VIRTUAL STOCK-TAKING: AN EXPERIENCE OF CO-PRESENCE FOR

VIRTUAL STOCK-TAKING: AN EXPERIENCE OF CO-PRESENCE

FOR ACCOUNTANCY STUDENTS

Mr. Lee Koon Yew, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore, [email protected]

Mrs. Tiew-Teo Hui Leng, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore, [email protected]

Abstract

Undertaken as part of an action research project to explore the use of interactive digital

media platforms for innovative teaching and learning in the field of accountancy, this

paper discusses two cycles of a pioneering project using a 3D immersive virtual world to

develop the requisite knowledge and skills of stock-taking in final year students of the

Diploma in Accountancy programme at Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

This paper will outline why the Sun Wonderland platform, at version 0.4 when it was

first encountered in July 2008, was considered. It will discuss the challenges faced in

encouraging lecturer buy-in given the apparent disconnect between 3D immersive virtual

worlds and the teaching of accounting knowledge and skills. Such worlds were seen as

gaming platforms and deemed to have little relevance to teaching in accountancy. This

stage therefore involved a gentle introduction to 3D immersive virtual worlds and the

experience of its look and feel. This ultimately involved orientating lecturers to the

possibilities of the new, and initially, disorientating concept of immersive-world co-

presence which is the sense of being bodily present and mobile in the company of other

bodily present persons in a remote or virtual space.

This paper will then detail the process of reviewing the possibilities co-presence offered

for teaching and learning and the affordances of the Sun Wonderland platform against the

backdrop of t

the reasons why the stock-taking experience was eventually identified as the accounting

context for the pilot as well as the key features of the initial immersive learning event

which were designed with the intent to exploit the affordance of co-presence. The virtual

and immersive learning experience would require students to explore, collaborate, and

conduct the stock-take in the immersive space. They would then be expected to reflect

on their learning outcomes and the experience.

Cycle 1 of this action research project took place in May 2009 and involved two lecturers

and 167 students while Cycle 2 in November 2009 involved two lecturers and 127

students. This paper will share its key findings and outcomes from both cycles including

student and staff feedback and possible modifications to the learning design for future

cycles.

This paper will close with a brief summary of two key aspects of this action research

project; the key considerations when introducing new technology to trigger innovation in

teaching and learning and the relevance of 3D immersive virtual worlds to the teaching

and learning of accounting knowledge and skills.

Keywords

virtual stock-taking, co-presence, & 3D immersive virtual world

ICT2010 Singapore • 30 June – 2 July 2010.Copyright ©ICT2010 Organising Committee.

179

Introduction

The Diploma in Accountancy is a specialized three-year course offered by the School of

Business & Accountancy in Ngee Ann Polytechnic, one of the five polytechnics in

Singapore. is one of the modules taken by level 3 students in the Diploma.

This module builds and expands on the . ,

students learn basic concepts, principles and the process of conducting a financial

statement audit and how to collect evidence to ascertain whether financial statements are

prepared in accordance with the relevant accounting standards.

, advanced areas of audit requiring professional judgment such as

materiality, risk assessment, audit opinions, legal and ethical duties of an auditor are

introduced (School of Business & Accountancy, 2009).

Having taught these auditing modules for many years, we were familiar with our

because they had little or no prior work experience in the auditing field. We were keen to

find pedagogical strategies and approaches that we could introduce into the curriculum

that wo gap for our students.

Educational Possibilities of Virtual Worlds

forum organized by

Learning Centre (TLC) in August 2008 ,

an open source virtual world platform was showcased, the possibility of using a virtual

world platform to teach was raised with colleagues. Most were hesitant as

they were unable to see the relevance of such a platform to teach auditing concepts and

more critically, to develop auditing skills.

It was difficult to see what a multi-user 3D online environment which enabled users to

customize a virtual representation of themselves for amusement and entertainment could

bring to the teaching of auditing knowledge and skills. It was of little relevance that the

virtual representations called avatars, could walk, sit, talk in voice and text, emote,

communicate with others and generally interact with and within the 3D environment.

The fact that the 3D immersive world could be customized to mirror the real world also

initially seemed to offer little value to the teaching of auditing.

While we marveled at the potential of co-presence, which is the sense of being bodily

present and mobile in the company of other bodily present persons in a remote or virtual

space (Zhao, 2001), many saw this as a value proposition for online gaming rather than

an opportunity for the teaching of auditing. However, it was precisely the opportunity for

co-presence in an environment that could mirror a space in the real-world that we felt

faced when they encountered various auditing concepts and theories.

Why Stock-taking

After some deliberation, the topic of stock-taking was chosen to pilot the use of a 3D

immersive virtual world platform. While the knowledge, skills and attitudes for the topic

of stock taking are best taught by providing students with the actual experience of

participating in a real world stock-take, there are practical limitations to this approach. It

180 ICT2010 Singapore • 30 June–2 July 2010

is difficult, if not impossible; to source for multiple companies that would welcome and

be able to provide sufficient places for all our students to participate in an actual stock-

take exercise. Hence the topic has continued to be taught primarily through the lecture

method supplemented with tutorial discussions on the concepts and skills required for a

stock-take.

The co-presence features of the 3D immersive virtual world opened up the possibility of

introducing a real-world stock take, albeit a virtual one, into our curriculum for all

students to experience and learn from.

Immersive Learning Design

The immersive learning design we put together was adapted from the 9 features for great

activity-based virtual world learning as recommended by Calonge, 2008:

Self: Customizing the avatar;

Exploration: Moving around the world;

Communication: Sharing information with others;

Navigation: Looking at 3D content;

Interaction: Using 3D objects;

Creation: Designing a class project;

Delivery: Giving the projects to the instructor;

Assessment: Evaluating projects

Feedback: Compiling progress and performance reports.

Using the list above as a guide, we crafted the initial parameters for the virtual stock-take

assignment. Students would be able to customize avatars representing themselves in the

virtual world and they would have to navigate through three rooms to complete the

activities designed. Screenshots of the rooms for Cycle 1 and Cycle 2 can be found in

Appendix 1 and 2 respectively.

In the first room, students would access resources to learn concepts and techniques for

carrying out a stock-take observation. Here the students would interact with each other

and discuss issues they may have regarding the assignment. In the second room, students

would work collaboratively in groups of 4 to 5 to conduct a stock-take exercise assigned

to them. They would interact with graphical representations of stocks and would be able

to record the quantities and observations of conditions of stocks.

In the last room, students would complete the audit work papers in their respective

groups with the opportunity to interact with other students to exchange notes on their

experience. Their completed audit work papers, individual reflections of their virtual

stock-taking experience and their suggestions for improvement would be submitted via

MeL which is the Blackboard content management system used by the Polytechnic.

These submissions would be assessed based on the number of correct observations and

specific follow-up comments for the audit work papers and the amount of effort made to

reflect and suggest improvements to their virtual stock-taking experience. More details

of the learning outcomes, learning activities and assessment methods can be found in

Table 1 in Appendix 3.

ICT2010 Singapore • 30 June–2 July 2010 181

The virtual stock-take assignment was designed to run during one of the e-learning weeks

scheduled by the School of Business and Accountancy, during which time no face-to-face

classes are conducted as teaching and learning activities are fully online. Students would

be given the details of the assignment the week before and expected to carry out the task

intern

Our Action Research Question and Methodology

To determine whether and how the use of the 3D immersive virtual world had impacted

the learning experience of students we adopted a mixed method research framework. Our

population for the study included in Cycle 1, all the 167 students enrolled

for the April 2009 semester, and in Cycle 2, all the 127 students enrolled in the module

for the October 2009 semester.

We collected and reviewed the following data to give us insights into the learning

experience: individual survey responses and reflections by students,

the completed audit work papers, and semi-structured interviews with teaching staff after

completion of the virtual stock-taking assignment. Observations from these data were

triangulated by observations of

world.

In Cycle 2, student comments and reflection were analysed using broadly the Miles and

Huberman (1994) framework for qualitative analysis which comprises data reduction,

data display and drawing and verifying conclusions. This entailed coding and memoing

draw

conclusions about recurrent themes.

Our Findings

survey from the 6 tutorial groups from the October 2009 semester garnered 71

responses which accounted for 56% of the cohort. While this response rate may appear

to be low, we felt that external validity was not significantly impaired as there was more

than 50% representation from every tutorial group and the 70% female and 30% male

participation was a close approximation to population characteristics of 69% females to

31% males. 66% of the respondents have played multiplayer online role-playing games

previously but only 34% of the respondents have participated in a real stock-take prior to

attending this virtual one.

Based on the responses from the October 2009 semester cohort, 93% of the respondents

found the virtual stock take assignment to be an engaging learning experience. 82% of

the students who responded also agreed that the virtual stock-take allowed for deeper

learning of the topic in comparison with the traditional lecture and tutorial method. 89%

of them also felt that the assignment encouraged collaboration and teamwork within their

group.

Furthermore, 86% of the respondents would strongly recommend repeating this

assignment for the next cohort of students while 79% of them would welcome learning

other topics or modules using similar 3D immersive virtual world platforms.


(i) Review of reflections from Cycle 1

idual reflections from Cycle 1 indicated that students appreciated

the new learning experience but highlighted three key areas for improvement to

the learning design and experience; the lag-time experience, the desire for more

realism, and the need for familiarization sessions to help students learn how to be

co-present in the 3D environment.

Lag time

The key issue faced was frustration over the length of time taken for the avatars to

navigate around the virtual world which led to delays in completing the

assignment. This situation arose because of the gap between the technical

cal requirements to run the

3D virtual world. To address this issue, students in Cycle 2 were scheduled to use

the latest desktops computers available at the new Studio@27 in the Polytechnic

which would be able to handle the graphic-rich virtual stock-taking platform and

reduce the delays experienced in Cycle 1.

More realism

Cycle 1 used only two dimensional graphical representations of stocks within the

virtual world. Students found the graphics and scenarios too basic, simplistic, and

un-real given that they were in an immersive, 3D environment. To improve on

the interface experience for Cycle 2, we made the stocks three dimensional and

allowed the avatars to move items in the virtual warehouse when they count to

make the experience more realistic. We also created more areas so students could

explore the virtual space to locate the virtual warehouse for stock-taking.

Familiarisation sessions

Some students in Cycle 1 experienced frustration primarily because, compared to

their peers, they were not familiar with navigating the gaming environment of

virtual world. For Cycle 2, to help students avoid the above frustration,

familiarisation sessions at Studio@27 were conducted one week before the e-

learning week.

(ii) Analysis of reflections from Cycle 2

were analysed broadly using the

Miles and Huberman (1994) approach. 32 codes ranging from technical aspects

of the experience, to comments on the perceived value of the experience to their

learning through to suggestions for improvement were used to analyse the data.

The coding analysis yielded 513 code counts in total with each of the 32 codes

receiving code counts from between 2 and 63 references and Table 2 in Appendix

4 shows the results of the coding.

This qualitative analysis of the data suggested to us that the positive

perceptions were strong enough to balance and compensate for their experience of

lag which students still seemed to experience despite having access to computers

with better speed and graphics capabilities. They appear to have appreciated the

new learning approach and felt that the experience was interesting, fun and


allowed them to learn about stock-taking techniques in a hands-on and interactive

manner.

Students indicated appreciation of our efforts to introduce a new learning

approach and felt that they were better able to learn the stock-taking concepts

using the 3D immersive virtual world approach rather than a traditional lecture

and tutorial approach. Many had not encountered a virtual world before this

experience and were also excited about being able to develop new e-competency

of collaboration through co-presence in a remote or virtual space.

Cycle 1 and Cycle 2:

- Overall I think the whole virtual world experience is insightful and beneficial. I am able to try out how a stock take is conducted and (it) has allowed me to gain a

- The virtual stock taking activity was a really amusing and educational experience. Virtual world really lived up to the hype of being a synchronous

interactive space for learning. The experience was a rather astonishing one as it

was the first time learning felt like a gaming session to me. I am glad that I was

provided with the opportunity to learn the intricacies of stock-take observation on

a hands- on basis

-

S and assignment results

The completed audit work papers submitted by the students provided further evidence

that they had grasped the stock-take concepts and techniques; and the objectives of the

virtual stock-taking assignment were met. Majority of the students were able to perform

the appropriate procedures in carrying out a stock-take and were also able to document

the findings and observations arising from their test count.

As for the assignment results, the students scored an average mark of 72% for the April

2009 semester and 73.2% for the October 2009 semester. Table 3 & Table 4 in Appendix

5 show the respective grade distributions. From the tables, it can be seen that most

students had achieved a good grade for the virtual stock-taking assignment. 44% of the

grade. Only 2% of the students had failed the assignment and these students had clearly

not put in the effort.

Re

The conducted their virtual

stock- In many of

the recordings for Cycle 1, it could be seen that there was delay while the avatars tried to

navigate from room to room and while waiting for other avatars to complete their

activities.

were frustrated by the lag in the system but were resourceful in trying to troubleshoot by

asking other students in the virtual room.


For Cycle 2, it could be seen from the recordings that there was collaboration occurring

among the students as there were discussions on navigational challenges as well as

sharing of their results of their stock-take observation.

Staff feedback

Findings from the reflections and recordings were similarly echoed in the feedback from

the staff t in both semesters. When the teaching staff asked students

about their learning experience, students had mentioned that the experience made

learning the topic of stock-take more practical and hands-on but highlighted that some

groups took hours to complete the assignment due to the lag and slow processing speed

of their laptops in Cycle 1.

For Cycle 2, teaching staff reported that students had expressed their wish for more

complex and challenging stock-taking scenarios which would require searching for

stocks. They also requested for more enhancement features such as sound features when

stocks were counted.

Improvements

After reviewing staff feedback from Cycle 2, the following are

possible modifications to the learning design being considered for future cycles:

Incorporating a client avatar to pose as the store supervisor to allow for

interaction between the avatars to increase the level of realism and co-presence in

the virtual stock-taking platform so that students could communicate and clarify

their observations.

Allowing access from home. Due to security concerns over access issues, the

Computer Centre did not allow students to access the virtual stock-

taking platform from home. Instead, students had to come back to campus to log

into the platform through the intranet. As this assignment was meant to be an e-

learning experience, allowing students to access from home would encourage

more participation and collaboration among group members as they would have

to communicate mainly through their avatars instead of talking face-to-face in

Studio@27.

Conclusion

One key consideration when introducing new technology to trigger pedagogical

innovation is the technical challenges of the technology in terms of bandwidth, processor

speeds and memory size. From our experience in both cycles, students tend to get

distracted easily by any technology glitches and lose track of the learning objectives of

the assignment -rich

3D immersive virtual world or alternative resources must be made available to them to

successfully deal with these technical challenges.

Another important consideration

platforms for learning purposes. In this current world where students are constantly

exposed to interactive media rich platforms, they would have high expectations in terms

of graphics and features of any online courseware or virtual world platforms used for

education. Student expectations of technology performance need to be framed and


managed from the start especially when experimenting with emerging technologies for

learning.

The final consideration is that when new technologies are introduced for learning, what

helps both students and staff experience to the benefits is when the technologies help to

create new learning opportunities which are not possible otherwise. Students and staff

found the use of 3D immersive virtual worlds to be relevant and useful, despite the strong

negative experience of lag, as it allowed students to experience and gain from a learning

event previously not accessible to them. Had the 3D virtual world been used merely as a

virtualization of the lecture event, its use would very likely have been experienced as

irrelevant and frustrating.

The implications for practice are both encouraging and challenging. We were happy to

note that students acknowledged our efforts and appreciated learning stock-taking

concepts and techniques in the virtual world platform, which they have found to be more

hands-on and practical than the current model of lecture and tutorial style of learning. As

the virtual stock-taking assignment required students to work collaboratively and to

reflect on their learning experience, students have taken more ownership and were more

engaged in their learning, which are features of learner centered learning.

Furthermore, instead of creating a single user courseware to teach students stock-taking

skills, the 3D immersive virtual world platform afforded students the co-presence

experience and the opportunity to feel connected with others and thus encourage

participation which is generally lacking when using single user courseware.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our colleagues, in particular, Ms Shirley Williams who have been

most generous in sharing her comments and observations without which this paper would

not be possible. We would also like to acknowledge the assistance given by TLC, in

particular, Mr Ng Kay Peng and his team, who had been most patient in demonstrating

the platform, facilitating the meetings with vendors, providing technical assistance and

troubleshooting problems encountered and answering all our queries.


APPENDIX 1

Screenshots of Rooms from Cycle 1

Room 1: Briefing Room

Room 2: Warehouse Room

Room 3: Auditing Room


APPENDIX 2

Screenshots of Rooms from Cycle 2

Room 1: Briefing Room

Room 2: Warehouse Room

Room 3: Auditing Room


AP

PE

ND

IX 3

Tab

le 1

: C

urr

iculu

m P

ackag

e fo

r V

irtu

al S

tock

-tak

ing A

ssig

nm

ent

Lea

rnin

g O

utc

om

es

Lea

rnin

g A

ctiv

itie

s R

eso

urc

es

Ass

essm

ent

Co

mm

ents

Co

nte

nt

Sp

ecif

ic K

no

wle

dg

e &

Sk

ill

Ou

tco

mes

1.0

Un

der

sta

nd

key

co

ntr

ols

to

be

ap

pli

ed i

n a

sto

ck-t

ak

e.

1.1

Id

enti

fy a

nd

exp

lain

contr

ol

wea

kn

ess.

In s

mal

l gro

up

s of

4 -

5,

stu

den

ts w

ill:

1.

Loca

te b

rief

ing r

oom

.

2.

Rea

d s

tock

-tak

e in

stru

ctio

ns.

3

. R

evie

w c

om

pan

y b

ack

gro

und

&

org

aniz

atio

n c

har

t.

4.

Dis

cuss

, id

enti

fy &

exp

lain

co

ntr

ol

wea

kn

ess.

Pro

ject

Won

der

lan

d V

irtu

al W

orl

d.

Lec

ture

note

s on

aud

it o

f in

ven

tori

es.

Com

pan

y B

ack

gro

un

d &

Org

aniz

atio

n C

har

t

Sto

ck-t

ake

bri

efin

g i

nst

ruct

ion

s.

Fo

rma

l

Ch

eck

gro

up a

ud

it w

ork

ing p

aper

s

subm

itte

d a

fter

sto

ck-

tak

e to

en

sure

d

ocu

men

tati

on

of

con

trol

wea

kn

ess

per

tain

ing t

o s

tock

s b

ein

g c

oun

ted b

y

store

man

wh

ich i

s n

ot

in a

ccord

ance

w

ith

good

con

trol

pra

ctic

e as

th

ose

wit

h s

tock

cust

odia

n d

uti

es s

hou

ld n

ot

be

coun

tin

g s

tock

s al

on

e.

Are

stu

den

ts a

ble

to d

raw

on

pas

t

kn

ow

led

ge

of

gen

eral

con

trols

and

id

enti

fy

con

trol

wea

kn

ess

in r

elat

ion t

o a

ud

it o

f

stock

tak

e?

If n

ot,

tu

tors

to g

ive

feed

bac

k a

nd

com

men

ts o

n g

rou

p a

udit

pap

ers

subm

itte

d.

2.0

Co

sUn

derst

an

d a

nd

ab

le t

o

ap

ply

th

e p

roce

du

res

to b

e

co

nd

ucte

d d

urin

g t

he

stock

tak

e.

2.1

S

elec

t ap

pro

pri

ate

sam

ple

s fr

om

p

erp

etu

al r

ecord

s fo

r te

st c

ount

and

ch

eck

to p

hysi

cal

stock

s in

war

ehou

se.

2.2

S

elec

t ap

pro

pri

ate

sam

ple

s fr

om

war

ehou

se f

or

test

coun

t an

d

chec

k t

o p

erp

etual

rec

ord

s an

d

stock

tag

s.

2.3

C

oun

t ph

ysi

cal

stock

s ac

cura

tely

In s

mal

l gro

up

s of

4 -

5,

stu

den

ts w

ill:

1.

Loca

te A

ud

it R

oom

and

dow

nlo

ad

per

pet

ual

lis

tin

g, in

ven

tory

tag

s

and

aud

it w

ork

ing p

aper

tem

pla

te.

2.

Rev

iew

per

pet

ual

lis

tin

g a

nd

sele

ct s

amp

les

from

sto

ck l

ist.

3.

Loca

te W

areh

ou

se R

oom

, lo

cati

on

of

stock

s an

d c

oun

t ph

ysi

cal

stock

s.

4.

Sel

ect

sam

ple

s fr

om

ph

ysi

cal

stock

s.

5.

Com

par

e q

uan

titi

es l

iste

d o

n

per

pet

ual

rec

ord

s to

ph

ysi

cal

cou

nts

and

in

ven

tory

tag

s.

Pro

ject

Won

der

lan

d V

irtu

al W

orl

d.

Sto

ck-t

ake

bri

efin

g i

nst

ruct

ion

s.

Per

pet

ual

lis

tin

g.

Inven

tory

Tag

s.

Sam

ple

Au

dit

Work

ing P

aper

wit

h

hin

ts f

or

com

ple

tion.

Fo

rma

l

Ch

eck

to e

nsu

re g

rou

p a

udit

work

ing

pap

ers

sub

mit

ted a

re d

ocu

men

ted

usi

ng t

he

corr

ect

form

at a

nd a

udit

tic

k

mar

ks

are

incl

ud

ed w

ith

pro

per

leg

end

to

sh

ow

wo

rk d

on

e.

Was

th

e ti

me

allo

wed

su

ffic

ien

t fo

r st

ud

ent

to c

om

ple

te l

earn

ing a

ctiv

itie

s in

Vir

tual

Worl

d?

Wer

e st

ud

ents

ab

le t

o a

pp

ly p

rior

kn

ow

led

ge

wit

h n

ew k

now

led

ge

to

com

ple

te t

he

aud

it w

ork

ing p

aper

s?

Wer

e st

ud

ents

ab

le t

o d

emon

stra

te

achie

vem

ent

of

spec

ific

lea

rnin

g

ou

tcom

es?

Are

stu

den

ts a

ble

to u

se s

ub

ject

sp

ecia

list

d

isco

urs

e to

docu

men

t ob

serv

atio

ns,

exce

pti

on

s an

d w

ork

don

e?

3.0

Develo

p a

ud

it o

bse

rva

tio

n

skil

ls.

3.1

R

ecogn

ise

dis

crep

anci

es a

risi

ng

from

cou

nts

& c

om

par

ison

s.

3.2

Id

enti

fy d

amag

ed &

ob

sole

te

stock

s re

quir

ing f

oll

ow

-up

.

3.3

Id

enti

fy p

oss

ible

con

sign

men

t st

ock

s an

d n

ote

for

sub

sequ

ent

foll

ow

up

. 3

.4

Ob

tain

rel

evan

t in

form

atio

n f

or

sub

seq

uen

t cu

t-off

tes

ts.

In s

mal

l gro

up

s of

4 -

5,

stu

den

ts w

ill:

1

. D

iscu

ss o

bse

rvat

ion

s an

d

dis

crep

anci

es r

equ

irin

g f

oll

ow

-

up.

2.

Docu

men

t ob

serv

atio

ns

and

find

ings

on

au

dit

work

ing p

aper

.

3.

Coll

ect

info

rmat

ion

in

volv

ing

ship

pin

g a

nd r

ecei

vin

g

docu

men

ts f

or

cut-

off

tes

ts

Pro

ject

Won

der

lan

d V

irtu

al W

orl

d.

Sto

ck-t

ake

bri

efin

g i

nst

ruct

ion

s.

Sam

ple

Au

dit

Work

ing P

aper

wit

h

hin

ts f

or

com

ple

tion.

Fo

rma

l

Ch

eck

to e

nsu

re g

rou

p a

udit

work

ing

pap

ers

sub

mit

ted c

onta

in a

ll n

eces

sary

ob

serv

atio

ns

and

exce

pti

on

s re

quir

ing

foll

ow

-up

wer

e n

ote

d.

If s

ub

mit

ted

aud

it w

ork

ing p

aper

s sh

ow

gap

in u

nd

erst

and

ing,

tuto

rs t

o r

evie

w

con

cepts

in s

ub

sequ

ent

tuto

rial

ses

sion

s.

Cond

uct

sem

i-st

ruct

ure

d i

nte

rvie

ws

wit

h

tuto

rs t

each

ing A

udit

ing 2

to e

val

uat

e ac

hie

vem

ent

of

lear

nin

g o

utc

om

es.


Tab

le 1

: C

urr

iculu

m P

ackag

e fo

r V

irtu

al S

tock

-tak

ing A

ssig

nm

ent

(Conti

nued

)

Lea

rnin

g O

utc

om

es

Lea

rnin

g A

ctiv

itie

s R

eso

urc

es

Ass

essm

ent

Co

mm

ents

4.0

Develo

p a

ud

it d

ocu

men

tati

on

skil

ls.

4.1

A

nal

yse

an

d d

ocu

men

t

exce

pti

on

s, a

udit

fin

din

gs

and

fo

llo

w u

p a

ctio

n a

pp

rop

riat

ely o

n

aud

it w

ork

ing p

aper

.

4.2

K

no

w f

orm

at o

f w

ork

ing p

aper

s an

d i

ncl

ud

e al

l re

levan

t ar

eas

in

aud

it w

ork

ing p

aper

.

In s

mal

l gro

up

s of

4 -

5,

stu

den

ts w

ill:

1

. D

iscu

ss o

bse

rvat

ion

s an

d

dis

crep

anci

es r

equ

irin

g f

oll

ow

-

up.

2.

Docu

men

t ob

serv

atio

ns

and

find

ings

on

au

dit

work

ing p

aper

.

3.

Coll

ect

info

rmat

ion

in

volv

ing

ship

pin

g a

nd r

ecei

vin

g

docu

men

ts f

or

cut-

off

tes

ts

Pro

ject

Won

der

lan

d V

irtu

al W

orl

d.

Sam

ple

Au

dit

Work

ing P

aper

wit

h

hin

ts f

or

com

ple

tion.

Soft

war

e ca

ptu

rin

g s

cree

n a

ctiv

itie

s.

Fo

rma

l

Ch

eck

to e

nsu

re g

rou

p a

udit

work

ing

pap

ers

sub

mit

ted c

onta

in a

ll n

eces

sary

ob

serv

atio

ns

and

exce

pti

on

s re

quir

ing

foll

ow

-up

wer

e n

ote

d.

Cond

uct

an o

nli

ne

surv

ey a

fter

th

e vir

tual

stock

-tak

ing a

ssig

nm

ent,

wit

h c

lose

d a

nd

op

en-

per

cep

tion

of

thei

r ow

n l

earn

ing

exp

erie

nce

.

Rev

iew

TL

C r

ecord

ings

of

vir

tual

worl

d

acti

vit

ies

to t

rian

gu

late

fin

din

gs

from

oth

er

sou

rces

.

21

st C

entu

ry S

kil

l O

utc

om

es

5.0

Develo

p i

nte

racti

ve d

igit

al

med

ia s

kil

ls.

5.1

envir

on

men

t th

rou

gh

avat

ar

movem

ents

, co

mm

un

icat

ion

, an

d

inte

ract

ion

wit

h o

bje

cts

and i

n-

wo

rld

par

tici

pan

ts.

5.2

Nav

igat

e to

fin

d i

nfo

rmat

ion a

nd

com

ple

te l

earn

ing a

ctiv

itie

s in

vir

tual

en

vir

on

men

t.

5.3

Net

work

in

-worl

d w

ith

oth

er

par

tici

pan

ts a

nd

gro

up

s an

d d

raw

on

kn

ow

led

ge

of

oth

ers

to f

ind

so

luti

on

s.

In s

mal

l gro

up

s of

4 -

5,

stu

den

ts w

ill:

1.

Rea

d v

irtu

al s

tock

-tak

ing g

uid

e.

2.

Att

end

fam

ilar

isat

ion

ses

sion 1

wee

k b

efore

vir

tual

worl

d

acti

vit

y.

3.

Man

euver

avar

tar

aroun

d t

he

3

room

s to

com

ple

te l

earn

ing

acti

vit

ies.

4

. U

se c

hat

fun

ctio

n t

o s

eek

assi

stan

ce f

rom

oth

er g

rou

p

mem

ber

s w

hen

dif

ficu

ltie

s ar

e

enco

unte

red

in

vir

tual

worl

d.

Pro

ject

Won

der

lan

d V

irtu

al W

orl

d.

Sam

ple

Au

dit

Work

ing P

aper

wit

h

hin

ts f

or

com

ple

tion.

Vir

tual

Sto

ck-t

akin

g G

uid

e w

ith

nav

igat

ion

al h

elp

.

Chat

Fun

ctio

n i

n V

irtu

al W

orl

d.

Fo

rma

l

Ch

eck

s d

ocu

men

tati

on

of

find

ings

in

aud

it w

ork

ing p

aper

s to

en

sure

com

ple

ten

ess

and

acc

ura

cy o

f

find

ings.

Stu

den

ts m

ay n

eed

hel

p i

n p

rese

nti

ng

find

ings

in c

on

cise

man

ner

and

usi

ng

subje

ct d

isco

urs

e.

To s

how

sam

ple

of

bes

t an

swer

s fr

om

gro

up

s af

ter

gra

din

g a

ll w

ork

ing p

aper

s

du

rin

g s

ub

seq

uen

t tu

tori

als.

6.0

Develo

p c

oll

ab

ora

tive

skil

ls.

6.1

D

iscu

ss,

shar

e in

form

atio

n, id

eas

and

kn

ow

led

ge.

6.2

L

ever

age

on

str

ength

s of

each

per

son

in

gro

up

to a

lloca

te g

rou

p

task

s an

d c

om

ple

te l

earn

ing

acti

vit

ies.

In s

mal

l gro

up

s of

4 -

5,

stu

den

ts w

ill:

1U

se c

oll

abora

tive

skil

ls t

o

com

ple

te t

he

var

iou

s gro

up

acti

vit

ies

list

ed.

Pro

ject

Won

der

lan

d V

irtu

al W

orl

d.

Sam

ple

Au

dit

Work

ing P

aper

wit

h

hin

ts f

or

com

ple

tion.

Chat

Fun

ctio

n i

n V

irtu

al W

orl

d

Info

rma

l

Monit

ors

gro

up w

ork

by r

equ

esti

ng

for

gro

up

s to

su

bm

it p

eer

eval

uat

ion

form

s in

fre

e ri

der

sit

uat

ion

s.

Ask

s fo

r ro

les

of

each

per

son

in

gro

up

acti

vit

ies.

Did

th

e gro

up

en

cou

nte

r co

nfl

icts

wh

ile

wo

rkin

g a

s a

gro

up

?

If c

on

flic

ts d

id a

rise

and

wer

e h

igh

ligh

ted

in p

eer

eval

uat

ion f

orm

s as

not

reso

lved

,

tuto

rs t

o i

nves

tigat

e b

y i

nte

rvie

win

g

mem

ber

s in

div

idu

ally

an

d t

hen

as

a gro

up

to

see

k r

esolu

tion

and

clo

sure

.

7.0

Develo

p r

efle

ctio

n s

kil

ls.

7.1

C

on

soli

dat

e an

d r

efle

ct o

n

lear

nin

g e

xp

erie

nce

an

d s

ugges

t

area

s fo

r im

pro

vem

ent

for

self

, gro

up

& a

ctiv

ity.

On

an

indiv

idu

al b

asis

, st

ud

ents

wil

l:

1.

Mak

e n

ote

s ab

ou

t vir

tual

sto

ck-

tak

ing a

ssig

nm

ent

exp

erie

nce

.

2.

Wri

te r

efle

ctio

n o

n l

earn

ing

exp

erie

nce

& i

mp

rovem

ent

area

s.

3.

Post

ref

lect

ion

on

Bla

ckb

oar

d.

4.

Com

ple

te o

nli

ne

surv

ey.

MeL

(B

lack

boar

d)

Fo

rma

l

Ch

eck

s in

div

idu

al r

efle

ctio

ns

to a

sses

s

exp

erie

nce

.

Note

are

as f

or

imp

rovem

ent

as

feed

bac

k f

or

mod

ifyin

g n

ext

cycl

e of

Act

ion

Res

earc

h.

Ref

lect

and

eval

uat

e w

het

her

obje

ctiv

es o

f

acti

on

res

earc

h h

ave

bee

n a

chie

ved

and

wh

eth

er f

urt

her

mod

ific

atio

ns

and

cycl

es

are

nec

essa

ry.


APPENDIX 4

Table 2

No Comments Count

1 Lag 63

2 Good way to learn 62

3 Fun 52

4 Interesting 44

5 Difficult to navigate 31

6 More realistic way of checking stocks 30

7 New experience 29

8 Encouraged collaboration 28

9 Allow to talk to clients 27

10 Taught me to be more observant 24

11 More complex scenarios 16

12 More realistic graphics 13

13 Interactive 9

14 Include map of surroundings 9

15 Hang 9

16 Good way to apply knowledge 6

17 Appropriate topic 6

18 Good to have familiarization session 6

19 Should be done on individual basis 5

20 Game-like 5

21 Clearer instructions on what to do 5

22 Good way to learn to be independent 4

23 Should log in from home 4

24 Include fixed assets sighting 4

25 Control difficult 4

26 Like it 3

27 Real stock-take 3

28 Include collaborative features 3

29 Smaller group 3

30 Too easy 2

31 Enjoyed taking bus 2

32 Appreciate the effort 2

Total 513


APPENDIX 5

Table 3: Assignment Grade Distribution for

April 2009 Semester Tutorial Groups

Class\Grade A B C D F Total

TA 01 10 5 4 4 1 24

TA 02 11 4 4 0 0 19

TA 03 10 4 3 3 0 20

TA 04 9 6 4 3 1 23

TA 05 10 6 5 1 0 22

TA 06 9 4 5 2 0 20

TA 07 11 8 0 1 0 20

TA 08 8 8 3 0 0 19

Total 78 45 28 14 2 167

47% 27% 17% 8% 1% 100%

Table 4: Assignment Grade Distribution for

October 2009 Semester Tutorial Groups

Class\Grade A B C D F Total

TA 21 13 5 5 0 1 24

TA 22 7 6 6 1 1 21

TA 23 8 5 6 0 2 21

TA 24 5 9 8 0 0 22

TA 25 6 5 9 0 0 20

TA 26 13 2 0 4 0 19

Total 52 32 34 5 4 127

41% 25% 27% 4% 3% 100%

Guide:

A Above 80%

B Between 70% and 79%

C Between 60% and 69%

D Between 50% and 59%

F Below 50%


REFERENCES

Calongne, C.M. (2008). Educational frontiers: learning in a virtual world, Educause

Review, 43(5): 36-48.

Miles, M.B. & Huberman, A.M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis. 2nd

edn. Thousand

Oaks, California: Sage.

School of Business & Accountancy (2009). Module description for Auditing 2.

Singapore: School of Business & Accountancy, Ngee Ann Polytechnic,

(unpublished internal report).

Zhao, S.Y. (2001). Toward a taxonomy of copresence. Retrieved 24 February, 2010,

from http://www.temple.edu/ispr/prev_conferences/proceedings/2001/Zhao.pdf.


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VIRTUAL STOCK-TAKING: AN EXPERIENCE OF CO-PRESENCE FOR