Financial Accounting (BUS 3301) at UoPeople

Financial Accounting (BUS 3301) is another course I took at the UoPeople. It’s a very practical class and involves tons of math and calculations. However, I found it a bit lightweight as I studied Financial Accounting in my previous degree. So, your mileage may vary regarding how you see this course’s workload. But your concepts from Personal Finance (BUS 2204) and Finance 1 (BUS 2202) might help you to some degree in the class.

My Finance prof at my previous school was from India. He often claimed, he would make students work hard, and that’s what he did. His tests and assignments were cumbersome, but he was very accessible after class in helping students. He made a wager of a pizza party with soft drinks if everyone in the class got a grade above C+. Free food is like a gold mine for students in college in my part of the world. They’ll do anything to get hold of it. It seems everyone worked hard to get decent grades in the course, as there was a massive pizza party with 180+ students in one of the biggest lecture rooms of the school. Fun times!

Anyway, my instructor at the UoPeople had a Ph.D. He was originally from Ghana, but now residing in the US. He really made the class a chore through his feedback and demeanor. Though he was active in all aspects of the course, his feedback, character, and failure to effectively communicate with the students made me uneasy taking his class.

The course at the UoPeople is mostly compromised of concepts like cost, volume, planning, present value, future value, interest, budgeting, costing, decision-making, performance evaluation, accounting information, and business management. My class had only 16 students, and no one dropped out. Most of the students only posted their Discussion Forum submissions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. While I was done by Saturdays. I am sorry to comment that I don’t believe many of the students learned anything from the class, as they just copied and pasted calculations already available online from past groups. My instructor didn’t do anything to stop it. There was rarely any critical thinking involved, and most students barely said a word of English to explain their computations. I’ve said it elsewhere and will say it again, it’s time for the university to change its curriculum and questions.

There’s an online book in the course. It’s the same book, which gets assigned in Basic Accounting (BUS 1102). I didn’t find the book instrumental in understanding the concepts of the class. I only found it helpful for the Learning Journals and non-Graded Quizzes. I felt that Investopedia, CFI, and two open-source books I consulted did a better job than the prescribed textbook.

The Discussion and Written Assignments are worth 12.5% each or 25% in total of your final grade. You’ve to write 7 Discussion posts and 7 Written Assignments without any breaks in the course. The Discussion posts and Written Assignments are mostly composed of calculations, like solving a budgeting or cost problem and then providing a justification. Nonetheless, there are a few of the Discussion posts that have you explaining some theoretical topics, and some of the Written Assignments have you convert some false statements into true ones by providing a rationale.

The Learning Journals are worth 10% of the final grade, and you’ve to write 8 of them. You usually have to find a company in your location that supposedly uses the accounting concepts you learned in the week. My instructor was a terrible grader and made the journals a regretful experience for me. The Graded Quizzes are worth 40% of your final grade. The Final Exam is worth 25%. About 50%-65% of the questions in the Graded Quizzes were composed of accounting problems. You get 40 mins to answer 16-18 questions in each Graded Quiz.

The Final Exam had 50 questions. About 85% of the questions in the Final Exam were comprised of problems that required calculations. You get only 75 mins for the Final, which in my view, was narrowly enough to complete it. The problems in the online book prepare you well for the Graded Quizzes and Final Exam. Some of the questions were slight variants of questions from the online book on the Final. So, make sure to do all the problems at the end of each chapter in the textbook. The questions in the Graded Quizzes and Final Exam mostly covered topics like present value, future value, interest rates, various costs, budgeting problems, collection problems, break-even, revenue, variance, COGM, etc.

If I could go back, I would finish this class on Sophia or Saylor, especially because of the terrible instructor and lackluster experience in the course. Both platforms have this course. At Sophia, the class has 17k five-star reviews. In my view, the concepts are better explained there, too. 

Final thoughts: it’s an elective class. You can skip it by taking another course in place of it at any platform, even at the UoPeople. If you really have to take this specific course at the UoPeople, be wary of the calculations throughout, a bit dull textbook, and limited time on the final. Your experience can be better through a more promising instructor and honest students. I found it a lightweight course, but that can be subjective as I was already familiar with the subject. If you asked me what I gained from this course, I could unquestionably say that the Learning Journals helped me understand how to implement accounting concepts in my future business plans. Some Discussion Assignments were also on the same line. I left detailed feedback on the course survey regarding possible improvements the school can make, along with my grievances about the prof. I hope the school will take the necessary actions.