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 faculty
to CBS
Challenge:
transfer Columbia expertise
meld
knowledge and skills
exploit
the synergies
Understanding
the Challenge
Similarities of web and CBS courses
Practical approach/making managers
Cases,
notes, other tools
Differences between web and CBS
Control: non-linearity, motivation
Contact:
stud/instruc, stud/stud, stud/PC
Evaluation
& assessment
Meeting the
Challenge
Leveraging Columbia’s Strengths
Re-engineer the material
Enhance
the tools
Tapping Unext.com expertise
Problem Based Learning (PBL)
Instruction/contact/testing
Web/multimedia
technology
Our Answer to the
Challenge
Real World Project (the PBL approach):
End of course first
Tasks/Strategies
= tractable projects
Collaboration/Instruction
Coverage same but re-engineered
Animation/Interactive
Contact
Items & videos
based on Cardean software
Structure of the
Product
Four Parts:
Introductory materials
Project
Scenario and Strategies
Project
reference materials
Resources
Modules
Detailed walk- through to come
Unext/Columbia
Advantage
Columbia course, re-engineered
PBL approach
Control over contact
Controlling the
Quality
Generating the product
Re-engineering???
Testing.. Alpha,
beta, and more
Going forward...
Commercial trial
Columbia’s
review role
Results on Quality
Control
Results on testing
web organization
lecture
clarity
Exit interviews
high interest
novice/experienced
Future Challenge
for Quality
Instruction
Finding and motivating instructors
Training
and assessing
Assessment
Grading and rubrics
Insuring
learning
Hindsight: Critical
Factors
Recognize need for re-engineering
Different length and focus
Appreciate differing viewpoints
Academic background was valuable
Main operating problems
Contact and Motivation
Looking to the
Future
Current and future courses
Current UNext.com courses
New
courses and hybrids
Bringing the success back home
Regular MBA, EMBA & exec education
Crossing
disciplines
Personal
return
Finally… A Look
at a Course
This look will emphasize
How the PBL approach works
How
decisions on content and design were
made and implemented
Some
of the bells and whistles