exam takers and number of accounting graduates from AACSB-accredited accounting programs. The descriptive statistics by the authors show 30% of jurisdictions have at least one accounting PhD who serves on the board, and on average 75.6% of board members are CPAs. The authors found that both the number of CPAs and the number of accounting educators on SABs are positively associated with the number of CPA exam takers as well as the number of accounting graduates from AACSB accounting programs. This suggests that accountancy board composition might be an important factor in influencing the supply of future accounting professionals. This research suggests that more strategic focus on the composition of accountancy boards is one approach that might be used to increase the supply of future accounting professionals. This observation is important as the supply of accounting graduates has declined recently and the states, NASBA, the AICPA, accounting programs and firms are keenly interested in increasing the supply of new accounting professionals in the United States.

This study examines the factors that influence a private institution student’s plan to sit for the CPA exam soon after the undergraduate program versus after a master’s program or never. The author examines the CPA exam factors: exam, cost, support, and career, noted by Coe (2016), and extend CPA exam literature through the examination of exam fees and review course material costs, rather than the composite CPA exam cost. From a survey of 63 accounting seniors, the author finds having 150 credit hours does not increase the likelihood of a plan to sit for the CPA exam soon after the undergraduate program. This result is different from studies that showed 150 credit hours is a barrier to taking the CPA exam. Consistent with studies that used the composite CPA exam cost, the author finds that perception of review course material as expensive negatively affects the likelihood of sitting for the CPA exam soon after the undergraduate program. The perception of exam fees as expensive positively affects the likelihood of sitting for the CPA exam soon after the undergraduate program. This result differs from studies that used the composite CPA exam cost.

This study investigates a perceived student performance disparity between traditional synchronous and web-based asynchronous course delivery. Synchronous classes meet face-to-face or online with scheduled meeting times and the ability to directly monitor class attendance and participation. Asynchronous classes are 100% online, requiring no face-to-face or online live sessions. This study identifies student attributes associated with performance differences in the two delivery modes. The authors examine data from over 15,000 students who took introductory financial and managerial accounting classes at a large state university. The authors analyze student demographic and class performance data. Controlling for instructor and year effects, the authors find a statistically significant lower DFW rate (better performance) in the synchronous introductory accounting classes compared to the asynchronous ones. Using these findings, the authors revised scheduling and advising protocols to improve student success likelihood in the asynchronous sections. This study provides two insights applicable to many accounting departments. First, the results suggest that empirically exploring student performance implications may be warranted as the number of web-based asynchronous class offerings grow. Additionally, the study provides an example of working within the limitations of existing registration policies and systems to translate the result of the analysis into improved advising and scheduling approaches.

The typical accounting curriculum focuses on technical knowledge, which makes it challenging to devote time toward developing other important skills, such as examining how accounting rules may impact a company’s financial statements. Recently, the accounting rules for lease transactions changed significantly, and this chapter provides an overview of an assignment used in an intermediate accounting course to engage students in a real-world application. Students had the opportunity to apply accounting rules to a publicly traded company, measure the significance of changes to generally accepted accounting principles, read financial disclosures, reinforce concepts of present value and ratio analysis, and engage in critical thinking. This type of assignment does not have to be limited to leases, and instructors could discuss any accounting rule by following a similar model, whether the rule itself is current or proposed. This would offer students context beyond textbook learning.

This chapter presents an approach to teaching bond liabilities and investments in the typical undergraduate Intermediate Accounting II course, using the statement of cash flows, including both indirect and direct approaches. From the perspectives of the issuer and holder, emphasis is placed on journal entries reflecting interest accruals, amortization of discounts and premiums, and early extinguishment of such financial instruments, as well as the treatments of such entries in the statement of cash flows. Students are expected to explain the reasons underlying such treatments. The results of this innovation suggest that students enhance their understanding of accounting for bonds and the statement of cash flows by application of this approach.

This chapter describes how to leverage the Ignatian pedagogy paradigm (IPP) in accounting education to facilitate an effective learning experience to integrate current accounting practice, accounting professionals, and the academic curriculum. Prior research and various entities focusing on accounting education, such as The Pathways Commission (TPC) and the AACSB International, have identified the need for more experiential learning in accounting and a better link between academia and practice. The IPP portrays the Jesuit teaching values that have existed over 450 years, however its teachings are profoundly universal and not tied to any specific faith. The authors explain how the IPP enhances the interactive professional learning experience for students by describing a case taught in our Intermediate Accounting courses. The generalizable approach described in this chapter will hopefully help those involved in accounting programs to facilitate critically important professional learning experiences for their students.

The authors use experiential learning theories to examine college students’ acquisition of tax knowledge and tax literacy. Tax knowledge is important because taxation affects virtually all adults, college students are often employed and subject to individual taxation, and understanding taxation and tax planning has both current and future implications for individuals’ financial well-being. Further, taxation is a key policy issue, and college student voters have the potential to impact tax policy choices. The results of this study show that real-world experiences improve college students’ understanding of tax concepts; this relationship holds for overall understanding and for understanding both current tax issues and tax issues that will have an impact in the future. The authors predict and find that a student’s socioeconomic status is positively related to understanding of tax concepts. The authors also find that the level of understanding of tax concepts is still limited; many students do not have a strong knowledge of tax concepts. The relatively low levels of understanding may have implications for structuring college curricula to improve tax literacy.

Individuals and corporations give generously to nonprofit organizations. However, supporters are naturally concerned about the financial strength and operational efficiency of an organization. Using publicly available nonprofit databases and websites, this case exposes students to a real-world scenario in which students analyze a 501(c)(3) organization of their choosing using GuideStar data and select Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance criteria in five areas: governance and oversight, effectiveness, finances, fundraising and information materials, other financial and non-financial performance measures. The overall learning objective of this case is to enhance students’ understanding of a nonprofit’s financial and non-financial performance through research and analytical procedures. This case helps to fill a void by familiarizing students not only with standard nonprofit financial performance metrics, but also important non-financial areas related to governance, mission-driven goals, and organizational transparency. It also affords students the opportunity to develop a more thorough understanding of key accounting and non-accounting issues associated with nonprofits, which are not always explicitly or implicitly covered in textbooks.

Many specialized areas exist in the world of accounting education. One of these is the tax case. Considering published cases over the last quarter century, this review summarizes the parameters of this academic niche. The review discusses the specific tax topics that have been touched upon by case authors. The structure of these materials, most of which are common to all accounting cases, is also reviewed in a variety of ways. In addition, the current useability and educational contributions of tax cases is explored against the background of pedagogy in taxation. This supports ideas about areas of need and the broader future of writing cases in this domain. As a reflection on the literature as a whole, this review will not necessarily help faculty select cases nor is it intended to be an endorsement of any particular publication.

The purpose of this chapter is to serve as a resource for accounting faculty seeking tax-related cases to include in their courses. This annotated bibliography provides a table and discussion of 50 educational tax cases published in six major accounting journals from 2003 to 2021. Cases are classified and discussed by recommended course placement. In addition, the authors make observations about trends in case content and format. This chapter complements the Fogarty (2022) review and commentary on tax cases published in this volume.

In recent years professional accountancy bodies (e.g., CPA), accreditation institutions (e.g., AACSB) and employers have steadily raised, and continue to raise expectations regarding the need for accounting graduates to demonstrate skills in data analytics. One of the obstacles accounting instructors face in seeking to implement data analytics, however, is that they need access to ample teaching materials. Unfortunately, there are few such resources available for advanced programming languages such as R. While skills in commonly used applications such as Excel are no doubt needed, employers often take these for granted and incremental value is only added if graduates can demonstrate knowledge in using more advanced data analytics tools for decision-making such as coding in programming languages. This, together with the current dearth of resources available to accounting instructors to teach advanced programming languages is what drives motivation for this chapter. Specifically, we develop an intuitive, two-dimensional framework for incorporating R (a widely used open-source analytics tool with a powerful embedded programming language) into the accounting curriculum. Our model uses complexity as an integrating theme. We incorporate complexity into this framework at the dataset level (simple and complex datasets) and at the analytics task level (simple and complex tasks). We demonstrate two-dimensional framework by drawing on authentic simple and complex datasets as well as simple and complex tasks that could readily be incorporated into the accounting curriculum and ultimately add value to businesses. R script programming code are provided for all our illustrations.

Rapidly evolving fintech and decentralized finance environments present an opportunity to reconsider how best to teach financial reporting, internal controls, auditing, taxation, and accounting information systems. Industrial firms have found considerable success in growing the customer value/cost ratio by applying “design thinking” (DT) to product and service innovation. DT may serve a similar, value-enhancing role in curriculum development and accounting pedagogy. The authors demonstrate the application of DT to the accounting curriculum using non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as an illustration. This chapter defines NFTs and DT, proposes a DT-based curriculum development model, and offers specific recommendations for teaching about NFTs in the classroom.

Based on his experience during the past two decades of research, teaching, and administration in a department composed of Accounting and Information Systems, the author makes several observations as well as some predictions for the next two decades based on trends that suggest accounting students need strong technology and analytics skills, as well as understand how new forms of trust mechanisms can impact their work. Predictions, in the absence of having a crystal ball, is a difficult task and can merely rely on technological trends and developments. Some trends can have a high likelihood of finding traction and have transformational power to fundamentally change the nature of work for accounting and auditors responsible for information assurance even beyond financial information, to other types of real-time streaming information. The potential transformation of the accounting profession has implications for teaching and curriculum development that can prepare students for new work paradigms.