Motivating students through applied activity
I teach accounting, which consists not only of doing journal entries and preparing financial statements, but also of performing computations. For all of these purposes, doing work in Excel clarifies and facilitates the learning process and prepares the student for the way accounting is done in the real world.
The text books I use typically include about four exercises or problems that are also available in Excel form. In addition to other necessary problems, I usually assign all of these Excel-based tasks.
Furthermore, in addition to using lecture to initially survey and conceptually illuminate a chapter, I allocate time for in-class exerces anf problem solving. My students often tell me that they learn better by doing and practicing in class.
For some accounting topics for which Excel-based alternatives may not be provided that are nevertheless complex and essentially require the use of worksheets to solve problems, I have created Excel-based templates for students to do such homework problems. Good examples are inventory valuation methods, such as the gross profit method and the retail inventory method, as well as general inventory calculations.
Through the use of text-provided templates and some of my own, I endeavor to give my students illuminating and usedful hands-on training and practice to strengthen and reinforce their learning and comprehension of difficult accounting concepts and techniques.
How do other instructors (perhaps apart from teacher of IT) use electronic media to enhance their educational purposes?
Hi Travis,
Super idea! It is a technological-driven world, and Generation Y thrives off of technology. Every opportunity I get I like to incorporate technology into my lesson.
Patricia Scales
I teach a student success course and use as many electronic resources as possible. I introduce my students to as many resources that I believe will help them in their schooling and job search after school. We use dropbox.com, LinkedIn, Monster, CareerBuilder, CraigsList, and plenty of others.
One that I really enjoy is TED.com, where there is a cache of videos of talks given by people who are trying to change the world in their respective fields. The videos are very interesting and I constantly have students returning to tell me the new videos they have been watching.
I also introduce them to Youtube learning and all of the amazing tutorials available there.
Hi Alice,
Any course that is computer related has a level of excitemet. Billing and coding is really becoming more electronic, and students love it.
Patricia Scales
I teach medical billing and coding. As this field is moving toward more computer based applications, I find myself using the computers and our software to let them apply what they are learning and become exposed to what is waiting for them after school.
