Kim Lyons, MSA,
CPA, CGBP
Senior
Lecturer, Accountancy
412 I Carl Wimberly Hall
Phone: 608-785-6836
Office Hours Fall
2011
1:30 - 3:00 Monday through Thursday;
and as available by appointment.
Schedule of Assignments
Accounting 321
Course Syllabus
Required Text:
Kieso, Weygandt, and Warfield; Intermediate Accounting,
Volume 1, 14th Edition.
COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES
The primary objective of this course is mastery of the major.
Students will: apply the current practice of financial
accounting, explore the forces that shape financial accounting,
and investigate career opportunities.
Problem solving skills will be sharpened with appropriate
technology including spreadsheets and time value of money
problem solving with a financial calculator.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES
Classroom Procedure
You are expected to read
the assigned chapter prior to class discussion and to have
attempted the homework assigned for that day.
You should expect to spend a considerable amount of time
outside of class in preparation.
Your attendance and participation is expected because the
assumption of YOUR
active participation is included within the total points.
Education is not something that happens to you, it is
something that you do for yourself and it is your
responsibility.
The class procedure will be facilitated by your bringing to each
class period your textbook and BAII plus calculator (or any
other calculator with time value of money functions).
The classroom procedure will not be compromised by
students who arrive late or leave early, or by those who bring
live electronic devices into the classroom.
Additional communications will be made as necessary to
the class at large through the D2L course home page.
Be sure to check it regularly as these communications
will apply to you.
Starting with Accounting 321 you will find that the financial
accounting course materials are cumulative.
Nothing we cover will become irrelevant with respect to
subsequent material coverage.
That is the nature of the accountancy profession.
Many of you will be unpleasantly surprised at the
difficulty of this course along with ACC 322 and ACC 421, which
together represent the financial accounting core for the
accountancy major.
Part of the difficulty comes from the materials themselves.
Financial accounting and reporting is a complex field.
The accounting standards change from time to time and we
have to keep up with those changes.
Examinations
There will be five examinations given during the course of the
semester; four in-term exams and one final exam.
With the exception of the final, our exams will be held
on Thursday/Friday class periods.
The first four exams will be given in two parts, and
these will be the only days that we meet on Fridays.
See the schedule of assignments for dates and times.
You should expect to be present and on time for ALL exams
- put them on your calendar now.
Exams consist of problems, multiple choice, true/false,
and essay questions, which are included to test your conceptual
understanding of the material. The
current semester’s exam is:
·
Not intended to be the textbook demonstration problems with
different numbers
·
Not intended to be the homework problems with different numbers
·
Not intended to be the review problems with different numbers
·
Not intended to be the old exam problems with different numbers
The current semester’s exam
·
Is intended to provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate
that you understand the concepts of the material presented
·
Is intended to provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate
application of the concepts by providing supported solutions to
problems
It is expected that you will take the examinations as scheduled.
In the rare
instance when attendance at the regularly scheduled exam is
not possible the student must contact me prior to the exam date
and time.
A word about cheating: don't. Once
an exam has been handed out there should be no communication of
any sort among students. Communications that constitute
cheating include but are not limited to: talking, passing
information, cell phones, text messaging, computer devices, etc.
This means you cannot
use the calculator on your cell phone during an exam.
Asking questions of the proctor (usually me) is the only
communication allowed. Responses to academic misconduct cases
will be appropriate to the violation. Students cannot drop
grades received for academic misconduct. Any substantial
violation will eliminate any possibility of a recommendation
from me. The rules for the University of Wisconsin System on
academic misconduct are found at
http://www.uwlax.edu/studentlife/academic_misconduct.htm#14.03.
Homework
A variety of exercises and problems are assigned to assist with
application of concepts.
Some of these assignments will be collected for credit.
And, unless specifically stated otherwise, the D2L drop
box will be used for all homework submissions.
All homework assignments will have a deadline, and once
that deadline is reached the D2L drop box will close.
Late assignments may only be submitted through the late
assignments dropbox. Submissions to this dropbox will be graded
at a maximum value of 70%, less one point per day that it is
late. Homework may
be submitted at any time prior to the deadline, so plan ahead.
Every time a submission is made to the dropbox D2L sends
a confirmation email to the student. Failure to check for this
email to ensure that your assignments were properly submitted
will be to your detriment. The confirmation email is the only
proof that will be accepted that an assignment was submitted on
time – be sure to save it.
Notice to Mac users: all homework assignments must be saved as
either Word documents (.doc or .docx) or Excel files (.xls or .xlsx)
files prior to submission.
Submission of homework in any other format that renders
the homework unreadable by my computer will potentially reduce
your score, insomuch as you may be required to resubmit to the
late drop box. If
you have any questions on how to change the file extension on a
file please contact the ITS Support Center.
Any group of two or more students who submit ANY coursework that
is the same file with a different filename or files that have
shared components will receive a grade of zero for the
submission. All future assignments will be rejected from all
students in the group.
While I encourage students to work together, graded
assignments must be prepared
independently.
Course Grades
Course grades will be based mostly on exam scores.
The final exam is cumulative with questions similar to
those of the first 4 exams but will count twice the point value
of a regular exam. Historically,
students who earn less than a BC in this course tend to earn D
or F in ACC 322.
That is because the materials in ACC 322 (and ACC 421) are very
complex. All topics
in ACC 321 represent prerequisite knowledge in ACC 322 and ACC
421. For this
reason, you cannot afford to “get by” in ACC 321.
And, since the accountancy major requires a 2.5 GPA in
the major, a grade of C in ACC 321, given its 4 credits, is a
problem.
|
Grades
will be determined as follows:
|
|
|
Grading scale: |
|
|
|
Exams (4 in-term @ 100 points
each) |
|
400 points |
|
93-100% |
A |
|
Cumulative final |
|
200 |
|
88-92% |
A/B |
|
Graded assignments |
|
140 |
|
83-87% |
B |
|
Total |
|
740 |
|
78-82% |
B/C |
|
|
|
|
|
70-77% |
C |
There is no curve or extra credit to make up for missed, late, or failed assignments.
Academic Misconduct
Any assignment that is copied from whatever source or determined
not to be the student’s original work will earn a grade of zero.
This includes a single document submitted by more than
one student. The
homework is NOT a group project.
Once an assignment of this nature has been rejected,
future assignments will also be rejected.
Think before you
act. The
following applies to ALL aspects of this course:
UWS 14.03 ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT SUBJECT TO DISCIPLINARY ACTION.
(1)
Academic misconduct is an act in which a student:
(a) Seeks to claim credit for the work or efforts of another
without authorization or citation;
(b) Uses unauthorized materials or fabricated data in any
academic exercise;
(c) Forges or falsifies academic documents or records;
(d) Intentionally impedes or damages the academic work of
others;
(e) Engages in conduct aimed at making false representation
of a student's academic performance; or
(f) Assists other students in any of these acts.
(2)
Examples of academic misconduct include, but are not limited to:
cheating on an examination; collaborating with others in work to
be presented, contrary to the stated rules of the course;
submitting a paper or assignment as one's own work when a part
or all of the paper or assignment is the work of another;
submitting a paper or assignment that contains ideas or research
of others without appropriately identifying the sources of those
ideas; stealing examinations or course materials; submitting, if
contrary to the rules of a course, work previously presented in
another course; tampering with the laboratory experiment or
computer program of another student; knowingly and intentionally
assisting another student in any of the above, including
assistance in an arrangement whereby any work, classroom
performance, examination or other activity is submitted or
performed by a person other than the student under whose name
the work is submitted or performed.
Please go to
http://www.uwlax.edu/StudentLife/academic_misconduct.htm#14.03
before taking the syllabus quiz.
Disability Resource Services
Any student with a documented disability (e.g., physical,
learning, psychiatric, vision, hearing, etc.) who is in need of
additional, reasonable accommodations should contact disability
resources services in 165 Murphy Library and the instructor at
the beginning of the semester.
All such issues will be kept confidential.
Professional Development
Professional development is an important objective of the
accounting program and the course.
You need to develop your resume long before you graduate.
Start now.
If you start now and want me to review your resume and comment
on it, I am happy to do so. The
UWL Career Services office has outstanding staff and resources.
We have exceptional placement of our graduates in both
internships late in the program and in employment upon
graduation. Career
Services can help you with many aspects of your professional
development. My
primary job is to hold you accountable so that you have positive
data to enter on your resume.
I plan to hold you accountable.
For more information about career services go to:
http://www.uwlax.edu/CareerServices