The Virtual Business Enterprise (VBE) is a virtual shopping mall consisting of small retail businesses. Student groups are allocated a business and enter the virtual world in two trading sessions across the semester. Financial statements are generated at the commencement of trading and after each trading session so that students can see the financial outcomes of their trading activities. The final set of financial statements is used as the starting point for a business plan assignment which requires students to prepare budgets for future periods based on their plan. The assessment is directly linked to course content and learning objectives. The course is delivered through a simple decision-making framework. Students cover common accounting terminology and concepts and learn to prepare and evaluate simple financial statements to support business decisions. The VBE and the related business plan assessment provide an opportunity for students to practice and demonstrate these skills and knowledge. The business plan assessment asks students to prepare a plan to support a bank loan application. A complete business plan is required, not just the financial budgets. Hence students must consider how their business will operate (e.g. staffing, online versus storefront), how they will market their business and its sustainability before considering how their plan translates into financial projections. In this way the subject matter of accounting is contextualised within the wider business world.
Details
- CLASS SIZE
- 500+
- CLASS LEVEL
- First year
- ASSESSMENT SECURITY
- Medium security
- TIME REQUIREMENTS
- High time
- GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES
- In-depth knowledge in the field(s) studied, Effective communication skills
- CONDITIONS
- Work-related, Group
- FEATURES
- Authentic, Online, Problem based
- TAGS
- multimodal, technology enriched learning, active learning, personalised learning, collaborative learning, staged, simulation/role play
Advantages
1. The big advantage is that the VBE generates unique financials for each business. This means there is much greater academic integrity across this assessment in a very large course.
2. The VBE is an experiential learning resource so improves student engagement with course content.
3. Adds variety and interest for a large first year cohort, many students feedback that the VBE is a fun element of the course.
4. Everything is digital so student activity in the VBE can be monitored.
5. The VBE trading doesn't require UQ teaching space and can be accessed through any computer with the correct software installed.
Challenges
1. Technology support can be challenging especially across a large cohort.
2. Need to get all of the teaching team on board with the VBE and related assessment.
3. Quite a lot of upfront organisation is needed to ensure orderly formation of student groups, attendance at VBE induction sessions and scheduling and monitoring of trading sessions.
Tips for implementation
1. Ensure the technology is robust and everyone involved understands the support required for 800+ students.
2. Trial run the assessment with a small group of students/colleagues to iron out any potential problems.
3. Consider forming a support group of recent past students to assist with the digital resource inductions and sessions.
How it supports academic integrity
The VBE resource carries the major benefit that it generates a unique set of financial statements for each virtual business and that these financial statement outcomes are influenced by student trading within the virtual world. This means that each student group is working on a fresh and verifiable set of financial data.
Associate Professor Julie Walker
j.walker@business.uq.edu.au
Associate Professor Julie Walker is a member of the accounting discipline group at the University of Queensland Business School, where she teaches and researches in the area of financial accounting and governance. Julie has over 25 years' experience as an accounting academic and is recognised as an excellent teacher, being the recipient of a School teaching award in 2007, the Unijobs Lecturer of the Year award 2008 and a University of Qld Commendation for Teaching Excellence in 2010. In 2015 Julie led the BEL-ITaLI Strategic Priority Project on Blended Learning in first year business courses which involved a complete rebuild of the large first year course, ACCT1101 Accounting for Decision Making. Julie's research interests focus on disclosure and governance choices by corporations, and especially the impact and effectiveness of regulatory reforms on those choices. Most recently, she has become interested in the continuing furore surrounding executive pay and has a number of working and published papers in the area, including publications in The Australian Journal of Management, Accounting and Finance, Australian Accounting Review and The Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics.
Julie has strong links with accounting higher and professional education. Julie was program director for the Bachelor of Commerce and Masters of Commerce programs at UQ from 2008 to 2012. She is currently chair of the Chartered Accountants Australia New Zealand Education Board and previously chaired the member advisory panel for the Financial Reporting module of the CA program. She is on TEQSA's register of experts and previously served as a member of the ALTC Accounting Learning Outcomes Working Party to develop threshold learning outcomes for Australian bachelors and masters programs in accounting. Find out more