Rogue Trader?: using a movie to teach a large auditing class

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibility of using a movie to teach auditing students about internal controls. Design/methodology/approach – A ten-point questionnaire and Chi-square test are used to explore self-perceived cognizance of control awareness, design, testing, and application. Findings – A movie dealing with practical internal control issues may be a valuable part of audit instruction techniques. Research limitations/implications – The research is exploratory and non-longitudinal. No effort is made to quantify changes in assessment or post academic work performance. Practical implications – Given the increased relevance of a sound system of internal controls, audit and accounting educators have a practical and moral duty to provide sound instruction on internal control design, testing and application. Using a movie to complement traditional lectures may be useful in this regard. Originality/value – Noting the growing relevance of a sound system of internal controls for organizations, the research explores a means of making lectures on internal controls “come alive” by introducing practical considerations into the audit classroom.