Many college faculty members are frustrated with today’s students whom they perceive are under motivated and ill prepared to perform in expected ways in a collegiate environment (Sacks, 1996). Faculty are challenged to deal with shortened attention spans and visual/video orientations. Presenting lectures to students using Power Point may help specifically address the visual learning style of the GenXers. Power Point has other advantages of helping instructors to be highly organized, distribution of lecture outlines helps students to focus on lecture content rather than struggling to copy the material, while assuring that all relevant information makes it into the student notes (Simindinger, 1998). Brightman’s (1997) studies have shown that material presented in this fashion more closely fits Briggs-Myers personality profiles of the majority of undergraduates and therefore facilitates their mastery of the material.

The Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC) has called for sweeping changes in the content and delivery of undergraduate accounting courses. The AECC specifically requested that the introductory accounting courses be changed so that student involvement be promoted by methods such as cases, simulations and group projects (AECC, 1992). Overall the AECC urges a greater emphasis on activities that will provide the skills, knowledge, and professional orientation necessary for life-long learning. Students should be active participants in the learning process and should develop the ability to identify and solve problems. Working in groups facilitates the development of necessary communication and interpersonal skills and increases student involvement in the learning process (AECC, 1990). Finding time in the curriculum for an active learning environment can be difficult since group work tends to be time consuming. Carefully planned Power Point presentations can help to streamline lectures and make room for group classroom learning activities.

Principles of accounting is traditionally taught in a lecture format with the professor presenting concepts, definitions and working problems in front of class. The students record this information in their notes. Homework is assigned, but generally not collected or graded. On average, one chapter per week is covered by three hours of lecture. Exams are given upon completion of three or four chapters. Three sections of the second accounting course, Principles of Managerial Accounting were taught following the traditional format, with an exam every three chapters. For the exams, students were allowed to bring in a "cheat sheet" with any notes they wished on one side of a sheet of typing paper (this is an institutional abnormality that is not generally observed in most institutions).

The course was completely redesigned. The professor, text book, and homework assignments remained the same. The lectures were all converted to Power Point, students worked in class group projects for a grade, and tests were given at the conclusion of each chapter. The test questions were drawn from the same computerized test bank for both sets of students (pre-test and post-test) and contained a high degree of overlap.

The Power Point presentations were part of the instructor’s package furnished by John Wiley for use with Accounting Principles by Weygandt, Keiso, and Kell (1996). The slides utilized the same exhibits and examples that were used in the text itself and were very extensive, with up to 50 slides per chapter. The exceptional quality of the slides allowed the lecture to cover the material in approximately half of the time of a traditional lecture. This freed up time for the use of group assignments.

Students self-selected groups of 3 or 4. Group size has been found to be an important factor in effective work groups or teams. Gagne and Briggs (1979) suggested limiting group size to a range of three to eight members in order to facilitate discussion and interactive learning. Natasi and Clements (1991) experience most positive results in groups no larger than 5 because the opportunity to participate is greater. Shirking or social loafing is also limited in smaller groups (Harkins & Jackson, 1985; Harkins, Latane & Williams, 1980; Harkins & Petty, 1982). Group performance was also monitored during the activity. In two cases, groups were reassigned to heighten all student participation in group activities. The first night of class, upon the conclusion of the first group exercise, group members were encouraged to exchange phone numbers. This suggestion was generally accompanied by "good idea" so that they could contact each other and continue working together when solving homework over the weekend. When a group turned in their solution(s), each member was given a copy of the correct solution so that they could have immediate feedback concerning the accuracy of their efforts.

The one chapter tests, like traditional tests, consisted of objective questions and problems. The one chapter tests were written to take 35 minutes or less. Approximately one third of the exam content was objective questions, with the balance consisting of one or two problems. The exact exam content varied with the chapter being tested. Papers were graded as received. Particularly for the first few chapters, exams were returned the same night of class to help align student efforts with instructor expectations. The control group used cheat sheets. The treatment group was not allowed any examination aids with the exception of a calculator.

The control group consisted of three sections of students with a final enrollment of 79 students. Student withdrawals during the course of the semester have been omitted from these statistics. The treatment group consisted of two sections and a final enrollment of 27 students. The low enrollment was primarily the result of the "no cheat sheet" policy. Many students changed to other sections during drop-add week. No such student migration has been observed in subsequent semesters. Total sample size is 106 student final grades expressed in a percentage of points earned over points possible on all test scores.

Table 1 summarizes the descriptive statistics for this experiment. Under the traditional method (Control) the average student grade was seventy-five percent with two-thirds of the student grades falling within 12 points of the mean. The overall grade range was 56 points starting at a low of 39 points and going to a high of 95 points. The innovative method (Treatment) group’s average student grade was eighty-one percent with two-thirds of the student grades falling withing 9.5 points of the mean. The overall grade range was 34 points from a low of 64 points to a high of 98 points. The treatment group’s overall grade distribution was more compact than under the control method. The average exam grade under the new method was five points higher than the traditional method.

A one-way ANOVA was run to test whether the difference in means was statistically significant. Table 2 reports the results of this test.

The five point increase in overall student test sores differed from the traditional students’ test scores at the .10 level.

Preliminary results of student satisfaction are based upon student focus groups and student course evaluation comments. Students did not see any advantage to the power point presentation. However, students consistently stated that they liked the frequent testing. Most felt that the group projects were extremely beneficial to their mastery of the subject. In course evaluations, 3 students said that they wanted to see problems worked in class (problems were part of every power point demonstration). This may indicate that the Power Point lectures result in even more passive student activity than in a traditional lecture format.

Weekly (every chapter) testing has the advantage of quick feedback to students (typically freshmen) and helps them modify behavior early in a term in order to succeed in the class. Accounting education is cumulative. Student mastery of chapter 1 facilitates learning chapter 2 material, etc. The disadvantages of frequent testing are primarily administrative. Students can add the course on Friday of the first week of classes and attend their first class to discover that a test has been scheduled. Potential method adopters need to consider solutions appropriate to their specific institutions. In addition, working students who have to miss several classes (and exams) because of work require special accommodations.

Power Point Lectures with slide copies/lecture notes distributed to students have the advantage of highly organizing the lecture, helping address the attention span problem of GenXers, and quicker delivery of course material. A major potential disadvantage of this teaching format is the potential for the material to come out of the notes of the professor and into the notes of the student without going through the minds of either. The students who wanted to see problems worked in class were not aware that problems were worked in class as part of the power point presentation.

Students assigned to in-class groups to work a comprehensive problem for each chapter had the expected advantages of an active form of student learning which gets students to "work through" problem in class, as compared to passively watching classroom presentation. Such students develop problem solving strategies learn that they can successfully solve the chapter’s problems and have less anxiety about attempting the out of class homework assignments. Some unexpected advantages included creation of a forum where students can practice oral communication skills on a business topic. In class group work facilitates building student friendships and out-of-class study groups and secondarily strengthens student ties to the institution and possibly enhances student retention. While monitoring group discussions, individual student deficiencies were diagnosed and intervention was possible. Some students dislike group work and don’t perceive that they are benefitting from the activity.

Not only were student test scores significantly higher under the new method, these higher scores occurred without the use of a cheat sheet, which students were allowed to use in the control group. Overall it appears that student learning was enhanced under the new method, not only in terms of course content, but also in terms of group problem solving skills and oral communication.

Simendinger, Earl (1998), "Crafting the Application of Technology," AABSS Perspectives Journal [Online], Available: http://www.eckerd.edu/academics/bes/aabss/perspectives-journal/perspectjou98.htm [1999 March 1]

Woodlock, Peter (1998), Moving Toward More Active Learning Within the Accounting Classroom, Accounting Instructor’s Report, 21, 3-4.