Columbia Business School & Unext.com

Creation of the UNext.com/Columbia

Financial Accounting Course

Presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Accounting Association - Saturday, August 12, 2000

by Michael Kirschenheiter, Columbia Business School and Steve Orpurt, Unext.com

Background

The Players UNext.com and

the Consortium

- Columbia

and...

The Project

What - Create an introductory financial accounting course for the web

Who - me & UNext development team

Timing - July 1999 versus today.

Rewards and Challenges

Rewards: to facultyto CBS

Challenge:transfer Columbia expertisemeld knowledge and skills exploit the synergies

Understanding the Challenge

Similarities of web and CBS coursesPractical approach/making managersCases, notes, other tools

Differences between web and CBSControl: non-linearity, motivationContact: stud/instruc, stud/stud, stud/PCEvaluation & assessment

Meeting the Challenge

Leveraging Columbia’s StrengthsRe-engineer the materialEnhance the tools

Tapping Unext.com expertiseProblem Based Learning (PBL)Instruction/contact/testingWeb/multimedia technology

Our Answer to the Challenge

Real World Project (the PBL approach):End of course firstTasks/Strategies = tractable projects

Collaboration/Instruction Coverage same but re-engineeredAnimation/Interactive Items & videosContact based on Cardean software

Structure of the Product

Four Parts:Introductory materialsProject Scenario and StrategiesProject reference materialsResources Modules

Detailed walk- through to come

Unext/Columbia Advantage

Columbia course, re-engineered

PBL approach

Control over contact

Controlling the Quality

Generating the productRe-engineering??? Testing.. Alpha, beta, and more

Going forward...Commercial trialColumbia’s review role

Results on Quality Control

Results on testingweb organizationlecture clarity

Exit interviewshigh interestnovice/experienced

Future Challenge for Quality

InstructionFinding and motivating instructorsTraining and assessing

AssessmentGrading and rubrics Insuring learning

Hindsight: Critical Factors

Recognize need for re-engineeringDifferent length and focus

Appreciate differing viewpointsAcademic background was valuable

Main operating problemsContact and Motivation

Looking to the Future

Current and future courses Current UNext.com coursesNew courses and hybrids

Bringing the success back homeRegular MBA, EMBA & exec educationCrossing disciplinesPersonal return

Finally… A Look at a Course

This look will emphasize How the PBL approach worksHow decisions on content and design were

made and implementedSome of the bells and whistles