Integrating a Web-Based Intelligent System into an Accounting Information System Course to Teach the Technique of Internal Control Evaluation

The issue of how to increase teaching effectiveness is a major concern to most educators. Understanding how to encourage a student to learn instead of memorize the presented material is one of the greatest problems faced in teaching. The nature of the topic taught contributes to this difficulty where a need for deep understanding may conflict with the need to understand the breadth of the topic. Evaluation of internal controls is part of an accounting course. For each accounting cycle in an organization, over 100 identifiable weaknesses may occur. Students may feel overwhelmed by this and try to memorize rather than understand the weaknesses and this affects their ability to effectively grasp the topic. This is a major issue in teaching internal control evaluation. This research identifies issues in using a Web-based intelligent system to teach students how to detect weaknesses in an internal control system. Such a system might prove to be highly beneficial to both students and educators.