Gamified training gives accountants fun whodunits to solve
Gamified training gives accountants fun whodunits to solve
Gamified training gives accountants fun whodunits to solve
By Michael Cohn
May 24, 2021
Summary
Continuing education courses can sometimes put accountants and tax professionals to sleep, but a new breed of e-learning is making the process more enjoyable and engaging.
The game-based experience uses true crime stories to teach fraud detection and problem-solving skills using actors and some of the real-life participants.
"One of the things that I have been noticing over the years is that CPE and learning for accountants tends to be very static and flat," said Kelly Richmond Pope, an associate professor of accounting at DePaul University in Chicago and a Surgent Faculty Fellow who co-developed Red Flag Mania.
"We're just delivering information, but we're not engaging in content. Taking a gamified approach allows a learner to be engaged in a way that leads to a better experience and more retention. Red Flag Mania is a combination of film, game mechanics, investigation and good old-fashioned fun in order to have a new approach to what a CPE experience or a learning experience can be."
"It's almost like watching 'Law and Order,' but then you're trying to solve a case through evidence and interviews and questions and all kinds of things that enter into an investigation," said Pope.
"The story is really the setting, and when you have a good story you can teach any topic. A fraud can happen because of a poor audit, a fraud can happen because a person has a tax issue, a fraud can happen because a person is in an ethical dilemma, or a fraud can be solved through using data analytics. So, you can use a fraud story as a pathway to teach all of these other topics."
In addition to CPE credit courses, some of the training is non-CPE. "Some things are just for accountants to advance a skill set," said Pope.
"We integrate so many different elements. There's a film. There are actors who can show up and talk. There are voicemails you can listen to. There's evidence you're reviewing. There are websites you're reviewing. It's a very interactive type of experience, and I think it's a really disruptive approach to CPE training that people aren't used to seeing."
"We just keep creating, looking at good stories, and thinking about what good learning outcomes or learning objectives can be tied to these stories," said Pope.
"What makes the approach unique is we are doing story-based learning and story based training, and we're using that as a foundation to teach topics. What we've done historically in the learning model for accountants is we've taught topics. Now what we're doing is we're tying stories around topics so that retention is higher."
Reference
Cohn, M. (2021, May 24). Gamified training gives accountants FUN whodunits to solve. Accounting Today. https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/gamified-training-gives-accountants-fun-whodunnits-to-solve