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To explain a new set of rules, detailed in FINRA Regulatory Notice 17-30, proposed by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that revise and streamline the number and types of proficiency exams broker-dealer personnel must take in order to become registered, as well as the categories of registration.

Discusses the background, including FINRA’s consolidation of National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) rules; the new registration regime; conditions for waivers; criteria for “permissive” registration; firms’ requirement to designate “Principal Financial Officers” and “Principal Operations Officers”; new categories of principal registration; FINRA’s elimination of certain registration categories; research analyst, research principal and supervisory analyst exam requirements; the ability of a registered representative to function as a principal for a limited period; the prohibition of unregistered persons to accept orders from customers; and the Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) Examination Content Outline.

The new structure is intended to bring greater consistency and uniformity to the qualification process. Among other changes, it eliminates several registration categories that either have become outdated or have limited utility, permits persons not yet associated with a broker-dealer or employed in the securities industry to take a preliminary registration exam prior to entering the securities industry, and makes other changes intended to modernize the registration and examination regime for broker-dealer personnel.

Practical guidance from lawyers with broad stock brokerage, investment management and related financial services experience.

The subject area of the assignment is accounting education and testing techniques.

This paper details an effective method to create individualized assignments and testing materials. Using a spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel), the creation of the unique assignments and answer keys can be semi-automated to reduce the grading difficulties of unique assignments.

Because students are using a unique data set for each assignment, the students are able to more effectively engage in student to student teaching. This process of unique assignments allows students to collaborate without fear that a single student would provide the answers. As tax laws (e.g., credit and deduction phase-outs, tax rates, and dependents) change depending on the level of income and other factors, an individualized test is ideal in a taxation course.

The unique assignments allow instructors to create markedly different scenarios for each student. Using this testing method requires that the student thoroughly understands the conceptual processes as the questions cannot be predicted. A list of supplementary materials is included, covering sample questions, conversion to codes, and sample assignment questions.

This technique creates opportunities for students to have unique assignments encouraging student to student teaching and can be applied to assignments in any accounting course (undergraduate and graduate). This testing method has been used in Intermediate I and II, Individual Taxation, and Corporate Taxation.

This paper aims to describe the unique library, research and information literacy skills that transfer students need, specifically at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, which led to the creation, recruitment and appointment of a Transfer Student Services Librarian at William Madison Randall Library (Randall Library).

Along with a brief review of the relevant literature, this paper describes the specific needs that were identified that led to the creation of the position; the unique gaps in information skills that transfer students have; how the university was addressing the needs of transfer students; how the library became focused on the needs of this population of students; how the library began collaborating with campus partners to address these needs; and, to date, how the position has impacted transfer students.

An increase in the number of transfer students from community colleges, four year institutions and military service combined with the institution’s information literacy curriculum requirements, led to the creation of a new position called “Transfer Student Services Librarian”.

Academic libraries wishing to explore the creation of such a position, or wanting to assess their own institution’s needs for their transfer student population, will benefit from this paper.

Few, if any, libraries have adopted a position specifically for transfer student services and this paper addresses how to assess the need and decide on practical applications for other academic libraries.

The objective of this study was to compare three distinct methods of test monitoring in the context of distance education—non-proctored remote or online tests, traditional face-to-face proctored tests and remotely proctored tests using software—to analyze if the method in which tests are monitored influences the obtained grades.

The experiment was carried out at the postgraduate level in the Master's Degree in Administration program in the modality of distance education, with a total of 296 students during three terms wherein the monitoring method of the final exam varied, keeping the other variables constant. This study used a quantitative method in which the distribution of grades was analyzed; and the grades from each method were tested. Finally, using a multiple linear regression model with dichotomous variables, the impact on students' academic performance with each method was quantified.

The results indicated that the remotely proctored online test grades were seven points lower with respect to the traditional method. This result does not mean that the lower scores in the remote proctored condition were due to better adherence to academic honesty, maybe this could be due to test anxiety, technology interference or a number of other factors that would confound the validity of the final test score.

The results indicated that the non-proctored online test favored the grade in four points with respect to the traditional method.

The authors conclude to support recommending non-proctored online test, this can be a closer substitute to the traditional method than remote application with software monitoring.

Not exist another paper to compare three distinct methods of test monitoring in the context of distance education.

This study examines the impact of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), particularly ChatGPT, on higher education (HE). The ease with which content can be generated using GenAI has raised concerns across academia regarding its role in academic contexts, particularly regarding summative assessments. This research makes a unique contribution to the literature by examining university student and staff perceptions of current and future issues pertaining to the role of GenAI in universities.

A qualitative method involving five one-to-one semi-structured interviews with four students and a lecturer explored the ethical and practical issues of GenAI text generation in academia. An inductive thematic analysis was chosen as it provided nuanced insights aligned with the study’s goals.

Use of GenAI was discussed within the context of a range of topics, including perceptions of academic misconduct, authorial integrity and issues pertaining to university policies. Participants universally defined traditional classifications of academic misconduct but were unable to provide clear definitions where the use of GenAI was included for writing summative assessments. Students showed a more open engagement with GenAI, considering it a tool for overcoming obstacles rather than a means to plagiarise. Educators were generally more cautious and less optimistic about the academic role of GenAI. Lack of clear institutional policies surrounding such tools also contributed to ethical ambiguities.

The study highlights diverging perspectives between students and academics, which necessitate a forum for dialogue, ensuring the need to develop clear policies to steer the integration of GenAI in a manner that is beneficial for students and academics.

Exam administration during the COVID-19 pandemic represents a challenge for most schools. This paper aims to document the experience of a business school in a developing country context.

This paper is conceptual in its approach highlighting how exam administration was handled during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Notably, exams were replaced by research assessments. This paper presents best practices and lessons learnt in this domain.

This practice paper represents one of the few research studies that highlighted the mechanisms underlying the replacement of exams with research projects during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Puerto Rico (PR) is among the US jurisdictions with the lowest passing rates on the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam (National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA), 2016, 2017). No prior studies have addressed this issue. To fill this gap, the authors conducted a survey among candidates to examine the factors perceived as challenges on the exam. The authors also studied the relationship between respondents’ individual, educational, and CPA exam-related characteristics and the likelihood of success on the exam. Results reveal there are three factors perceived by respondents as their main challenges: level of technical difficulty, cost of the exam, and not enough time to study for the exam. Additional analysis indicates that age, major Grade Point Average, weekly study hours, and the time interval between graduation and the first attempt at the exam are significant factors that affect the passing rates on the exam. These findings suggest that a combination of individual, educational, and exam-related factors affect Puerto Rican candidates’ results on the exam. The socioeconomic background of PR may heighten the impact of such factors. Considering that the accounting profession is always adapting to the evolutionary demands of the business environment, these results may contribute to the development of adequate measures in support of Puerto Rican and other minorities with diverse backgrounds.

Recent changes to the Uniform Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Exam provide an occasion to widely and broadly reflect about the longer run trajectory of the nature of this exam and about professional licensure. Based on a review of recent changes, we develop a set of general purposes served by the exam. We discuss the relative consistency between these purposes and academic values with the goal of evaluating the alignment of exam objectives with academic values. Concluding that accounting education and admission to accounting practice are not perfectly parallel, the chapter reviews the possibilities for academics to adjust our values or to alter our pedagogical practices. Furthermore, for a variety of reasons, the CPA Examination makes fewer appearances in the accounting education literature than it did in the past. We offer recommendations to reduce the points of schism and propose research relevant to the problem.

The purpose of the study is to analyse the perception of students toward a computer-based exam on a custom-made digital device and their willingness to adopt the same for high-stake summative assessment.

This study followed an analytical methodology using survey design. A modified version of students’ perception of e-assessment questionnaire (SPEAQ) was used to elicit information from the subjects, who were drawn from a first-year post-graduate course in management and commerce, soliciting voluntary participation in the survey. SmartPLS 2.0 was the major analytical tool used to understand the theoretical robustness of observed and latent variables through structural equation modelling. The final model was retained based on the structural significance of the path coefficients.

The results of the study offer ample evidence to establish the proposed theoretical relationship. It was found that the subjects of the study maintained a positive attitude toward e-assessment. Hence, the introduction of e-exams for high-stake assessment is suitable to current generation students.

Findings of the study may be irrelevant to students who are not subject to e-learning processes, as an e-assessment can only be effective when students have ample exposure to working on computers.

A major practical implication of the study is that e-exams will positively influence the outcome of education and effectiveness of the teaching–learning process. Technology, as an eclectic paradigm, can amplify the educational outcome by boosting the competency of students to meet challenges of any emerging situations.

The idea of an e-exam, using a custom-made device, is unprecedented. This paper offers a convincing empirical evidence to academic administrators to integrate e-assessment with e-learning programs.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) is charged with maintaining the relevance of the Uniform CPA exam to ensure that those who pass the exam and become certified have the skills and abilities to keep pace with the ever-changing accounting profession. For students pursuing the CPA designation, passing the Uniform CPA exam, and meeting the 150-hour requirement are key factors. With the launch of the latest version of the Uniform CPA exam in 2017, the question about whether educators should adapt their existing courses to meet the new CPA exam structure and focus is up for debate. This chapter contains a review of the proposed changes to the Uniform CPA exam by the AICPA and various statistics regarding historical pass rates. Further, the chapter includes the results of a survey about whether accounting faculty plan to adjust their courses to reflect the changes to the exam and whether they feel pressure from various stakeholders to improve CPA exam pass rates for their respective institutions.