The impact of Coronavirus on accounting education
As we all know, the novel Coronavirus outbreak originating in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, is making itself known around the world. There are quarantines for those who have visited China and travel restrictions for certain visa holders/visitors who have recently been to China.
In Australia, those travel restrictions are impacting higher education. In an excellent piece in The Conversation, Ly Tran and Chris Ziguras write
This crisis hits hard for many Chinese students, an integral component of our campus communities. It not only causes disruptions to their study, accommodation, part-time employment and life plans, but also their mental well-being.
Salvatore Babone’s well cited study shows the dependence of universities, through their Business faculties on Chinese international students. As accounting educators, we see the large numbers of students that come into our programs in normally one of 2 ways
- Enrolment in a private college (often owned by the university) with a direct entry pathway into a Business/Commerce degree once an Advanced Diploma or similar is completed
- Enrolment in a Masters of Professional Accounting (often Extension programs to facilitate the ability for the student to apply for a post-study rights work visa)
Some universities have already started their academic year (for example, UNSW begins its Term 1 classes soon), with others coming up. In communicating with many of my accounting education colleagues this week, the responses from university administrators ranges from asking academics to find their own solutions, to asking everyone to wait for the institution-wide approach (while central T&L and technology staff madly test what does and does not work in China). This twitter post from Chris Deneen sums it up quite nicely!
What do we need to consider when it comes to online delivery?
Textbooks – many students I’ve been in touch with did not take physical textbooks on their journeys home because they only intended to stay for a short period. If they don’t have physical books – how can we provide them with access to an e-book alternative? Could an e-book be housed within the Library website to allow students to read it? And will publishers of books be willing to support this?
Learning Management Systems – all universities are trying to determine who can access what in China – and there are differing reports. What is working for one university doesn’t seem to be working for others.
Video – YouTube and Vimeo resources won’t stream in China. For resources we’ve created ourselves – they can be uploaded directly onto LMS servers or within LMS hosting platforms (eg Kaltura, Echo360 Canvas Studio). This assumes, of course, that our students can access the LMS from within China’s great firewall. David Kellerman from UNSW suggested Microsoft Stream if you have Office365 at your institution.
I have looked into using Chinese-based equivalents to YouTube such as Bilibilli and Youku – however trying to create an account on a website when you don’t read Chinese is quite challenging! Also – there may be data privacy issues since none of these sites are GDPR compliant.
This Twitter thread contains a lot of useful info on online video options
This is all fine for content that we own. But raises a sticky issue for resources we don’t create ourselves – eg pieces on YouTube from news outlets. We cannot simply download copyrighted content for re-use and distribution.
Quizzes – are there links to quizzes hosted on platforms such as those provided by book publishers? If they are – do they work from China? Or caught by internet filtering? Many colleagues use Google Forms to quiz students – that option definitely won’t work! Microsoft Forms might be an alternative for those with Office 365 subscriptions.
Assessments that require research – we know that Google is not accessible in China, but access is available to Bing (Microsoft’s search engine) which may give them the ability to conduct research required for assessments. We have been looking at our assessment rubrics – if research is a separate line/marks in the rubric – there is the option to re-weight the assessment so that they do everything except the research part which may be difficult with limited internet access.
Groupwork – is a major component of much of our accounting assessment. Zoom does allow you to have big classes and then put them into breakout rooms for smaller discussions. But do we group our students based on location? Microsoft Teams has nice solutions for group work – you can create private channels for students to work on group assessments and their work and communication is visible to the group members and educators.
Exams – for some universities like UNE and Deakin who have been providing online education for a long time – for them, online classes and exams are nothing new
However for the rest of us, what service is best? What if students don’t have their laptops with them and only have mobile phones? What infrastructure is required? And the big kicker – how much will this cost?
Supporting student mental health – this is a tough one – but we need to consider how we can help our students feel like they belong in the cohort and encourage them to engage online. I’ve always found this really tough within Blackboard – but for our students – creating a feeling of community and support will be essential during this time. If anyone has any suggestions – please leave them in the comments or email me!
What is going to be the impact on us as educators?
Regardless of what option your institution suggests – online delivery, block mode intensives when students can return, or some mix – the workload for academics and professional staff (especially in the edtech space) is going to increase. What are the options for handling this? Reduced research expectations? (unlikely 😂) Additional casual academic support? (maybe if your institution has the budget 🤷♀️)
If classes are reduced for 1st semester – that will certainly have an impact on our casual academics (especially at satellite campuses for universities in major cities that rely on Chinese international students and Masters of Professional Accounting programs).
If universities ask us to run regular classes plus intensive block modes when affected students are able to return – will we have the people power? The room capacity?
Can universities afford to suggest students delay returning until the start of 2nd semester?
I’ve also seen an option of creating additional Winter semesters – you know, in that time where most Australian and NZ accounting academics attend AFAANZ and other important conferences for research and belonging within the community.
What can we do to support each other?
The coming months are going to be tough – and we’re all going to have to follow our institution’s action plans – so here are my top tips on how we can support each other:
- Ask a colleague how they are going with the situation – I might not need someone to pitch in and help, but venting some of my frustration to a colleague can help!
- See if your department can have people working in teams – grouping subjects together
- Sharing what is working/not working on a regular basis – it could be a Teams/Slack channel, informal catch ups or email briefings
- Stay connected with your community online – whether that is by email or on platforms like Twitter
If you have any other challenges you’ve faced or suggestions on how we can support each other – please let me know!
Dr Amanda White is a lecturer in Accounting at the University of Technology Sydney. She is a mum to 2 boys – Audit Senior and Audit Junior and is an alumni of Coopers and Lybrand and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Amanda has been teaching accounting for almost 20 years and specialises in teaching auditing and assurance. She has a regular audit news show “This Week in Audit” and many audit and study resources on her YouTube channel Amanda Loves to Audit. In 2017 she received a Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning through the Awards for Australian University Teaching (AAUT, formerly the Office of Learning and Teaching).
UNE AIS Lecturer, Love your work.