Tag Archives: e-learning resources

Prepare Students for Your Course with The ABC’s of Accounting

Featured, Teaching Tips & Strategies, , ,
resources for accounting teachers
Source: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Accounting for beginners can be intimidating. However, our basic accounting course can easily reduce much of the stress and worry students often experience when learning something new.

The ABC’s of Accounting has been an excellent resource for students in years past, and now we are offering our newest textbook, Accounting Basics: An Introduction for Non-Accounting Majors. Just as with the first course, this textbook includes coverage of accounting practices including a standard accounting cycle.

Since this course is designed to teach basic accounting practices to students not working toward an accounting degree, the pace is slower and fewer in-depth topics are reviewed. The accounting cycle is initially introduced as an overview so students can get a general idea of what responsibilities a typical company accountant handles on a daily basis.

Our accounting for beginners course provides clear concise examples immediately after each new subject is introduced, giving students additional visual teaching tools. Plus, there is additional dialogue to ensure students not only understand how to perform a particular accounting procedure but the reasons behind the process.

The same fictional company is used throughout the course and each chapter includes two practice sets, an end of the chapter problem building off the previous chapter’s problem, and a wide range of all-inclusive learning projects so each student can begin to apply them to real-time scenarios.

Labyrinth Learning offers excellent interactive teaching tools for all levels of accounting instruction. Please contact us for additional assistance and product availability.

Helping Students Study for Accounting

Featured, Teaching Tips & Strategies, , ,
accounting teaching resources
Source: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Some subjects need to be approached with well-defined study guidelines in order for the student to adequately understand and retain the information. While learning styles do vary, the below structured approach has consistently provided a large majority of students studying accounting with optimal results in both material comprehension and retention.

  • Have them read all assigned material before each class. This way they already have a general overview of what will be taught that particular day. Be responsive to their questions.
  • Remind students to come to each lecture prepared with the required tools, including calculators, notebooks, textbooks, laptop, or tablet. Instruct them to take detailed notes on any topic you have previously focused on, especially those subjects you know aren’t discussed in length in the textbook. Make sure you’ve provided them with a safe environment to ask questions — this is important in a student’s learning experience.
  • Talk to the students about reviewing their notes as soon as possible. When studying accounting, comprehension is a major concern, so this tip allows them to fill in any blanks while your lecture is still fresh in their mind.
  • In addition to reviewing notes, online videos, and PowerPoint presentations — have students rework some of the more difficult problems. If the textbook offers online sample quizzes, let them take advantage of this study aid.

Please contact us at Labyrinth Learning for additional educational assistance.

Easy Ways for Students to Learn Basic Accounting on Microsoft Excel

Featured, Teaching Tips & Strategies, , ,
accounting teaching resources
Teach students to use Microsoft Excel for budgeting and more.
Source: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Microsoft Office Excel includes easy to use spreadsheet functionality which can simplify basic accounting tasks. Plus it supports additional add-ons when more sophisticated programs are required. Date importation from outside financial sources and even additional competing software platforms can all be accomplished when handling basic accounting with Microsoft Excel. The program offers a lot in terms of accounting abilities, making it a fantastic teaching program for students beginning to learn the accounting basics.

  • Budgeting and statements: Microsoft Office Excel comes complete with a wide variety of templates for creating basic accounting statements, including profit and loss, cash flow, and budget. More complex templates can be downloaded from the Office website and adding on specialized templates from other software vendors is a simple and easy task.
  • Spreadsheets: When performing basic accounting with Microsoft Excel, expensive accounting calculators are no longer required to figure out complex formulas. Excel spreadsheets are designed to handle both in-line and summation calculations.
  • External data: Microsoft Excel allows external data from numerous sources to be uploaded. This data can also be stored in a variety of different file formats without requiring additional data entry.
  • Integration: Another major advantage of introducing basic accounting with Microsoft Excel is that it provides easy integration with many other popular accounting applications. Many of these software applications include wizards, which work with both Excel and a separate accounting program.

For more information on how teaching basic accounting with Microsoft Office Excel can benefit your students, please contact us at Labyrinth Learning today.

How Our Accounting Basics Solution Facilitates Learning

News & Events, Teaching Tips & Strategies, , , , ,
accounting solutions
Accounting Basics from Labyrinth Learning

When teaching accounting courses, financial information must be conveyed in a clear and concise manner. Here at Labyrinth Learning, our Accounting Basics solution offers an easily understood introduction for students who wish to gain general accounting knowledge but may not be working toward an accounting degree.

Often students want accounting basics to utilize as part of their job, for personal finances or to be able to understand the importance of accounting  while taking a course like QuickBooks.  While things like cash flow and payroll accounting are the responsibility of the accounting department, it is valuable to all to be able to read a ledger sheet, track business performance, and understand the basics of profit and loss.

Labyrinth Learning provides this new basic accounting solution.  It begins with a comprehensive overview. This particular program introduces a fictional business and the accounting cycle they follow. Each new topic also includes detailed explanations so each student understands how the process works.

This is solution provides practical and easy to understand accounting basics, along with practice sets at the end of each chapter, an ongoing end of chapter problem which builds off the previous obstacle, and a scenario at the end of the course allowing students to put their recently gained knowledge to use.

For more information about our Accounting Basics textbook along with our many other interactive teaching tools, please contact us at Labyrinth Learning today.

Learn Why Payroll Accounting is Important for Students

News & Events, Teaching Tips & Strategies, , , , ,
teaching resources
Source: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Like so many other occupations, accounting has now become a career choice with specialized fields. There is specific training for areas including construction accounting, tax accounting, and one of the most security sensitive: payroll accounting. When teaching students payroll accounting, it is important they understand how having a separate payroll accounts and an accountant assists in maintaining proper internal controls:

  • One reason to separate the payroll account is for reconciliation simplicity and time management. When payroll checks and taxes are paid out of the same bank account as routine general ledger invoices, it generates numerous transactions which in turn makes monthly bank statement reconciliation more complicated and time consuming.
  • Internet identify theft and online scams in relation to payroll services is rampant these days. By creating a separate payroll account, which is linked to the company’s main banking account, money can easily be transferred to cover payroll with an additional protective layer of security guarding against fraud and theft.
  • A payroll accountant is privy to personal information including social security numbers and financial legal proceedings such as wage garnishment. Employing a separate payroll accountant who understands the confidentially requirements helps keep internal controls in place and ensures only authorized personnel have access to private payroll files.

For accounting instructors, Labyrinth Learning has a new solution available: Payroll Accounting: A Practical Real World Approach by Eric Weinstein. For information on our other outstanding curricula and teaching aids, please contact us today.

Accounting

Learn Why Payroll Accounting is Important

Teaching Tips & Strategies, , ,

Accounting Payroll accounting is a critical foundation of any business. This is especially true now that most companies are required to provide health benefits for their employees. Having accurate and up-to-date books ensure that a company is complying with federal regulations, and it will improve economic transparency for owners, management and employees.

Learning solutions, like Payroll Accounting, provide a sensible, streamlined and hands-on approach to appeal to a broad spectrum of students, including those that do not have previous accounting experience. The course is divided into six sections, all of which cover the basis of a thorough payroll accounting system, including:

  • Salaries
  • Wages
  • Overtime pay
  • Commissions and bonuses to employees
  • Payroll taxes and costs
  • Employer paid benefits

This course is ideal for small business owners or employees who are ready to take their accounting and bookkeeping knowledge to the next level, especially if they are expanding, adding new employees to the books, or growing their benefit and retirement programs.

Labyrinth Learning offers Payroll Accounting: A Practical Real World Approach, for those who teach accounting. We are also hosting a webinar, led by the book’s author, Eric Weinstein.

Contact Labyrinth Learning to find out more about Payroll Accounting and other interactive teaching tools.

Image Source: freedigitalphotos

tablet

Using eBooks to Prepare Students for College

Teaching Tips & Strategies, , ,
tablet
Source: freedigitalphotos

Although learning in a classroom environment is the strongest foundation for students, eBooks are a great way to supplement their education. Not only are they beneficial for teachers, but they are a great way to prepare students for college.

Here is detailed list on how teaching with eBooks can be beneficial for students about to head into college:

  • Preparing for the use of technology – Students will most likely be introduced to new uses of technology for their education in college. eBooks are a great way for them to acclimate to the use of technology for studying.
  • Improve problem-solving skills – Students that use eBooks enough will most likely run into a few glitches like they would with any technology. Learning to face and handle such problems is a valuable experience.
  • Learning to try new things – Using eBooks for the first time will take students out of their comfort zones, an experience they should become accustomed to if they are to learn to try new things in life.
  • Learning to collaborate – Many eBook platforms allow students to interact and collaborate within the text. This type of collaboration is a great learning experience, especially for students planning on taking online courses.
  • Learn to think outside the box – Using eBooks is a way for students to learn in a nontraditional manner forcing them to think for themselves without the help of an instructor.

Teaching with eBooks is a great way to prepare students for college. For more information, contact us at Labyrinth Learning today.

laptop

The Benefits to Asynchronous Learning

Featured, Teaching Tips & Strategies, , ,

The traditional form of learning in a classroom setting has already been demonstrated as useful in an online format. While these interactive – or synchronous – forms have held sway in the educational community for the last several centuries, it is the new, asynchronous form that is leading the way in the online community of the 21st century.

laptop
Asynchronous learning is changing the way that modern students approach course material.

Here are just a few benefits to asynchronous learning:

It is Unbiased – Teachers are people and will exhibit their biases whether they realize it or not. Asynchronous seminars avoid this problem altogether as there is no “face-to-face” interaction between teacher and student. This means no cultural bias and no bias against those in other time zones.

They are Available 24/7 – The world no longer runs on a 9-to-5, Monday through Friday, schedule. People work all through the day and night and on weekends. Asynchronous learning allows them to schedule their classes at a time that is convenient and most learning-efficient for them.

They Do Not Rely on Expensive Technology – Many synchronous meetings utilize bandwidth-intensive graphics and videos. For those students without the necessary “high-end” equipment, these seminars may be all but useless. Asynchronous ones, on the other hand, allow a slow connection to buffer the signal and transmit the entire seminar.

For more information on the benefits of asynchronous learning and other, creative teaching techniques, please contact us at Labyrinth Learning, today.

Image Source: freedigitalphotos

Teaching with Technology: What the Students Want

Teaching with Technology: What the Students Want

Featured, Teaching Tips & Strategies, , ,

With the advent of the Internet, the demands made on the modern educational infrastructure have become ever more severe. Thanks to the fast paced world around us and opportunities available, students require a greater flexibility in their courses, their schedules and their technology.

Teaching with Technology: What the Students Want
Outside of the computer lab, here are a few ways students expect to see technology in the class.

Here is what students are looking for in particular:

Mobile, Integrated, Cutting Edge Interfaces – This means that students want access to the class, no matter the time or their location. Wherever they have an internet connection, students appreciate being able to access discussion boards, reporting, online tools and a classroom response system. These are the bare minimum, and the technology can support far more.

Less Disruptive, Disinterested Students – While technology brings many great benefits, it also allows the less disciplined to engage in counterproductive activities during classroom time. Real students are looking for valid ways to avoid distractions and concentrate on their studies.

Off-Site Access – Modern students, especially those that are connected online, want and need the versatility that our present technology affords. And, most importantly, they want it where and when they want it.

We live in the age of technology, and our students are veterans. They’ve grown up with and have seen more technological advances and breakthroughs than anyone. So, make sure your lesson plan and teaching style fit their expectations and needs by using these helpful tips.

For more about these and other teaching tips, please contact us at Labyrinth Learning.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons 

Student on Laptop

Improving the Quality of Higher Education Through Digital Means

News & Events, , ,

Student on Laptop The future has come to colleges all across the world in the form of digital technology. Nowadays, both students and professors are seeing how this new medium is improving the quality of higher education in real time.

  • Going digital has given educators the ability to determine and rate program efficiency through analysis of collected data. Student performance can be tracked, and the curriculum can be finely tuned, depending on what information these data cuts reveal.
  • While professors are often reluctant to begin an online teaching program because they feel it is not an effective time management experience, investing in the necessary hours at the beginning reduces time commitments in the future.
  • Online classrooms have the ability to assist in improving the quality of higher education in a larger group of students. For example, ESL students, who perhaps are having difficulty composing complex grammatically correct sentences, can begin the semester with a specialized interactive tool allowing them to learn at their own pace. This digital technology also gives the instructor the capacity to track each student’s individual progress.
  • With digital learning platforms, the potential is there to establish a more personalized interactive relationship. Everything from feedback about test scores to questions that a student needs answered can be responded to in real time.

Please connect with us today online or call 800-522-9746 for more information on the tools and assistance we offer at Labyrinth Learning. Our products can improve the quality of higher education in your classroom.

Image Source: freedigitalphotos