Coping with COVID: pivoting perspectives from teaching a third-year undergraduate financial accounting course
ISSN: 1030-9616
Article publication date: 29 March 2021
Issue publication date: 23 August 2021
Abstract
Purpose
Coronavirus (COVID-19) has caused upheaval in university teaching practices. This paper aims to document how the teaching team on a large third-year undergraduate financial accounting course in an Australian university coped with the impact of the virus. Changes in teaching practices when classes shifted from face-to-face to online instruction during the COVID-19 crisis are described and examined using the crisis management process framework of Pearson and Clair (1998). Teaching team members were asked to write brief reflections on their experiences teaching the course during the period from February to July 2020. These were then thematically analysed and included as outcomes within the Pearson and Clair (1998) framework.
Design/methodology/approach
Description of COVID-19 induced changes to teaching a large undergraduate financial accounting course at an Australian university.
Findings
Six outcomes emerged: learning new technology; collegiality; the course review; the online delivery experience; redesigning assessments and; time investment; conjectures are offered about the survival of some of the changes made during the year.
Research limitations/implications
The research only covers one teaching team’s experience but that is the purpose of the special issue.
Practical implications
Lessons for the future are explored.
Social implications
The implications of online teaching are explored.
Originality/value
The paper provides a historical record of how the teaching team on a large undergraduate financial accounting course coped with an unexpected, major event that necessitated rapid and radical changes to teaching methods.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank two anonymous reviewers and Victoria Clout (the editor) for helpful suggestions that have significantly improved this paper. They are also grateful for helpful comments and suggestions from Mandy Cheng, and the conference participants at the 2020 ARJ Pivot in COVID-19 Special Issue Symposium.
Citation
Morris, R.D., Dai, L., De Groote, S., Holmes, E., Lau, L., Li, C.K. and Nguyen, P. (2021), "Coping with COVID: pivoting perspectives from teaching a third-year undergraduate financial accounting course", Accounting Research Journal, Vol. 34 No. 3, pp. 279-289. https://doi.org/10.1108/ARJ-09-2020-0295
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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