Supplemental Materials For Database Management System Knowledge And Skills In The Accounting Information Systems Course

Abstract

Much attention has been paid to the issue of enhancing students' understanding of the increasing role of database systems in accounting practice and integrating the modeling/operational aspects of such systems into the classroom. Recent surveys indicate that a number of Accounting Information Systems (AIS) professors are expanding their coverage of database topics, albeit some are only doing so on a more cursory basis. This paper reviews the changing nature of database education in AIS classes and provides supplemental active learning instructional aids to enhance the conceptual database coverage in AIS texts. The materials provide Systems professors who have time/resource constraints or limited formal training on database systems with an easy to learn and easy to adopt set of Access 2000 exercises. Students implement a pre-designed relational data model and experience the creation and use of database tables, forms, queries and macros. The materials build on the data set present in the widely used Systems Understanding Aid by Arens and Ward (1995), but it is not necessary to use them in conjunction with that case.