THE ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS COURSE: BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN THE CLASSROOM AND THE REAL-WORLD Development In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 18, 1991 152 THE ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS COURSE: BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN THE CLASSROOM AND THE REAL-WORLD Benny R. Zachry, Midwestern State University Anna R. Trexler, Southern Arkansas University The Accounting Information Systems (AIS) course contained in the accounting curriculum of many universities is a course that for many institutions still lacks definition and standardization: accounting academicians do not agree on which subjects should be taught in the AIS course. Specifically this paper describes an experimental class project resulting in a bridge being built between the accounting classroom and the real world. THE ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS COURSE Three methods have been suggested for teaching the AIS course: 1. class lectures as the main teaching tool, 2. computer applications as a second teaching tool, and 3. a case study as a supplementary teaching tool. These three methods were used to build an educational model with three overlapping component parts. The third component of the course was a classroom/business partnership where students worked in an actual business environment to study and evaluate the firm’s accounting system. The graduate or undergraduate AIS course can be more effective if some attempt is made to relate textbook system theories with real-world applications. BRIDGING THE GAP Teams of three students were paired with a host business for the purpose of studying, evaluating, and recommending possible changes in each business’s accounting system. A list of possible businesses was obtained from the local Small Business Development Center (SBDC), an organization, which provides counseling and assistance for many different types of small businesses. The SBDC had previously coordinated classroom/business partnerships in the academic areas of management and marketing but not accounting. In the first semester of the program, an AIS class of thirty-three students was divided into eleven groups with three students per group. Thus, eleven small business clients were given assistance with their accounting systems. Each client was chosen by the director of the SBDC based on the Center’s previous experience with the client as well as an expressed interest by the client in participating in the inaugural program. These eleven businesses ranged from relatively new businesses with no formal accounting systems, to established businesses that desired help in specific systems areas. Systems in place ranged from totally manual systems to computerized accounting systems. Organization of student teams Students were assigned to the teams based on prior work or business experience. Students with potential conflicts of interest with a given client were placed elsewhere. Each student team was charged with: obtaining an understanding of an existing accounting system in a “real- world” business, evaluating that existing system in regard to the informational needs of the client, and making recommendations for updating the client’s system to achieve the desired informational results. Since this project had to be completed in less than a semester, the teams were not required to implement new systems. The initial contact with the client At the first meeting with the client, each team was given a tour of the client’s office or facility and was introduced to key client personnel with whom the team members would be working. Subsequent to this initial visit, each individual team was responsible for making contact with the client and setting up times for visits convenient to all parties. After each team had obtained an understanding of its client’s existing accounting system and had evaluated it for potential problems, a “contract” was drawn up between the client and the team outlining the areas that would be investigated. Finding and recommending solutions Once the solution(s) to the problem or problems were found, each team concluded the project by doing four things: (1) Writing a report containing a history of the business, description of the accounting system, problems with the system, and recommended solutions to the problem or problems; (2) providing the client and the AIS professor with a copy of this report; (3) making an oral presentation to the client regarding findings and recommendations for improvement in the system; and (4) making an oral presentation to the entire class regarding the experience. Each team’s grade was based on the quality of the written report and oral presentations, as well as on input received from each client by the AIS professor. Additionally, each team member was asked to privately evaluate other team members in his or her group; therefore, grades reflected unbalanced workloads by individual members of a team. CONCLUSION Through the college/corporate partnership used in this AIS project, students were provided a solid base for learning how to apply textbook knowledge to a real-world accounting system by evaluating alternative problem solutions so that a more effective accounting system could be recommended to the client. Seldom do textbook cases provide the realism offered by working with real businesses. In this project, students first learned from the textbook and then applied this knowledge in the business arena, thus going from concrete to abstract or from learning basic knowledge to applying it on a real-time basis. By establishing college/corporate partnerships students were allowed to obtain an insight into the real world that they could not obtain in the classroom alone. Likewise, the participating businesses profited from these partnerships due to enhancements in their accounting systems that were either recommended or implemented by the student teams. Table of Contents Volume 18, 1991 Personality Types and Total Enterprise Simulation Performance Using DIS 'n DAT as a Decision Support System for a Marketing Simulation Game Theoretical Derivation of a Market Demand Function for Business Simulators The Ethnographic Case Study: An Experiential Approach to Teaching Retail Management Electronic Bulletin Board Systems (BBS): Support Software for Computer Simulations The New Budget Game Negame: A Cross-Cultural Role-Play to Introduce Students to the Familiarization Stage of Negotiations Modeling Short-Run Cost and Production Functions Using Sheppard's Lemma in Computerized Business Simulations Increasing Simulation Realism through the Modeling of Step Costs Predicting Simulation Performance: Differences Between Groups and Individuals A Facility Location Case to Stimulate Classroom Interaction Educational Effectiveness of Business Simulation Gaming: A Comparative Study of Students and Practitioner Perspective Ethical Dilemmas in Experiential Learning: Issues and Strategies A Critical Review and Assessment of ABSEL's Award-Winning Procedures and Protocols Political Risk: A Simulation for Business Practitioners Upside Down: A Cross-Cultural Game in Experiential Learning Gorby's Dilemma: From Communism to Free Enterprise in Two Hours Strategic Market: Planning with the COMPLETE Product Portfolio Analysis Package: A Marketing Decision Support System Career Concepts and Total Enterprise Simulation Performance Experiential Learning in Human Resources: A Performance Appraisal Application Managerial Motivation and Realism Among MBA Student as Viewed through The Looking Glass, Inc. Simulation An Experiential Approach to Teaching Data Analysis Using MYSTAT: Rationale, Procedures and Results Practicing What Was Preached: A Sequential Learning Model put to the Test Student Attitudes about Policy Course Simulations An Investigation of the Relationship Between Simulation Play, Performance Level and Recency of Play on Exam Scores The Effect of Leadership and Cognitive Processing Styles upon Peer Performance Evaluation: Implication for the Utilization of Simulations in Business Pedagogy On the Transfer of Market Oriented Business Games to Socialist Cultures An Application of Financial Analysis of the Business Firm in a Simulated Competitive Environment Collective Bargaining Simulation: An Exercise based on a Familiar Theme Making Business Policy a Strategic Management Experience A Student Exercise for Intergrating the Concepts of Power and Motivation The Boundaries Extended: An Experiment Comparing Dialectical Inquiry, Devil's Advocacy and Consensus Using the Executive Game Using a Simulation Package to Develop a Simulation Exercise in Cost Accounting Success Factors in Experiential Training for Creative Problem-Solving Teams An Experiential Approach for teaching Quality management Critical Success Ratios: A Comparison of Two Business Simulations in a Multi-Year Environment Stocklogs: A Classroom Exercise for Teaching the Logistical Relationship of Location and Inventory The Organizational Leadership Program Simulating Business Decision-Making: Using Statistical Cases for Classroom Exercises Scripting for the Classroom Upgrading the Business Strategy and Policy Game Developing Student Team-Building and Leadership Skills Using Computer-Aided Experiential learning Strategies Organizing and Outward Bound Field Trip An Architecture for Extensible Simulation Games Performance in the Capstone Business Course: What is the effect of Pedagogy, Learning Styles, and Student Motivation? Operational Strategy with Participant-Modifiable Parameters An Example of a Personal Selling Case Transformed into a Role Play Scenario Instructional Software: It's Evolution and Current State of the Art in the Business Curriculum Ascertaining Performance Variables for use in Determining Student's Grades in Courses Employing a Business Simulation Designing Management Seminars Using Business Simulations The Accounting Information Systems Course: Bridging the Gap between the Classroom and the Real World The Good Cooks Guide to Training Excellence: Working with Passion A Demonstration on Multiple Data Collection Methods: Seeing Strategic Issues Through the Looking Glass Simulation Systems Analysis and Design: Why Undergraduate Education gets a Failing Grade Accommodating Organizational Culture: An Evaluation of Management Development Delivery Modes in Varying Organizational Cultures Modeling Total Quality into Business Simulations The Political Futures Game Meeting Meeting Objectives