Accounting And Information Management
Easing Scheduling, Encouraging Self-Starters

By Paula Felps


Faculty in the Accounting and Information Management (AIM) area of The
School of Management weren't sure how well their curriculum would
translate as an Internet experience when administrators began putting AIM
classes online.

"We started out slowly with some courses in the tax area in 2002,"
explains Amy Troutman, assistant director of accounting programs and
senior lecturer for AIM. "We did a slow rollout of classes, but by the
fall semester of 2004," all courses required to earn a Master of Science
degree were available online.


Less pressure for employers as well as students

Like many other School of Management (SOM) programs, the master's degree
classes in accounting and information management are largely populated
with students who already are employed but who want to further their
careers. The flexibility of the online degree program is a godsend to both
students and employers.

"Many of our students are employed by Big Four accounting firms, and they
have to travel as part of their job. It's very difficult for them to
continue their education without online classes," says Charles Solcher,
J.D., senior lecturer and manager of SOM's graduate taxation program.

"Part of the success of this [online] program is that it attracts students
in the last stages of their education who are starting their careers.
Because they can take these classes online, they're able to take the job
they want and still continue their education."

That takes the burden off employers, who might have been torn between the
needs of their company and the educational obligations of their employees,
Mr. Solcher says.

"This gives them some release from the pressure," he says. "The students
have a lot of flexibility. They can attend their classes on Saturday
morning or late at night, whatever is most convenient for them. That is
its biggest draw; the students get to control their time and choose when
to 'go to' the classes."

To be sure, students must participate in group activities and meet
homework and exam deadlines. And professors do use Web communications
tools to schedule class conferences and other real-time sessions. But
mostly, class members access each course's Web site, materials and tools
and proceed on their own whenever they want.


Classroom or computer? The student decides.

The advantages of online instruction are a big enough draw that the 14 AIM
courses offered have an average of 40 students in each class. With the
rollout of several new courses this spring in subjects such as auditing
and accounting systems, enrollments have nearly tripled since the fall
2005 semester. AIM online enrollments now total 588 compared to 201 last
fall. Feedback has been positive, with the majority of students reporting
that they would recommend the online degree program to others.

Kerry Christal, a senior credit analyst at American National Bank in
Plano, Texas, now is taking courses on campus, but she took three online
accounting classes in the fall 2005 semester, including ethics. She says
that the online classes exceeded her expectations and were more difficult
than she had expected.

"I would recommend [taking courses online] to students who are above
average in their learning pace and have the ability" to study on their
own, she says. "I would expect that the more intelligent, independent
students tend to do better in online courses because they are not held
back by the classroom environment, which may be slowed by other students."

Mr. Solcher says that students can pick and choose classes they prefer to
take in a classroom and those they complete online. One of their few
constraints is the Texas State Board of Accountancy requirement that 15 of
the required 30 course hours be taken on campus for a student to be
eligible to sit for the CPA exam. Mr. Solcher teaches a class on corporate
taxation that many students choose to take "live" because they feel they
benefit from the interaction with their peers on a very complex subject.
Mr. Solcher attributes this spring's increased online enrollments, in
part, to the April tax season - traditionally a time when accounting
employees work long hours and may have difficulty attending classes on
campus.

"It's largely a personal choice," Mr. Solcher says, "and the online
classes give them that choice."


An end to scheduling conflicts

For Jaya Dash Tripathy, a full time AIM master's degree student, the
option of online classes alleviated scheduling problems and allowed for a
more streamlined education process. "There was a conflict of class
schedules for the in-class courses," Ms. Tripathy cited as her reason for
choosing their online equivalents. Going online "allowed me to take
classes which I may not have been able to take in the summer and would
have to wait until fall to take," she says. "I didn't want to delay my
graduation."

Ms. Tripathy, who is taking Auditing and Intermediate Accounting II online
in addition to on-campus accounting courses, praises the online
environment. "I would definitely recommend it because of the flexibility,
convenience - and the advantage of perhaps graduating early. The freedom
to choose when you want to take a class, with no time constraints, is very
important."

Ms. Christal agrees, noting that she valued being able to listen to the
class lectures at any time - and as many times as she needed. "I really
appreciated the fact that I could replay the lectures if I did not
understand fully the first time," she says.


More planning and prep at the faculty end

One of the greatest challenges of an online setting is to keep students
moving at the same rate they would in a traditional classroom. Instructors
have worked closely with course designers to ensure the necessary pace is
maintained.

"The obvious difference [between the two environments] is the immediate
feedback," says Ron Blair, manager of the AIM online program and senior
lecturer in federal taxation. "When you're in front of a classroom, and
someone asks a question, the rest of the students benefit from the answer
or the discussion. Online, you can still do that, but obviously there
isn't as much direct interaction."

Mr. Blair says that instructors must anticipate many of the questions that
arise with the course work and answer them before they are asked.

"There's a lot more work and planning that has to go into preparing an
online course," he says. "I really have to hand it to [SOM's
instructional] designers, because they've done a tremendous job of
adapting [the in-class course] to the online environment." To add to the
interactive feel of online courses, faculty members make a point of
responding to students' e-mails within 24 hours.


Online is here to stay

Mr. Solcher says that competition for online enrollment does not come from
other online courses; it comes from on-campus classes.

"There will always be a place for the live classroom," he says. "For
example, I don't see [online education] translating well to the
undergraduate experience. But we are coming into an era where the students
are much more comfortable with online education. I think that as long as
we have a quality program that gets good results for the students, it will
continue growing."