Students Create Virtual Factory to Assist in Curriculum Redesign

 BMACC student Meredith Bowdle discusses the virtual factory's operation during the student's video. 

As the faculty and administration at the Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University undertake efforts to provide students with more meaningful and interactive learning experiences, they have undertaken innovative curriculum upgrades to achieve those objectives. In January 2020, accounting lecturer, Nancy Jones and the chair of the Charles W. Lamden School of Accountancy, Janie Chang, received a $50,000 grant through the Student Success Initiative to redesign the managerial accounting fundamentals course (ACCTG 202) to make the course more impactful and engaging for students. 

"While playing the simulation, the students will be able to demonstrate critical thinking and analytic skills to make appropriate decisions in teams."

-Piyush Kurkure, ACCTG 202
Student Assistant

Jones and Chang piloted their redesigned curriculum to one section of students in fall 2020 to gauge student feedback. In spring semester 2021, five of the six ACCTG 202 courses were offered in the new format. The curriculum will be rolled out to all ACCTG 202 courses for the fall of 2021. 

“When the decision was made to redesign the course, we wanted to focus on student outcomes to make the class more engaging and to help students understand and retain managerial accounting concepts and to understand business processes,” said Jones. 

To test the new course materials, students were asked to act as employees of a virtual muesli manufacturer called ERPSim International. The teams were next tasked with applying accounting practices to the manufacturing process to create reports using the ERP application and MS Excel to share their results.  The team of student assistants, finance major Jayce Gispan, BMACC student Meredith Bowdle, and computer science M.S. student Piyush Kurkure, created an innovative virtual muesli factory that they showcased in a video to demonstrate the production process and highlight the reports that could be generated using the application.  

The student-produced video describes how the supply chain management reports fit into the scenario.

This exercise not only allowed students to visualize the outcomes of their decisions, but also helped them to learn from their mistakes and their successes while gaining proficiency in the use of managerial accounting concepts to run a business. 

“The newly re-designed ACCTG 202 course has been one of the best classes that I have taken at SDSU,” said Gispan. “The hands-on experience gained from running the business simulation has helped me develop invaluable skills that have better prepared me to succeed in the business world. I am proud to be a part of the implementation of the new course design, and I hope that more courses at SDSU will follow suit by integrating more hands-on experiences into their curricula.”