Abstract The article discusses the implications of programmed learning and teaching machines in the field of accounting education. Programmed learning appears to be most useful in teaching fundamental concepts and definitions, basic techniques such as journalizing and posting, analysis of financial statements by means of ratios, analysis of variances in a standard cost system, and similar subjects requiring a knowledge of meaningful facts. The most practical solution to the problem of automatic accounting instruction is first to develop units of material and then fit them into the curriculum. This approach would speed the introduction of automated instruction and would be of tremendous help in teaching basic concepts. Instructors could then use this time for reasoning and analysis to make the learning more stimulating and productive. Teaching would be at a higher professional level. Reducing the cost of programming is one of the major economic problems that must be solved. There is no guarantee that programmed learning will save money or solve the teacher shortage, but if the research experience makes traditional teaching and textbooks more effective, education will gain.

Abstract The overhead projector is a teaching aid that is ready and willing to work for accounting teachers today. Since the teacher operates the overhead projector, he faces the class at the front of the room. With a blackboard, the teacher not only turns his back on the class but spends much time writing and rewriting. Students can take notes when the overhead projector is in use because the room does not have to be darkened. Nevertheless, in order to make a more professional presentation, it is recommended that the front of the room should be darkened to about 80% of broad daylight. This will allow for deep color differentiation. The teacher can stand or sit while he is writing or placing transparencies on the machine. Instead of using the blackboard, the teacher can write on acetate sheets placed on the aperture or on a movable roll of acetate paper installed in the projector. Transparencies, prepared either commercially or with the aid of the school's visual aids department, enhance the use of the overhead projector. An imaginative teacher will find many new uses for the overhead projector in teaching accounting. Reproduction of business forms, documents, and legal instruments makes it possible to vividly show young students the underlying data for business transactions: a bond, stock certificate, promissory note, sales invoice, shipping report, or what-have-you.

Abstract Many questions arise related to courses to be taken by accounting students if they plan to enter industrial accounting. At the University of Akron, Ohio, the Akron chapter of the National Association of Cost Accountants (NACA) formed an educational guidance committee to help students. The University of Akron sought the assistance of the Akron chapter for the purpose of improving its curriculum and aiding the students who would be working for employers represented by the wide membership of NACA. The University turned to the Akron chapter because it includes accountants engaged in a wide range of activities, from the one-man accounting office to the controllers of some of America's largest factories. All types of educational backgrounds, from those who studied their accounting by correspondence to graduates of colleges in every region of the country are represented in its membership. Conditions change, jobs change, so the educator believes that a broad, firm foundation enables a student to progress vocationally much farther in the long run, and in addition, make him a whole, well-rounded person rather than a narrow technician.

Abstract The article presents a solution of process cost problems. Students visualize and solve problems in process cost accounting more readily if they are taught to use a simple bar diagram. Actually the diagram is a restatement of the cost-of-goods-sold equation taught in elementary accounting. The cost of the beginning inventory plus the material, labor and overhead put into production during the period equals the cost of the finished goods plus the work in process at the end of the period. This statement is true whether or not there has been any spoilage or shrinkage during the processing period, because the loss is absorbed by the good units produced. After the instructor has introduced and illustrated the concept of finished unit equivalents, he is ready to work a simple problem. In solving this problem, the student can immediately see that the value of the finished units plus the work remaining in process at the end of the period must total $188,000. How should this amount be divided between finished goods and work in process? Then compute the finished unit equivalent, which simply means the number of fully finished units that would have been manufactured if there were no beginning or ending inventories of work in process.

Reviews the book "Managerial Budgeting," by W.D. Knight and E.H. Weinwurm.

Abstract More than 600,000 young men and women are expected to pursue programs in collegiate business education by 1970. This will double the present enrollment, according to the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business. Unless drastic steps are taken there will be a shortage of 2,800 teachers in business schools and departments alone. Accounting departments will be among the first to feel the impact of this "impending tidal wave" of students. A round table discussion to consider what accounting departments could do to meet the many problems associated with increasing enrollments was conducted at the 1957 American Accounting Association Convention. In preparation for the session the chairmen undertook an analysis of present teaching practices in elementary accounting throughout the country in the hope that the information collected would be useful in evaluating the different solutions that might be proposed. At the same time, accounting teachers should be preparing themselves for the parts which they are to play in planning their participation in the education of young people in and out of college about the developments in the field of electronic data processing. The purpose of this article is to give accounting teachers a point of contact with electronic data processing, omitting specialized terms and techniques, with sufficient information, so that interest may be created and action may be taken in changing curricula in accounting.