UWCISA 8th Symposium & Data Analytics and Data Visualization Workshop

 

The Centre for Information Integrity and Information Systems Assurance at the University of Waterloo (UWCISA) is pleased to announce its 8th biennial symposium to be held in Toronto, Canada. Our symposia are recognized for the extensive interaction between practitioners and academics. Papers and panels will be presented by academics and practitioners addressing risks, controls and assurance issues.

http://saf.uwaterloo.ca/uwcisa/symposiums/index.html

There is pre-conference workshop on Data Analytics and Data Visualization (Oct 1, 2015 8:30 am - 5:30 pm)
Learn through hands-on workshops and post-workshop online material; featuring
IDEA Analytics (data analytics software)
Tableau (data visualization software)
R (the open source analytics solution)

Can every [accounting] course be a big data and analytics course?

During the Accounting IS Big Data conference I was a member of the panel on “How does Big Data Change What We Teach?” One of the issues that was raised during the panel discussion was the following: Can every [accounting] course be a big data and analytics course?

In my opinion, we as teachers need to ask ourselves two questions:

• Does my course aim to help students understand decision making under conditions of uncertainty (does the decision making require some judgment)? For example, does the budgeting process,  calculation of accruals, transfer pricing or auditing process involve some judgment? If the answer is yes, then your course is a good candidate for making it an analytics class, and you should proceed to the next question.

• Are there data (structured or unstructured - you may want to think outside the traditional data box) that we can use to remove some of this uncertainty?

If you answered yes to both questions then you can add an analytics components in your class. The two questions that I have raised are the necessary and sufficient conditions for making your course an analytics course. If your course meets these conditions, may I suggest that you start by focusing on just one specific topics of your course. You don’t have to make your entire course an analytics course overnight.