QAS Self Study: Development

Learning objectives should clearly articulate the knowledge, skills and abilities that can be achieved by participants by completing the learning activities/program. The learning objectives should be worded to describe the “take-aways” for the participant (i.e., what should they be able to do or what ability should they have upon completion of the activity/program). The objectives should not be worded in what the instructor or program developed plans to tell the participant about the course topic.

The following are examples of learning objectives that clearly specify the learning outcome.

After completing this course, you will be able to:

• Differentiate between the three basic levels in an organization
• List the six types of strategic plans
• Associate each strategic plan with the appropriate organization level
• Define the four steps in the organization strategic planning process
• Apply the strategic planning process to create a product marketing plan.

Program knowledge levels consist of: basic, intermediate, advanced, update and overview. Programs that are classified as intermediate, advanced or update inherently build upon a prerequisite experience or education. Experience or education could be expressed in numbers of years working in a particular area; completion of earlier courses in a series of courses; or an employment position/title.

Example

Program level – Intermediate 

Attendees should have 3-5 year prior industry experience and thorough knowledge of financial accounting principles and practices.  

Who should attend: oil and gas accountants; financial analysts; reserve reporting managers

All courses must contain the most recent publication, revision or review date. Courses must be revised as soon as feasible following changes to relative codes, laws, rulings, decisions, interpretations, etc.

Group Live and Group Internet Based: If a change in laws, rulings, etc. has occurred and there is not enough time prior to the program to update instructor slides, program materials, handouts, etc., it is presumed that the live instructor will advise participants of the changes to laws, rulings, etc. at the time the program is taking place. Therefore, the course publication date of a Group Live or Group Internet Based program is the date the program is conducted.

QAS Self Study: The course publication, revision or review date is typically contained in the program materials or in the instructions to the participant. If the program has been reviewed and no revisions or updates were required, then the review date should be noted.

Programs designated as accounting and auditing must involve a CPA in the development of the program. Programs designated as taxes must involve a CPA, tax attorney, or enrolled agent in the development of the program. Whether to involve this individual during the initial program development or the review process is at the CPE program sponsor’s discretion.

Examples

An auditing course on statistical sampling was developed by a subject matter expert statistician who is not a CPA. The development team would need to include a CPA or a CPA would need to perform the independent review of the program.

The accounting course was authored by the subject matter expert who is a chartered accountant in the U.K. but not a CPA. The development team would need to include a CPA or a CPA would need to perform the independent review of the program.

The course designated as accounting was developed primarily for the certified financial planner audience. Wouldn’t it be beneficial for the review to be conducted by a certified financial planner (CFP)? Absolutely. The review process is not limited to one person.  However, if a CPA was not involved in the development of the program, a CPA would need to review the program. One could have both a CPA (to meet the requirement of the Standards) and a CFP review the program.

1. Feedback means giving reinforcement comments to correct responses (i.e., “your response is correct because of XYZ”) and evaluative comments to incorrect responses (i.e., “your response is incorrect because of XYZ”).
    

Example:

Question: The address of a web site is technically known as what?

• URL
• HTTP
• HTML
• WEB
   

Incorrect Feedback:

• Correct, because URL stands for universal resource location. Web site addresses are a type of URL
• Incorrect, because this is not the technical term for a web site address.
• Incorrect, because this is not the technical term for a web site address.
• Incorrect, because this is not the technical term for a web site address.
   

The evaluative feedback for incorrect responses is not adequate, as the student is not informed why that specific response is wrong.

Correct feedback:

• Correct, because this is the technical term for a web site address.
• Incorrect, HTTP is a communication protocol.
• Incorrect, HTML is the markup language for the creation of web page. 2
• Incorrect, WEB it's a misnomer for the Internet as a whole.
   

The evaluative feedback for incorrect responses is adequate, as the student is informed why that specific response is wrong.

1. The purpose of the qualified assessment is to determine if the participant has successfully completed the course. To be successful, the participant must not only complete the information, but understand the concepts presented. To achieve understanding and give meaning to information, a participant must be able to take an existing concept and relate this information to a new situation. If a review question is repeated as an assessment question, then the sponsor cannot verify if the participant understands the concept or is recalling the answer from the review questions.
   
   Example 1: True/False review question duplicated to a multiple choice assessment question.
   
   Review question:
   
   Credits from passive activities generally are limited to the tax attributable to the passive activities.
    

• True
• False

    Qualified assessment question:

    Credits from passive activities generally are limited to:

• The tax attributable to the passive activities
• Investment income
• Imputed interest
• Business profits

    Example 2: Changing irrelevant information that does not have any affect on how information is processed to determine the correct answer

    Review Question

    Can Soyboy get automatic IRS approval for accounting method change in item 1 for 20X0?

• IRS approval for this change is automatic, and it is effective starting in 20X0.
• IRS approval is not automatic for this change.
• IRS approval for this change is automatic, but it is only effective starting in 20X1.
   

    Qualified assessment question:

    Can Beany Enterprises get automatic IRS approval for accounting method change in item 1 for 20X0?

• IRS approval for this change is automatic, and it is effective starting in 20X0.
• IRS approval is not automatic for this change.
• IRS approval for this change is automatic, but it is only effective starting in 20X1.

1. Test bank (randomize questions and distracters) and overlap of questions should be controlled at the learning objective level.

If a test bank of questions is used and the qualified assessment randomly selects questions each and every assessment launch, then feedback is permitted to users on the qualified assessment.

If the qualified assessment is static and the user is faced with the same set of questions at each attempt, then feedback is prohibited unless the user completes the assessment with a passing score.

1. Review questions must be placed at the end of each learning activity throughout the program in sufficient intervals to allow the learner the opportunity to evaluate the material that needs to be re-studied. A best practice is to integrate review questions along the way or at the end of each chapter/module. For longer chapters/modules, you may consider review questions after each credit hour or after each significant learning activity.

1. Except in courses where recall of information is the learning strategy, duplicate review and qualified assessment questions are not allowed. An example might be a basic tax course where memorization of tax laws is the key learning objective.