http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/ A search of MERLOT materials Copyright 1997-2013 MERLOT. All rights reserved. Sun, 19 May 2013 20:17:09 PDT Sun, 19 May 2013 20:17:09 PDT http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/images/merlot.gif http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/ 44 34 http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=440621 This is a free textbook offered by Saylor Foundation.This book is suitable for an undergraduate or MBA level Financial Accounting course.If authorship matters (and we believe it is everything) then this book is destined to be a classic. There are no two better authors than these. Joe Ben Hoyle is co-author of two current market-leading advanced accounting textbooks with McGraw-Hill. He and and co-author CJ Skender are nationally recognized as master teachers. Both have won numerous teaching awards, and both were recently recognized by BusinessWeek as top undergraduate professors.The authors bring their collective teaching wisdom to bear in this book not by changing "the message״(financial accounting content), but by changing ״the messenger״ (the way the content is presented). The approach centers around utilizing the Socratic method, or simply put, asking and answering questions. The reason that this approach continues to be glorified after thousands of years is simple - it engages students and stresses understanding over memorization. So this text covers standard topics in a standard sequence, but does so through asking a carefully constructed series of questions along with their individual answers.This approach has a number of unique pedagogical advantages:1—It breaks topics down into smaller component pieces. Each question and its answer look at a specific piece of material. The student only has to deal with that one question and its answer at a time. Material is presented as a clearly established series of steps rather than as a long flowing monologue.2—The format allows for a conversational style. Virtually all experts agree that individuals learn better through give and take than they do through one-directional lectures. The questions and answers make the entire book feel like a conversation.3- Logical sequencing is a key ingredient to successful learning. Because students are being exposed to each new topic for the first time, they often have trouble making leaps of understanding that appear easy to a teacher (or a textbook author). The question and answer format provides an orderly method for creating an appropriate sequencing of material. Question 2 should be the logical follow up for Question 1, and so on. Students are led through each topic in the most understandable fashion.4—A key to successful teaching is to puzzle the students, and then help them solve the puzzle.. “Why did this technique work?” “Why is the calculation performed this way?” “Who really cares about this?” A question and answer format leads to this type of educational presentation.A final distinction of this text is its simplicity. In today’s texts, each page is an eclectic assortment of educational aids: glossary, learning objectives, newspaper articles, etc. Students who only read one word and one sentence at a time are often confused by such a random arrangement. In this book, the presentation of question and answer is clean and uncluttered. Then, at the end of each question and answer, there are links for students who wish to explore further (for example, a link to 1-5 multiple-choice questions with clearly explained answers to immediately reinforce their reading). http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=437949 ״This book is the second of seven books which introduces the basic principles of accounting, focusing primarily on liquid assets. It introduces enhanced income statements, sales, cash discounts, the control structure, and inventory accounting. Details concerning cash and highly-liquid investments, cash management, controls for cash receipts and disbursements, and bank account reconciliations are discussed. Accounts receivable, costs and benefits of selling on credit, considerations for uncollectible receivables, notes receivable and interest are also discussed. In addition, the fundamentals of inventory costing methods, inventory management, and ratio analysis are introduced.״ http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=437947 ״This book is the first of seven books which introduces the basic principles of accounting. It introduces accounting, the fundamental accounting equation, and four core financial statements. Students will learn the basics of accounting, such as debits and credits, the journal, and trial balance, income measurement, revenue and expense recognition, and the reporting cycle. With a foundation in these basics of accounting readers are introduced to financial statement preparation, the accounting cycle, closing entries, classified balance sheets, the importance of business liquidity, and the concept of the operating cycle.״ http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=437952 ״This book is the third of seven books which introduces the basic principles of accounting. This book focuses on investments intended to be held for greater than one year. It introduces accounting for investments (available for sale, trading, and held to maturity), as well as, special accounting for certain long-term investments. Readers will learn the accounting for property, plant, and equipment, and depreciation methodology and terminology. Accounting for the disposal of property, plant, and equipment, asset exchanges, impairments, natural resource accounting and depletion concepts are also presented in this book.״ http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=437956 ״This book is the fourth of seven books which introduces the basic principles of accounting. This book introduces accounting for current liabilities, such as, notes payable, contingent liabilities, and employer responsibilities related to payroll. Long-term obligations are introduced relating to long-term notes, present and future values, annuities, and bonds. Contractual commitments and capital leases are also discussed. Accounting for corporate equity, common and preferred stock, cash and stock dividends, stock splits, treasury stock, and the statement of stockholders’ equity are also presented.״ http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=437960 ״This book is the fifth of seven books which introduces the basic principles of accounting. In this book you learn about special financial reporting topics, financial statement analysis, and the statement of cash flows. Topics include discontinued operations, extraordinary items, changes in accounting methods, and other comprehensive income. Important financial reporting ratios, such as earnings per share, price earnings ratio, and book value per share are discussed. Ratio and trend analysis are presented as tools to understand financial statement information.״