1. General Information

The course can be selected to complete the unit “ACM09: Advanced Accounting on specific topics I” or ACM15 “Electives on Accounting I”. 6 Credit points will be awarded for passing the course. To achieve these points, the students have to attend the lectures and apply what they have learnt by writing a short seminar paper (12 pages). No further examinations are required. Classes will be held in the summer semester.

Class dates in the upcoming summer semester:

If you would like to attend the course, please complete the registration form (please fill the spaces of the document on your computer and do not print the document, fill the spaces manually and scan it). Email the completed registration form to Stefan Hannen.

2. Learning objectives

The unit aims at conveying the following skills and competencies:

• Enhance and supplement the students’ know-how of accounting issues,
• Advance an integrated way of thinking by connecting different topics, and
• Enhance communication skills in English, both in oral discussion and by writing a paper.

3. Contents of the course

The course deals with various topics concerning the use of Management Information Systems (MIS). After outlining the composition and establishment of these systems, different areas in which MIS are used in business practice will be introduced. Among others, these include the composition of business plans or performance measurement. For each of these topics an overview will be given and the interdependencies between them will be highlighted. Each topic will be covered in a lecture and the contents will be illustrated by a continuous case study throughout the semester. The following figure shows the organization of the course.

4. Seminar paper

To pass the course students need to write a seminar paper of 12 pages. Several topics will be offered, which are all comprehensive topics. They include contents from different lectures dealt with during the course, so that the students need to combine the different issues and understand the interdependencies. Attendance of the classes will be necessary in order to write a good paper. The deadline for the paper submission is 30 October 2015. Thus, students can use the period between the semesters to compose their work, allowing them a high degree of flexibility. However, students should be aware that in this case, enrolment at the examination office is necessary for the mid-semester examination period of the winter semester 2015/16. Alternatively, paper submission is also possible with a deadline on 14 August 2015. In this case, students need to enrol at the examination office for the mid-semester examination period of the summer semester 2015 (not, as it has been previously announced, in the regular examination period of the summer semester). Their results are then part of this semester and will be published in September 2015. In addition to being the requirement to earn the credit points for this course the paper provides students with a good opportunity to practice and advance professional writing in English, a skill that can be useful both for their short-term (master’s thesis, dissertation...) and long-term (working in an international environment) future.

5. Course documents

The necessary documents will be available on the respective Learnweb page (link see above). The password for enrolment will be provided in the first lecture. The documents for the first lecture will be available here (ZIV login neccessary).