LEARNING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES & STRATEGY

This unit is structured as a participation subject as part of the PACE program. It integrates the materials that are covered in first and second year accounting and business law units, applying this material to an environment where accounting graduates become a professional in an environment that is contemporary, global and technologically driven. 

The objectives of the unit are to consolidate and investigate the factors and contextual issues that influence the competitive business environment for an accountant.  It addresses the role of an accounting professional in the application of governance structures, accountability regimes, professional development, skill enhancements, and a continuous awareness of self-positioning and self-renewal in terms of professional and personal competency. The unit is not only reflective and integrative, but also future-focused, offering opportunities for ‘real world’ preparatory experience in the accounting profession. The class is conducted through workshops and discussions where students learn to develop personal and professional skills in sustaining a professional profile in business and the profession. 

The unit provides opportunities for students to engage with the community through panels from professional accounting bodies, community groups, NGO’s, MQ alumni, public sector and commercial organisations, and others. The unit requires students to interact with the industry partners in order to complete a major research project under the supervision of a faculty member. The project includes topics that are valued by industry partners and are mutually beneficial to both Macquarie University students and industry partners. While the project attempts to bridge the gap between students and the accounting profession, it also provides an opportunity for students to clarify and refine their understanding of the accounting profession through discussion with industry partners and peers. Group work engages students in the challenges of interpersonal communication, task allocation, coordination and control. Cohesive and systematic presentations from a range of industry partners also provide students an opportunity to think critically about the accounting profession. Through these presentations students will gain an insight into organisations and be able to contextualise their graduate capabilities into the main project. By reflecting on industry partners’ presentations students will be able to identify what they have learned about the accounting profession and how they have learned. This will result in a greater sense of ownership which, in return, will help students to develop valuable career and leadership skills, improve their job prospects and make a difference to business and the community for which they work. Further, students are exposed to case studies which present realistic, complex, and contextually rich situations and involve dilemmas, conflicts, and/or problems accountants face in the profession, which will allow students to understand emergent issues for the accounting professionals.

The unit comprises 13 x 3 hour seminars that include lectures, presentations by industry partners, case studies sessions, students’ presentations, discussions and a feedback session. The components of the unit are structured as follows:

·        Introduction/Orientation: One 3 hour seminar to provide students with strong orientation to the University expectations and academic requirements for this PACE unit and addresses pragmatic concerns (group formation, communication and other logistical requirements). The first seminar includes a session on “Skills Audit”. This session uses QUT’s Self Understanding Module along with other skills audit activities that are available. This is embedded in the iLearn for ACCG315 and also includes a workbook that students need to print and fill in as part of the audit. The objective of this session is to make students rate themselves on a variety of key employability skills and also find evidence to support their ratings. (Skills include: Creativity and Innovation, Relationship Building, Problem Solving, Technology, Communication, Teamwork, Planning & Organising, Research).  In order to give this skills audit context within the framework of the course structure, each industry partner will discuss 3 to 5 skills they feel are essential for the accountants to possess. Further, the first seminar also includes a session on “Personality Profiling/Career Matching” tools. Students are required to do a short online personality assessment: http://www.preludecharacteranalysis.com/explore/yourself and are given a personality type. With each personality type they are then given more details about the character traits of this personality type, career options they may be more suited to, their likely behaviour in the workplace.

·         The experience: Students are required to complete a session long “Accounting Profession” project. The project expects that students identify information needs, acquire the necessary information by consulting the information provided by industry participants, interpret the information and use it as the basis for recommendations. In order to complete this project students are required to attend five 3 hour seminars presented by industry partners including: professional accounting bodies; Big4 accounting firms; Commercial, financial and manufacturing firms; NFP; public sector and SMEs. The presentations from industry partners will help students become familiar (from multiple perspectives and viewpoints) with regulatory, cultural, technological and business environment issues that affect accounting and the accounting profession.

In addition to industry partners, Performance Education will conduct two sessions (5 hours ie week 2 and week 7) to: develop students’ critical professional and employability skills; introduce a clear understanding of professional workplace behaviours and expectations; and inculcate essential presentation skills required in the professional business environment. The session on the Australian Professional Workplace will introduce students to the Australian business culture and how it compares to other business environments around the world. This session will also illustrate the usual behavioural expectations and norms that are commonly found in Australian businesses, then focuses on ways to help people feel comfortable and adapt to a new working environment (2 hours), and the session on Presenting with Influence aims to give students the practical understanding of how to prepare and present an effective professional presentation. The session will focus on group and individual applications, identifying public speaking habits and behaviours, the various styles to suit the audience, and how to effectively use delivery tools (3 hours).

·         Assessment tasks: Knowledge and understanding are assessed by a mixture of assignments and presentations. The assessments include weekly individual reflective journals (40%), case studies (20%) and a group project report (40%) with an oral presentation. Oral presentations will take place in four 3 hour seminars judged by a panel comprising industry partners and academics.

·         Final Wrap-up/Debrief: One 3 hour seminar to review conclusions from the projects and evaluate findings. Industry partners will provide feedback on the students’ findings. This seminar will also provide an opportunity for students to network with industry partners and discuss around a specific and current accounting themes, which will further their understanding of the actual work context of their studies and enhance their skills. This seminar will also give an opportunity to network with students who can help tackle challenging projects. Through this seminar industry partners will also gain recognition for involvement in education, collaborate with academics, develop new networks with other organisations and gain access to potential future graduates.

EXPECTATIONS AND WORKLOAD

Students are expected to spend 135 hours working on this unit. As a guide a student should spend these approximate amounts of time on each of the following activities:

SUPPORTING YOUR LEARNING AND ACADEMIC WELFARE

You may ask any questions you wish by email at any time. You may also call by phone at any reasonable time regarding any emergency. You are also encouraged to seek help at a time that is convenient to you during regular consultation hours and an appointment may be made to discuss items outside of regular consultation hours. Students experiencing significant difficulties with any topic in the unit or any aspect of their studies or student life are advised to seek appropriate assistance immediately.

The Unit Convener is located at level 3, Building E4A & Room 340. In order to gain access to level 3 of building E4A during consultation hours please ring the Unit Convener from the phones available in the lobby (phone numbers of relevant staff members are available next to the phones). Preferably, please email first to make an appointment.  Also consultation can be by appointment at other times – please email.    

CLASSES

·         Classes are held at the following times:

o   Mondays 1pm to 4pm

o   Mondays 6pm to 9pm

·         To complete the unit successfully, you should attend one three hour class per week.  Please attend only the class in which you are formally enrolled except for illness (in which case you may change classes and you do not need to seek permission). 

·         Please refer to the weekly seminar schedule at the end of this assessment guide for detailed class content.

·         The timetable showing the location of classes can be found on the University web site at: http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au/

REQUIRED TEXT/MATERIALS

There is no prescribed text for this unit. Students will be provided the following supplementary reading (Web links of these readings will be uploaded on the unit web):

·         A Changing Profession? - Association of Chartered Certified Accountants

·         Developments in the global accountancy sector - Chartered Institute of Management Accountants

·         The diverse roles of professional accountants in business - International Federation of Accountants

REFERENCE TEXTS/MATERIALS

Other journals and publications of interest include the following:

Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal

Accounting, Organisation and Society

Journal of Management Accounting Research

Management Accounting Research

Higher Education Research and Development

Journal of Accounting Education

Accounting Education: An International Journal

Journal of Business Research

Harvard Business Review

Accounting Horizons

Journal of Change Management

Journal of Organisational Change

Academy of Management Journal

Managerial Auditing Journal

Other publications

Australian Financial Review

The Australian

Business Review Weekly

Financial Management Magazine (Published by CIMA UK)

INTHEBLACK (Published by CPA Australia)

Charter Magazine (Published by ICAA Australia)

TECHNOLOGY USED AND REQUIRED

·         The principal technology used in this unit comprises web based access to resource materials (see above) and the learning management system called ‘iLearn’. 

·         Regular access to iLearn is strongly encouraged so that you have access to:

o   Resources developed for each class

o   Additional recommended reading and research resources

o   Additional information regarding assessment items that may be required

o   Any new information that may arise in relation to contingencies – including in relation to any changes in dates, timetables or class details

o   iLearn communication and discussion tools as an effective means to enhance learning for all students and staff.

UNIT WEB PAGE

The unit’s logon iLearn address is: http://ilearn.mq.edu.au

To log on, students must first obtain a log on password from IT services or the library then click through to ACCG315. Students are required to check this site each week for lectures/industry partners slides (available for downloading and printing).  In addition, other notes will be posted on the site from time to time.  It is incumbent upon each student to regularly check iLearn (i.e. at least once a week).

PREPARATION FOR SEMINARS

It is essential that you prepare for each seminar by reading all materials and references carefully.  This will include working through the relevant presentation notes of the industry partner carefully, noting any issues which you might like to discuss in-class and, of course, contributing to in-class discussions and overall ‘group learning’.

You may download additional relevant class materials required each week from iLearn – login at https://ilearn.mq.edu.au/login/MQ/.   Additional class materials will be placed on iLearn prior to class time.  It is your responsibility to ensure that you access and have copies of relevant material prior to classes. You should allow time for thorough reading of all materials before each class.

This unit gives you opportunities to conduct your own research and gives you practice in applying research findings in your assessment tasks. Students will be required to use library resources to research beyond these materials in undertaking research necessary to complete their tasks. The unit encourages students to read journals (list provided in the unit guide) of interest and publications in these journals have a reference list at the end of each article containing all references cited by the author. These provide some guidance to references that could be used to research particular issues.