Introduction

The topic of stock-taking is best taught by allowing students the actual experience of participating in a real world stock-take. This provides opportunities for students to make authentic decisions (such as selecting samples of stocks to be test counted) and allows them to experience the detection and investigation of exceptions encountered during the stock take.

However, as you can imagine, it is difficult to find multiple companies that would welcome hundreds of students participating in and observing the real year-end stock take. Hence the topic had been taught in the past using lectures and tutorial discussion.

We began to consider other more effective ways of teaching this topic after a recent forum organized by the Teaching and Learning Centre, where we observed an open source virtual world platform called Project Wonderland. We realized this may be the solution we needed.

Project Wonderland is a Java-based toolkit for creating collaborative three dimensional virtual worlds. Within these worlds, users can move around, communicate using audio, and share live desktop applications and documents. They can even conduct real business transactions.

We crafted the following scenario as a graded assignment in “Auditing 2” (a 3rd-year module within the Diploma of Accountancy at Ngee Ann Polytechnic).

Our Virtual Scenario

Students firstly need to customize avatars that represent themselves in the virtual world. The main task is to navigate around 3 virtual rooms and complete various activities.

In the first room (briefing room), students access resources to learn the concepts and techniques behind carrying out a stock take observation. They need to access the stock list, from which they have to draw up their stock take samples for conducting test counts.

Learning concepts in the briefing room

In the second room (warehouse room), students work collaboratively in groups of 5 to 6 members to conduct their stock take of (virtual) DVD and Hi-fi players, and television sets. They interact with graphical representations of stock and are able to determine the quantity of stocks by clicking on relevant pallets.

Students conduct the stock count by comparing the details on the stock list received in the briefing room with details on the pallets of stocks selected for the sample counts. They are able to interact with their peers while conducting the stock take using either the chat function within the room or the audio and speaker functions which allow students to talk to each other.

Counting stock in the warehouse room

In the final room (audit room), students complete the audit work papers in groups after completing the stock take and note any exceptions or discrepancies in quantities between stock list and count.

Discussing and reflecting in the audit room

The completed audit work papers, together with an individual reflection of the virtual world experience and their suggestions for improvement are submitted via our learning management system for grading.

Findings

After running the assignment for the past 3 semesters, we noted from the working papers submitted by the students that on the whole they have grasped stock take concepts and techniques. The majority of students could perform the appropriate procedures in carrying out a stock take and most could document the findings and observations arising from their stock count.

A review of students’ reflections revealed that almost all of them appreciated the new learning approach and felt that the experience was interesting and fun and it allowed them to learn about stock taking techniques in a hands-on manner. They appreciated our efforts to introduce a new learning approach and felt that they were better able to learn the stock taking concepts using a virtual world approach rather than a traditional lecture and tutorial approach. Many had not encountered a virtual world before this experience and were also excited to learn a new e-competency.

The following are excerpts from students’ reflections:

• “Overall I think the whole virtual world experience is insightful and beneficial. I am able to try out how a stock take is conducted and (it) has allowed me to gain a better understanding of inventory auditing. It is quite an interesting experience”;
• “Through this assignment, I have benefited and this is an enriching experience for me as it allows me to explore and feel what is like to do a stock take for a client. It positively enhanced my learning experience for this chapter”; and
• “I believe that through this experience I learnt more than what I have through notes and textbooks”

Conclusion

The implications for practice are both encouraging and challenging. We are happy to note that students appreciated learning stock taking concepts and techniques in the virtual world platform which they have found to be more hands-on and practical than the usual lecture and tutorial style of learning. It was also nice they acknowledged the efforts of staff!

As the virtual world assignment required students to work collaboratively and to reflect on their learning experience, students have taken more ownership and were more engaged in their learning, which are features of learner centered learning.

However, we acknowledge that students are constantly exposed to rich interactive media platforms, and they have high expectations in terms of graphics and features in any online courseware or virtual world platform used for education. Since funding is limited we need to balance students’ high expectations with budgetary constraints.

Action Research

We conducted action research to improve this virtual world stock take project. Our paper was accepted and presented at the ICT2010 Conference organized by UniSim.

In this paper, we shared our experience of using a virtual world to inject a more practical slant in the teaching of audit of inventories to enable students to get a real-life feel of what doing a stock-take is all about, especially from an external auditor’s point of view.

Read the complete paper:

» Virtual Stock-taking: An Experience of Co-presence for Accountancy Students [PDF, 15 pages, 804 kB]

Copyright © 2010, ICT2010 Singapore Conference. Presented at the ICT2010 Singapore Conference. Reproduced by permission.

Authors

Mr. Lee Koon Yew is a lecturer in the School of Business and Accountancy, Ngee Ann Polytechnic

Mrs. Tiew-Teo Hui Leng is a deputy director in the School of Film & Media Studies, Ngee Ann Polytechnic