The employment of a range of evidence-based engagement strategies to increase student motivation and engagement in Auditing

Synopsis

Auditing all over the world is documented as being the most difficult and boring of any course in an accounting degree. Being a heavily theoretical based subject with hardly any calculations, students often struggle to see the relevance of this unit. Conventional techniques do not usually work when students cannot engage with what they interpret as dry and dull content. Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic introduced additional challenges with a shift to fully online teaching. I have employed a number of evidence-based engagement strategies including the integration of story-telling, incorporation of real-life examples with visual aids, stimulating online questions and interactive live-streamed lectures in both my undergraduate and postgraduate auditing units. I have experienced a sustained 47-fold increase in undergraduate engagement and a 32-fold increase in postgraduate student engagement since the introduction of these techniques. Further to these statistics, qualitative student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive with numerous students noting their initial reluctance to engage with the unit because their preconceived notion was that auditing would be dry and dull, only to find it very engaging and as a result are now pursing auditing as a career path. This teaching method demonstrates that it is possible to engage students in traditionally difficult units throughout lockdowns and into the new normal.

Dr Supawadee (Bee) Moss