Peer Review

The module would be useful as these topics are typically covered at the beginning of courses in financial and managerial principles of accounting. It is self-contained. An on-line assignment could be made to prepare students for the topics or to quiz them. Users of Accounting Information provides accurate, but incomplete information that is current and relevant.

The tutorial is somewhat deficient in the information provided to teach students the difference between financial accounting and managerial accounting. Areas of overlap between financial and managerial accounting are not considered. More comprehensive information on what fiancial and managerial accounting involve and how they relate to each other is needed. For example, while planning, controlling, timeliness of information, performance evaluation, and future orientation are considered, others have been omitted (the fact that this type of reporting is not mandatory, doesn?t need to follow GAAP, and provides detailed segment information about departments, products, customers, and employees). Similarly the explanation for what financial accounting involves is also limited (providing legally required information to stakeholders, and maintaining a book-keeping system). Other concepts not emphasized include: emphasis on summaries of financial consequences of past activities, the emphasis on the objectivity and verifiability of the data, the need for precision, and that following GAAP is mandatory.

Learning objectives are identified as ?Aims? at the beginning of the module. Key terms are bolded. For the context and the limited explanations provided, the module provides some effectiveness for meeting its learning objectives. The module is efficient and the objectives will be achieved in 15-20 minutes of use. It provides immediate feedback to students and allows the user to provide an evaluation of the module upon completion.

Explanations are somewhat simplistic and lack a comprehensive focus. The basis for Activity 2 is identifying whether the situation is future or past oriented, yet this orientation is not emphasized in the explanations that define management and financial accounting. The link to the worksheet on stakeholders takes users to a case study. Terms are not defined, nor is why these individuals would be interested in various types of information explained. Prerequisite knowledge does not appear to be identified, yet users would need to have an idea as to why certain stakeholders would be interested in various forms of information in order to answer the questions included with Activity 1.

Instructions are clear and thorough. The module is very easy to use and includes sufficient interactivity to engage the user. All site navigation works as intended. A link to an on-line evaluation form has been included for the authors to monitor the perceived quality of the materials. Hints and explanations are provided. Visual appeal is sufficient and design quality is good.

While not necessarily a concern, Activity 1 has users write answers on a piece of paper and check them against possibilities provided at the end of the module. Interactivity might be enhanced if this activity consisted of a series of multiple choice questions or a matching segment. The feedback for item #2 has a typo, it counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 4. instead of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.