Technology by immersion: design of Auditor liability assignments using Web-based resources.

Herickhoff, Penelope ; Baird, Jane E.

INTRODUCTION

Teaching by immersion is always a painful experience. In December 1999, all College of Business professors at Minnesota State University, Mankato received new laptop computers. The faculty had committed to increased use of technology in the curriculum and the university catalogue stated that, beginning with the freshman class of the 2000-2001 academic year, students would be required to lease laptop computers for College of Business courses. In the previous academic year, the faculty had converted their academic programs from the quarter system to a semester format, had dramatically revised the structure of the university's general education curriculum and had worked to develop and implement a variety of new assessment initiatives. Now, faculty members were scrambling to advance their technology goals by learning new software, mastering Web-page design, and restructuring their courses for the laptop environment.

Often professors felt overwhelmed by the pace of change within the college. Many new unknowns accompanied distribution of the laptops and increased the degree of ambiguity facing faculty, administrators and students. These challenges had been anticipated and motivated the College to focus its resources. It chose to adopt a step-by step approach to faculty retraining and curriculum development. The College sponsored many in-service training opportunities and encouraged faculty dialog and teamwork. Putting questions and concerns on the table and working the problem together seemed to help alleviate stress. The authors and their colleagues worked separately and together to critically evaluate opportunities and problems in structuring Web-based assignments for use in the classroom and in distance learning environments.

Many individuals recognized that in a laptop context, it would be easy to grasp at technology for technology's sake. Most professors struggled with the more difficult and more important challenge, to maintain a mission-driven approach to curriculum design; that is, to incorporate technology in ways that achieves and maximizes learning-objectives of each course. Pedagogical objectives, such as learner-centered teaching, real-world problem solving, and sharing new knowledge with other learners are key components of the framework the authors are using in designing course assignments.

This paper reports on several pedagogical considerations of Internet-based teaching, suggests Web-based resources, and presents potential course assignments for one particular topic: auditors' liability. Although the topic chosen is specific in nature, educators in all disciplines can benefit from using many of the approaches and resources discussed. In addition, the paper briefly reviews several potential opportunities and pitfalls in incorporating the Internet into the curriculum.

PEDAGOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Using computers and Internet resources in higher education courses is nothing new, but the fact that business and the public demonstrate increasing reliance on the Internet and the exponentially growing volume of information available on the World Wide Web make the task of effectively utilizing the available technology more daunting and more pressing (see, for example, Denning, 1996). There is some guidance available in the literature concerning how to incorporate the Internet into the classroom (Boldt et al., 1994; Johnson, 1998(a); North et al., 1996; Monahan & Dharm, 1995, Ragothaman & Hoadley, 1997; and Stefanov, 1998).

Minnesota State University, Mankato utilizes a mission-driven approach to curriculum design, as advocated by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business--International Association for Management Education (AACSB), the national accrediting body. The mission of the college is considered in developing course learning objectives. These objectives drive the design of class activities. In addition to content-related learning objectives, learning objectives often include development of critical thinking skills, technology skills, communications skills, research skills, ability to work in groups, exposure to global perspectives, and "real-world" learning experiences. The use of Web-based assignments and activities can and should enhance the achievement of these objectives, whether the activities are conducted in class, as homework assignments, or in a distance-learning environment. In developing a Web-based curriculum, the authors want to ensure that each course has well defined learning objectives and strive to identify the types of activities that would contribute effectively to achieving those objectives.

A secondary consideration that shapes the authors' choice of assignments is the experience levels of students enrolled in the classes, both in terms of course content and in terms of Internet usage skills. In terms of course content, Internet-based activities can be adjusted from very basic, directed assignments to more unstructured, in-depth research activities. Higher-order learning and collaborative learning can be enhanced through Internet activities if they are designed with that objective in mind (Comeaux, 1998; Jonassen, 1999). In terms of experience with the Internet, while most students even at the freshman level have experience logging on to the Internet, many use it mainly for electronic mail and do not have a lot of experience or success in using the Internet for research (Marxen et al., 1999). Additionally, those who use the Internet often assume that all information posted is accurate; they do not recognize the need to critically evaluate the various sources of information (Marxen et al., 1999). Therefore, professors need to consider whether specific training is needed regarding Internet ethics, Internet search methods or evaluation of Internet-based information. A handout for evaluating Web sites is available in Johnson (1998(b)). Alternatively, the assignments could be limited to more elementary, clearly directed assignments.

Another serious issue to consider is that of plagiarism. The Internet-based information makes it easy to simply "cut and paste" content from various sources to create a "final product" without giving credit to original sources, truly understanding the information or without including any significant original content or commentary of the writer. The temptation to present "amalgamations" as original work confronts both faculty and students. The authors have observed what appears to be "intentional blurring" of well-established protocols on academic honesty in many quarters and believe professors should be especially attentive to the messages they model to students in their teaching, their writing and as developers of university Websites. In the authors' experience, student plagiarism is much easier to control and identify if the instructor directs the students to specific sites with which the instructor is familiar. Another alternative is to require to students to turn in printed copies of all their Internet sources along with their assignments. Additionally, most students and professors are aware there are numerous sources of essays and papers available for purchase on the Internet (see, for example http://www.popularsites.com/top100/index.shtml). The authors have found it helpful to consider plagiarism in the assignment-design phase and suggest that providing students with explicit instructions or training as to academic norms and expectations is generally time efficient and productive.

SUGGESTED ASSIGNMENTS RELATED TO AUDITOR LIABILITY

First order, or directed assignments, would allow exposure to specific Internet resources or topic areas, but would be more limited in terms of developing higher-order skills and knowledge. Examples of these types of assignments would include the following:

a. Access the following section from the AICPA's Website: http://www.aicpa.org/assurance/scas/comstud/brief/legal.htm; and write a brief summary of the legal sources for auditors' liability.

b. Using the CPA Journal's online Website (http://www.luca.com/cpaj.htm), choose an article on auditor's liability published within the last year. Write a brief summary of the article and attach a copy of the article to the summary.

Higher-level learning can be accomplished by assigning activities that require more research and analysis. Examples include:

a. Research the topic of Auditors' Liability under the 1934 Securities Act, using Internet resources only. Include references to recent court decisions. (The instructor could provide a list of sites or require students to locate the sites on their own).

b. Using Internet sources, locate information on recent case interpretations of auditors' liability to third parties under common law. Summarize and cite these rulings. Comment on how you think these interpretations might impact current business practice for auditors and their clients.

c. Assume you are an audit partner in a ten-office firm, Smith and Jones, LLP. You have just learned that one of your clients, (a) a privately held or, alternatively, (b) a publicly held company had materially misstated the previous year's financial statements and its creditors are suing your firm for (a) negligence or (b) fraud in an attempt to recover their losses. The material misstatement resulted from intentional overstatement of income by the client. The client had falsified numerous large sales transactions to overstate its earnings. In reviewing the audit papers from the year in question, you have discovered an unanswered review point you wrote to the audit senior to follow up on some discrepancies in the revenue area. This is the first time your firm has been sued, and your partners are extremely nervous about the impact this suit will have on their business and on their personal wealth. You have been asked to prepare the following information for the next partners' meeting:

1. What law(s) or regulations govern your firm's liability in this situation?

2. What types of arguments should/could your firm prepare in order to defend itself? What will the plaintiffs likely argue?

3. Have there been any recent court decisions that might impact the interpretation of your firm's liability in this situation?

4. To what extent could the partners in your firm be personally liable to the plaintiffs?

d. Access the Internet Sites for the journal Accountancy Age, and the United Kingdom's Accounting Web. Research the issue of auditors' liability and prepare a paper discussing the similarities and differences in the liability of auditors in the United States as compared to the United Kingdom.

All of the assignments suggested above incorporate written activities, which can also aid in the improvement of written communication skills and can be evaluated on that basis. Requiring the student to present the results of their research to the class could incorporate oral communication skills.

The more unstructured and complex assignments would contribute more to learning objectives related to critical thinking, research skills, and Internet-based technology skills. Using a case-based scenario to stage a research project can simulate real-world learning, as in item "c" above.

Assignment "d" above illustrates the way in which the Internet can be used to provide students with exposure to global perspectives. Another way to achieve this could be to arrange for joint Internet-based research projects from students from universities in other countries.

Teaming, or small group interaction skills, can be incorporated into the Web-based curriculum in several ways. First, students in a traditional classroom environment could simply be assigned to work on any of the projects identified above with other students outside of class. If the activity is conducted in a classroom in which computers and Internet access are available, students can be assigned the project as a group, with each student initially assigned a particular source or subtopic to search for. The students could then be required to consult with each other to evaluate and integrate the information found and present their results to the class. In a distance learning context, the instructor could post the best student papers and projects on the class website. This practice not only recognizes superior performance and shares information with other learners, but also provides models of high caliber work for students or teams who had difficulty understanding performance expectations for the assignment.

In a distance-learning environment, students can be brought together via simple electronic mail. An even more effective method is to use threaded discussion groups, which are available through most on-line classroom products. In a threaded discussion group, a research question can be posed by an instructor and posted for the students to see. The students can then interact with each other by posting their comments and discussions with each other directly on-line as they complete the project. The on-line discussions are recorded by the classroom systems so that the instructor has a complete log of the students' comments. This not only allows for realtime on-line interactions among the students, it also allows the instructor to actually follow the students' thought processes rather than just seeing an end product, and enables the instructor to assess each individual student's contribution to the group's work. Any of the assignments suggested above could be provided in an on-line format as a group assignment utilizing threaded discussion groups.

USEFUL WEBSITES FOR TEACHING AUDITOR LIABILITY

Finding useful Websites can be a challenge because of the overwhelming amount of information available on the World Wide Web (WWW). The three approaches the authors found most useful were:

1. Examining Web sites of known professional organizations in the field

2. Exploring Web sites of companies doing business in the field

3. Utilizing Internet search engines to perform topical searches.

Utilizing these research techniques, we have identified a group of useful sites for accounting and business law professors and their students that address issues related to auditor liability. These sites are listed in Table 1 and described below by category.

USEFUL ACCOUNTING WEBSITES (U.S.)

http://www.aicpa.org/assurance/scas/comstud/brief/legal.htm: This is an excellent summary of liability issues provided on the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' (AICPA) Website. Topics included in this summary are: Legal Sources of Auditor's Liability, 10b-5 Reform, Auditor's Responsibilities, Auditor's Performance, Non-Audit CPA Services, Economics of Auditor's Securities Liability, Forms of Practice--Protecting Partner's Personal Assets, and Relationship to Assurance Services.

http://www.sec.gov: The Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Website contains two subsections of particular interest to students of auditor liability. These can be found directly at the following addresses: http://www.sec.gov/enforce/adm.htm, which provides the text of specific enforcement actions for violations of securities laws, and http://www.sec.gov/edgar.hp.htm which houses all the various documents filed with the SEC.

http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa: The Journal of Accountancy is provided on-line, free of charge, by the AICPA. Students can access specific issues or articles directly, or can search the site by topic.

http://www.luca.com/cpaj.htm: The CPA Journal is provided on-line free of charge. Like the Journal of Accountancy, students can search the site by topic or select a specific article.

USEFUL LEGAL WEBSITES (U.S.)

http://www.findlaw.com/: Findlaw is an excellent resource that allows online research of state and federal cases, constitutions, and codes. It also links users to legal sites by topic and arranges links to law journals alphabetically by law school.

http://www.abanet.org/buslaw/buslawedu/home.html: The site for the American Bar Association (ABA) provides this resource for law educators with links to numerous legal resources.

Another related section within the ABA site is http://www.abanet.org/lawlink/home.html. This is an extensive listing of related legal links provided by the American Bar Association. Categories of sites included are: General Federal Government, the Legislative Branch, Executive Branch, Judicial Branch, Selected Law School sites, other internet Research Points (includes Findlaw and many others) and International Sites.

http://www.law.com: This is a useful general reference source for many law-related topics, including auditor liability.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/: Cornell's Legal Information Institute Online is a comprehensive legal resource containing the text of Supreme Court decisions and the U.S. Code, as well as other legal documents and resources on state laws and legal ethics.

http://www.law.uc.edu/CCL/sldtoc.html: the University of Cincinnati Law School provides this site. The site contains a complete text of all the securities laws.

http://www.cornerstone.com: This is a company Website maintained by a legal research and consulting firm specializing in securities cases. The site provides summaries of recent course decisions at no charge, plus a news feature highlighting current events related to securities issues.

http://www.longlevit.com/updates/update_index_pl.htm: This site is provided by a law firm and supplies updates on current legislation and case law.

http://www.statenet.com/about/: Statenet is a site that provides links to both federal and state legislation and regulations. The site monitors 100% of all pending bills and regulations in the 50 states and Congress and also provides news updates.

ACCOUNTING AND LEGAL WEBSITES (GLOBAL)

http://www.loc.gov/library/: The Library of Congress site provides online access to the library's legal resources including The Global Legal Information Network, a database comprised of legal documents submitted by member nations. The full text of each document is available in the official language of the country of origin along with a summary or abstract in English. The database can be searched in English.

http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/news: The Accounting Web, this Site is based in the United Kingdom (UK) and offers news updates for accountants in both the UK and United States, which include liability issues. The site can be searched by topic and is helpful for international assignments.

http://www.lawsource.com/also/: Lawsource is a reference site that provides links to law-related Websites in the U.S. Canada and Mexico.

http://www.jurist.law.pitt.edu/: JURIST is self-described as "The Law Professors' Network." A portion of the site is dedicated to topics that pertain to learning and teaching law, including law professors' web pages, discussion groups on legal topics as well as research tools and links within the U.S., Canada, the UK and Australia.

SUMMARY

In summary, plunging into designing and teaching Internet-based course assignments can be intimidating, but the Internet offers many opportunities for improving student learning. There is a wealth of credible information on the web, provided by professional associations, businesses, and educational institutions. The professor's challenge is to ensure that learning objectives drive the use of technology in the classroom rather than available technology dictating class activities. Even at the extreme, where all learning is provided in a distance-education mode, students and faculty can be brought together and communication can be enhanced through vehicles such as threaded discussion groups. As faculty gain more experience in Web-based course design, it is important to remember to document those experiences. The more that faculty share their experiences, both successes and failures, in the literature, the more successful we can all be in providing a better education for our students.

REFERENCES

Boldt, D.J., L.V. Gustafson & J.E. Johnson (1994). The Internet: A resource in the teaching of economics and beyond. Business Education Forum, (October), 23-26.

Comeaux, P. (1998). Collaborative Learning in Web-based Instruction. Proceedings of the WebNet 98 World Conference of the WWW, Internet, and Intranet (November), (ERIC MICROFICHE ED427693).

Denning, P.J. (1996). Business designs for the new university. Educom Review, 31 (November/December), 20-30.

Johnson, J. (1998a). Is the Internet a Good Research Tool for Teaching about Law and Government? A Case Study from the Field. Update on Law-Related Education, (Spring-Summer), 31-34.

Johnson, J. (1998b). Using the Internet for Research: Teaching Strategy. Update on Law-Related Education, (Spring-Summer 1998), 37-40.

Jonassen, D. (1999). Learning to Solve Problems on the Web: Aggregate Planning in a Business Management Course, Distance Education (Vol. 20, No. 1), 49-63.

Marxen, V., D.E. Marxen, J.E. Baird & R.C. Zelin. (1999). Student Internet Usage: Its Implication for Campus Leaders. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal.

Matyska Jr., R.J. (1995). Using the Internet to expand resources. Business Education Forum, (December), 19-22.

Monahan, B.D. & M. Dharm. (1995). The Internet for educators: A user's guide. Educational Technology, (January-February), 44-48.

North, A.B., J.Hubbard & J.E. Johnson. (1996). Inquiry-based learning via the Internet. Business Education Forum (April), 47-50.

Ragothaman, S. & D. Hoadley. (1997). Integrating the Internet and the World Wide Web into the business classroom: A synthesis. Journal of Education for Business, (March/April), 213-216.

Stefanov, K. (1998). Design Issues of a Distance Learning Course on Business on the Internet, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, (June), 83-90.

Penelope Herickhoff, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Jane E. Baird, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Table 1

http://www.aicpa.org/assurance/scas/comstud/brief/legal.htm
http://www.sec.gov
http://www.sec.gov/enforce/adm.htm
http://www.sec.gov/edgar.hp.htm
http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa
http://www.luca.com/cpaj.htm
http://www.abanet.org/buslaw/buslawedu/home.html
http://www.abanet.org/lawlink/home.html
http://www.findlaw.com/
http://www.law.com
http://www.law.cornell.edu/
http://www.law.uc.edu/CCL/sldtoc.html
http://www.cornerstone.com
http://www.longlevit.com/updates/update_index_pl.htm
http://www.statenet.com/about/
http://www.loc.gov/library/
http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/news
http://www.lawsource.com/also/
http://www.jurist.law.pitt.edu/