Various case study assignments help to develop students critical thinking, team interaction and communication skills. For example, students work in teams of two or three to complete master budget spreadsheets that assume ET 2 will close or expand one of its production plants or that the company will experience a dramatic decrease in sales for its most profitable product line. Management accounting topics are taught progressively in one semester. Assignments increase in difficulty as students become more familiar with ET 2 s products, accounting information systems and operating environment. Exhibits 1 and 2, pages 58 and 60, list each activity and its purpose in management accounting courses taught to undergraduate business students and to MBA and graduate manufacturing engineering students.
Undergraduates complete the basic core modules.
Graduate students use more creativity and higher-level thinking processes in assignments that are less structured and extend beyond the basic core modules. For example, MBA students team up with engineering students to develop a computer-aided design of a vehicle based on their translation of customer needs to design specifications. Students learn product costing while building product prototypes with LEGO construction materials. As students attach a part to the lunar vehicle chassis, they also add material, labor and overhead costs to the product. Throughout the semester, students work in roles such as assembly workers and managers to plan, control and make operating decisions that influence ET 2 .