Search results

The commercial spreadsheet is 21 years old and is now a commonplace business tool. To assess its impact on today’s modern business, this paper presents research based on a questionnaire survey of 227 respondents drawn from a range of business disciplines, and at various levels within their organisations. The results suggests that over 80 per cent are regular spreadsheet users, with Excel being the dominant spreadsheet. However, while its use in a variety of business applications is apparent, often only relatively low‐level features of the spreadsheet are utilised. Limited and inappropriate training persists and it is argued that unless this issue is embraced and appropriate resources channelled into developing expertise in this area, companies are unlikely to fully capitalise on the potential of the spreadsheet to encourage knowledge transfer and enhance workplace performance.

The lecture method has been compared with teaching methods such as flip learning, cooperative learning and simulations to establish which holds the key to students' understanding of concepts. What is bereft in the education literature is its comparative efficiency with the culturo-techno contextual approach (CTCA) in the teaching of computer science education.

This study adopted the quasi-experimental design to determine the efficacy of the CTCA in breaking difficulties related to the study of spreadsheets as a difficult concept in the Nigerian computer science education curriculum. Junior high school students studying computer science education participated in the study. The control group had 30 students, with 35 students in the experimental group. The experimental group was taught using CTCA, while the control group used the lecture method. The spread sheet achievement test, which had 40 items on spreadsheet, was used to collect data.

The results showed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group [F (1,60) = 41.89; p < 0.05]. The findings showed the potential of CTCA in improving students' performance in spreadsheets in the computer science education curriculum.

The originality of this study is hinged on its ground-breaking test of the CTCA to the study of the spreadsheet. The findings of this study indicate its efficacy in improving students' understanding of spreadsheet and computer science education.

This paper aims to investigate the alignment between the information technology (IT) knowledge/skills importance or required by the business environment and the IT knowledge/skills integration level in the accounting curriculum in the specific context of Egyptian universities.

Data were collected from a survey of 249 accountant lecturers by emails.

The results indicate that the most important technologies are generalized audit software, embedded audit modules/real-time modules, small business accounting software, computer-aided systems engineering tools, test data and tax return preparation software, and the most technologies integrated in the accounting curriculum in Egypt are wording processing, electronic spreadsheets and electronic presentations. These results mean there is a gap between what is required and what is integrated in the accounting curriculum.

This study is the first attempt to investigate the alignment between the IT required and integrated in the accounting curriculum, especially in Egypt.

Knowledge of spreadsheet tools like Microsoft Excel is a valuable skill to have in today’s job market. The preliminary assessment of a group of business school students shows that most of them struggle to perform simple tasks in a spreadsheet. The purpose of this paper is to propose using student tutors to teach these skills.

The authors identify students proficient in Excel as tutors and organize one-on-one peer tutoring lessons. The authors compare the Excel competency level of students prior to and after the tutoring sessions.

The results suggest that most students with minimal Excel skills significantly improve their competency level after tutoring.

The proposed hands-on approach appears to be effective in helping students acquire basic Excel capabilities.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how a foreign invested manufacturing company’s (FIMC) components sourcing process evolves in order to improve its supply chain outcomes in the context of China’s processing trade.

Grounded in the theory bases of the international sourcing process and supply chain integration, this study utilizes a single-case-study approach with a small- to medium-sized FIMC engaged in China’s processing trade.

This study identifies three stages of the components sourcing process: simple assembly stage, components localization stage and supply chain integration stage. In addition, the case study suggests that the type of processing trade evolves from processing with supplied materials to processing with imported materials as the sourcing process proceeds through the three stages and the internal and external environments change.

To our knowledge, this paper is the first to focus on an FIMC’s components sourcing process in the context of China’s processing trade. It contributes to a better understanding of how FIMCs progress through the components sourcing process and apply different types of processing trade in China to maximize their supply chain outcomes.

The purpose of the study is to examine the effects of “flipping the classroom” on student performance, evaluation, and attendance in managerial accounting principles.

The study uses a crossed within-participants research design (each student experiencing both traditional instruction and simplified flipped instruction) allowing for control of individual differences between students; repeated-measures regression analysis for overall effects; quantile regression for performance-segregated effects.

Flipping the classroom resulted in significant performance improvement, particularly for lower performing students. Course evaluations indicate a few instructor-related ratings were lower for the flipped approach. Attendance was lower under the flipped approach for initial class meetings where the instructional manipulation occurred.

The study design included a weak form of flipping. A stronger form of flipping with greater incentives for class preparation as well as lecture videos could have stronger results.

Flipping the classroom could be effective for application-oriented accounting courses, particularly for lower performing students.

This is one of very few studies on flipping providing evidence of effectiveness using a crossed within-participants research design.

Successful performance and execution of construction projects depend highly on a good project control system capable of tracking and reporting project status on a desired time interval. The purpose of this paper is to propose such a control system by integrating spreadsheet and Visual Basic for Application to produce a customized tracking system for Pipeline Relocation Programs under Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management (EPCM) contracts.

The project status reporting system (PSRS) proposed here was developed to produce a single page summary report that would include scope information, financial status, descriptive status updates and top-level task schedules. This information is retrieved from various sources and transformed further utilizing specific formulas and algorithm needed to compute the budget and schedule status of the pipe relocation project. A practical case study is used to demonstrate its unique application.

The system has successfully integrated project finance and schedule information into a central control hub. Financial and schedule performance of a project is tracked and monitored by the PSRS automatically.

The proposed system utilizes the powerful computing capability of MS Excel and the user-friendly VBA programming tool to customize the reporting needs of a project and program environment. The proposed system, whose functionality has been validated by the intended users, tries to achieve a balance between simplicity, accuracy and effectiveness for the flow of information at a much lower cost compared to the other readily available project control software.

The purpose of this paper is to explore a set of literature in order to clarify the flipped classroom methods (FCM) theoretical frameworks and to determine if the evidence shows improvements in learning for students in comparison with traditional teaching methods.

The paper took a literature review approach and explored five articles selected with specific criteria of being published within 2013-2014 and that used comparisons with flipped and traditional classroom methods that employed analysis of student assessment outcomes.

The paper shows inconsistent theoretical frameworks and inconclusive evidence of an improvement in assessment outcomes for students. It finds the research undertaken in the literature is limited in scope and suggests further research into the FCM is required to determine consistent theoretical frameworks and methods.

The findings of the paper may be limited by the selection of literature reviewed and generalisability therefore researchers are encouraged to explore further.

The paper holds potential implications to question the consistency, validity and benefits of the flipped classroom.

Many anecdotal articles herald the flipped classroom as a method of improving learning outcomes for students, however, academic literature suggests the evidence is inconclusive and there are implications on using educational methods based on technology.

The paper identifies the need for further research into the flipped classroom and supports the advancement of educational methodology.

In the last five years, more and more universities have ventured into offering library courses on the distance mode, without any major increase in the demand for library professionals in the Indian job market. The motivations behind this practice are visible to a curious observer, and it is attempted in this paper, to list unusual conditions of the distance learning practice for library and information science education in India. A comparison of the library professional with an engineering professional is explored to arrive at the facts. Since accurate data about the number of library jobs is not available, two models were constructed to justify that the demand on library jobs is fully satisfied by the regular courses. The aspirations of working graduates of libraries to become professionally competent can be satisfied by resorting to an “accommodative” attitude by library schools. The challenges posed by the unchecked growth on distance education can be tackled only by the formation of a Library Education Council (LEC) with proper support by the professionals, administrators and professional organisations.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Soil Conservation Services (SCS) rainfall-runoff model has been applied worldwide since 1954 and adopted by Malaysian government agencies. Malaysia does not have regional specific curve numbers (CN) available for the use in rainfall-runoff modelling, and therefore a SCS-CN practitioner has no option but to adopt its guideline and handbook values which are specific to the US region. The selection of CN to represent a watershed becomes subjective and even inconsistent to represent similar land cover area. In recent decades, hydrologists argue about the accuracy of the predicted runoff results from the model and challenge the validity of the key parameter, initial abstraction ratio coefficient (λ) and the use of CN. Unlike the conventional SCS-CN technique, the proposed calibration methodology in this chapter discarded the use of CN as input to the SCS model and derived statistically significant CN value of a specific region through rainfall-runoff events directly under the guide of inferential statistics. Between July and October of 2004, the derived λ was 0.015, while λ = 0.20 was rejected at alpha = 0.01 level at Melana watershed in Johor, Malaysia. Optimum CN of 88.9 was derived from the 99% confidence interval range from 87.4 to 96.6 at Melana watershed. Residual sum of square (RSS) was reduced by 79% while the runoff model of Nash–Sutcliffe was improved by 233%. The SCS rainfall-runoff model can be calibrated quickly to address urban runoff prediction challenge under rapid land use and land cover changes.