Committee Meetings and Minutes

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Accounting Task Force

Meeting Minutes

Current Status of Minutes: Final
Date	August 24, 2016
Time	10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Location	Northridge Campus

Members Present
May Wang, Sheila Ammons, Kimberly Cameron, Cynthia Lovick, Kristy McDermott, Tracie Nobles, La Tasha Roberts, Larry Stephens, Jay Thibodeaux, Brian Voss, Denise White
Guests Present
No guest attendance has been recorded.

Item # 1:	Accounting 2301 and 2302 Assessments
Presenter	Denise White
Discussion	1. Accounting 2301 and 2302 Assessments a. No changes are planned for 2302. b. Prior to the task force meeting, a group met to discuss revisions to the 2301 assessment because of the change in the text. Present were Jeff Brennan, Tracie Miller, La Tasha Roberts, Jay Thibodeaux and Denise White. i. This group reviewed the mid-term assessment and agreed that some of the questions would remain the same and some would change. Tracie will provide a draft of the agreed-upon revised mid-term questions soon. ii. There was not enough time to cover the EOS assessment. c. During the Task force meeting, the results of the pre-meeting were described. The Task Force decided on some changes to the original 7 learning objectives for 2301. See attached. Cynthia moved that the changed wording of the 7 objectives be accepted. Kimberly Cameron seconded the motion. All votes were in favor of the change.

Item # 2:	2. Blackboard Requirements for ACCT 2301 and 2303
Presenter	Denise White
Discussion	a. Discussion was centered on keeping current requirements: All faculty, including adjuncts, must maintain an active Blackboard site. For 2301 and 2302, Blackboard should be the student portal to My Accounting Lab for 2301 and Connect for 2302. b. The Task force was uncertain how to verify if everyone is using Blackboard.

Item # 3:	Adjunct Evaluations
Presenter	Denise White
Discussion	a. The Task Force Portfolio subcommittee (Jay Thibodeaux, Denise White, Tracie Miller, and Larry Stephens) agreed to review all 2301 and 2302 syllabi to verify compliance with the respective Master syllabus. Sheila Ammons volunteered to help. The Task Force agreed to make an announcement at the Back-to-School meeting asking everyone to post their Fall 16 syllabi to their individual portfolio files in Google Drive. Denise will include the request in the next Newsletter. b. To address continuing concerns about grade inflation, the Task force agreed that all faculty should provide their Spring or Summer 2301 and 2302 tests for review by the same subcommittee. Faculty should post their tests to their Google Drive portfolio file. The purpose of the review by the subcommittee is to collect information about the type of questions used, the length of the tests and the coverage of topics. c. Sheila Ammons suggested, and everyone agreed, that the test and grading policies agreed to over the years be included in the Faculty Handbook created by Sheila. The department newsletter will include reminders of the key policies and a reference to the Handbook.

Item # 4:	Departmental Exams
Presenter	Denise White
Discussion	a. The general feeling of the Task Force about uniform Department-wide tests for 2301 and 2302 was that the logistics would be very difficult. Several different methods were discussed including i. Offering such a test at Highland Center during the day and evening. ii. Offering a variation of the department final at each campus where the course is taught. Overall, more thought and information about the logistics is needed. Everyone saw the value of a few “study days” after completion of lecture. But how to arrange that for our department was considered to be complicated. b. An alternative approach could be creating minimum criteria for the final test; but individual faculty would continue to create their own finals. The department chair would follow-up after the end of the semester and review all finals. The minimum criteria would include testing of every required learning objective. i. This idea was linked to the above discussion about reviewing the tests given by all 2301 and 2302 faculty in the past spring and summer semesters. The question is how much of a problem is there? c. Another idea was providing examples of “good” final tests.

Item # 5:	Tutors
Presenter	Denise White
Discussion	No substantive discussion because we ran out of time.

Item # 6:	ACNT 1303
Presenter	Denise White
Discussion	a. The question concerned whether this course should be merged with 1403 or eliminated and then only offer 1403. For the immediate future we agreed that 1303 should remain as a distinct class from 1403 because the Management department has included it in its certificate program. b. There should be discussion with Management about 2301 as a better choice than 1303 for their program.

Item # 7:	TracDac Review
Presenter	Denise White
Discussion	No substantive discussion because we ran out of time.

Item # 8:	Other
Presenter	Denise White
Discussion	a. Larry Stephens asked that the Task Force to approve a 12 week, in the classroom Ethics course. Brian motioned that the department should offer a 12 week, in class Ethics class. Jay seconded the motion and all voted yes. b. Instead of the new version of CPEasy, Katy should determine whether the department can afford AICPA’s CPExpress.

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