Bringing the “Real, Global World” into the Classroom

We describe an innovative course whose purpose is to expose business students who are not accounting majors to the importance of accounting in the corporate world. We achieve this purpose by devoting most of the class time to speakers who work in the “real, global world,” such as auditors, corporate executives, and business journalists. Students do not prepare journal entries or financial statements. Rather, they listen to presentations by a variety of individuals, ask them questions, write reflections of each presentation, and do a term project focusing on a real corporation's accounting issues. The course structure has been successful at helping students gain an appreciation of the importance of accounting in the business world they soon will be entering. The course also helps students to develop critical skills, including attentive listening, asking questions (as opposed to only answering them), reflective ability, analytical ability, and writing skills. Student feedback has been a critical component to the continuous improvement in the course.