GBSN member school, The University of Virginia Darden School of Business has recently launched a new MOOC, “Financial Accounting Fundamentals,” a five-week beginner level course taught by Luann Lynch, Almand R. Coleman Professor of Business Administration.
Beginning on March 27, 2017, the course will be available to a global audience via the Coursera platform. The course does not require any prior experience with accounting and is designed for anyone with an interest in the fundamentals of financial accounting.
Grounded in the financial records of a fictitious small business, the course will guide students through the Balance Sheet, the Income Statement and the Statement of Cash Flows, using succinct videos and “your turn” activities. Students are taught to go beyond recording transactions, learning how to both prepare financial statements and analyze them to draw basic conclusions about a company’s financial condition.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Use journal entries to record transactions
- Prepare and use t-accounts to summarize transactions recorded during an accounting period
- Describe the three most commonly used financial statements and how they fit together
- Prepare these financial statements based on transactions recorded during an accounting period
- Draw basic conclusions about a company’s financial health
Professor Lynch’s research interests are primarily in the design and impact of incentive and compensation systems. The focus of her work can be broadly characterized as an exploration of how incentives and compensation systems are structured to encourage the desired behavior by the individuals or organizations. She teaches Accounting in the First Year core MBA program and a Second Year elective in management accounting.
UVA Darden has a growing array of online education offerings including free, self-study MOOCs, Executive Education courses and on-demand webinars. Click here to learn more