Professor honored for Monopoly®-based simulation in accounting course
Janel Shoun-Smith | 615.966.7078 |
Perry Moore, Charles E. Frasier Professor of Accountancy, was awarded the Mark Chain/FSA Innovation in Graduate Teaching Award by the Association for International Certified Professional Accountants. Moore was awarded for a classroom strategy he developed called “Using MONOPOLY® as a Practice Set in an Advanced Auditing Course.”
Perry Moore
In addition to receiving a monetary prize, Moore demonstrated the strategy at a special session at the American Accounting Association Conference on Teaching and Learning in Accounting in July in San Diego.
Moore’s simulation, which he has used in his classes for eight years, uses the Hasbro game MONOPOLY to provide a more real-world learning experience in auditing for accounting students. Groups of students play the game and ‘record’ their rolls as if they were actual business events. Moore developed a customized Excel file to record the rolls and thus produce the students’ set of financial statements. Paper receipts are given when cash changes hands.
When time is called, students get their records in order. They are then audited by another student, who has to interview them, go through their records, determine whether the financial statements accurately reflect what transpired and issue an audit opinion on the financial statements.
“They learn how to examine the records of another business, propose adjustments where warranted and communicate the results of their work to others,” said Moore.
Moore often invites alumni to act as the ‘banker’ for the auditing students. Pictured here is alumnus Justin Cook playing the simulation game with students.
“This simulation provides a concrete example of what certain aspects of auditing look like in practice and makes it easier to conceptualize carrying out various auditing tasks,” said Moore. “In a later presentation exercise, numerous students have referred to situations that come up during the MONOPOLY simulation to demonstrate auditing techniques or methods.”
“Auditing professors struggle to identify realistic instructional tools that have students complete actual auditing tasks. Several publicly available tools exist, but most appear contrived or based on artificial situations,” said Moore. “Igniting student interest in such tools can be challenging because of the perceived lack of real-world application. Other professors have developed simulations based on Monopoly, but none had extended their work to auditing.”
In addition, Moore has often invited alumni to come to the simulation to act as the ‘banker’ for the auditing students.