Creation of a COVID-19 business and life lesson: the impact on students’ learning and behavior

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to encourage other educators to pivot and implement a current event activity when a situation arises. This paper examines the pedagogical benefits of implementing a current event class activity. The author discusses using tacit knowledge of an international trip to heighten awareness of the COVID-19 pandemic while linking it to business management knowledge. Results of a follow-up student survey are also discussed. Design/methodology/approach Considering the potential impact of COVID-19, an in-class activity was implemented and later followed up by a survey that addressed the activity impact. Students conducted brief research on COVID-19 and were put in small groups that analyzed scenarios for potential spread and identified steps business managers could take as safeguards. The entire class discussed the scenarios and potential actions during the upcoming spring break. The associated survey was for future classroom management and feedback concerning COVID-19 and not designed for research purposes. Findings The literature analyses and survey results indicate that pivoting from the syllabus and engaging students in a current event activity can be beneficial. In this study, students displayed increased awareness and changed actions as a result of the class activity. Originality/value This paper shares the author’s perspective regarding deviation from the course syllabus to conduct a class activity focused on a current event, which in this case is the COVID-19 pandemic.

Accounting education in a Latin American country during COVID-19: proximity at a distance

“…One is that instructors are one of the avenues of research identified in the emergent literature (Sangster et al, 2020, p. 446). The second is that instructors are less studied than student experiences (Ali et al, 2020;Bowyer, 2021;Dyki et al, 2021;Malan, 2020;Pasion et al, 2021;Ramachandra and Wells, 2021). Furthermore, the Sangster et al ( 2020) study looks at 45 countries but greatly compressed the space available for lessons learned (Fogarty, 2020, p. 563).…”

“…The emerging literature on accounting education in the COVID-19 context has focussed on faculty autoethnography and undergraduate students studies. The group of articles on faculty describes recent teaching experiences (Ackerman, 2021;Beatson et al, 2021;G omez and Alba, 2021;Haynes, 2020;Mai, 2020;Powell and McGuigan, 2020;Stewart and Khan, 2021;Wong and Zhang, 2020) whilst the other group highlights student responses and challenges (Ali et al, 2020;Bowyer, 2021;Dyki et al, 2021;Malan, 2020;Pasion et al, 2021;Reyneke et al, 2020). There is also a paper on graduate students (Ramachandra and Wells, 2021) and another one on the training of instructors for online education (Sadiq, 2020).…”

“…Initially, the literature of accounting education in the COVID-19 context was geographically concentrated in Australia (Beatson et al, 2021;Dyki et al, 2021;Mai, 2020;Powell and McGuigan, 2020;Sadiq, 2020;Stewart and Khan, 2021;Wong and Zhang, 2020) and New Zealand (Ackermann, 2021;Ali et al, 2020;Beatson et al, 2021;Othman, 2021;Ramachandra and Wells, 2021). Authors wrote some works with institutional affiliation in Indonesia (Aji et al, 2020), Portugal (Pasion et al, 2021), South Africa (Malan, 2020;Reyneke et al, 2020), UAE (Masoud and Bohra, 2020), UK (Haynes, 2020) and USA (Bowyer, 2021;Fogarty, 2020). In contrast, an additional paper describes the effects of the pandemic in 45 countries around the world (Sangster et al, 2020).…”

Rethinking the accounting ethics education research in the post- COVID-19 context

“…On the other hand, teaching the current COVID-19 situation to accounting students within the ethics content is more fragmented than ever before as it may help focus the fragmentation and ground the information on credible sources. Previous evidence (Bowyer, 2021) emphasises the importance of teaching historical events, especially within the economic sciences; therefore, teaching the current COVID-19 situation would enhance students' employability skills for unknown future events (Dyki et al, 2021) and their ability to make future ethical decisions.…”

Guest editorial

“…Fourthly, the last theme identified is students' motivation, engagement and behaviour. Bowyer (2021) explores how to go about incorporating a current event into the classroom, as they are unfolding. The paper discusses about how academics can work towards overcoming their concerns about incorporating current events.…”