Immersive Learning in Management Accounting Education: A Prototype of Classroom-as-Organization Supported by Learning Management System and Virtual Reality

Harnessing Technology for Knowledge Transfer in Accountancy, Auditing, and Finance

Introduction

Today’s VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) environment calls for a new set of professional skills in management accounting. Social and cognitive skills are increasingly essential to a management accountant’s skillset. Data analytics technologies make the production of standard reports easily automated, resulting in the value-adding role of management accountants increasingly relying on their ability to create new data insights by combining different forms of data, which is not purely a technical process but also a cognitive and social process (CGMA, 2016). Experts in management accounting education have advocated for more extensive applications of constructivist learning strategies in management accounting education to adapt to this new context. Constructivism-based learning strategies can provide essential methodological and conceptual elements in developing, understanding, and guiding the application of management accounting techniques in the contemporary VUCA context. Jakobsen et al. (2019) claimed that constructivist learning theory might not have received appropriate attention as a means for innovative teaching strategies in the field of management accounting education as compared with other disciplines and advocated for constructivism as a foundation for educating advanced students in management accounting. They argued that this would help foster more research-based teaching practices to prepare accounting students to act as business partners in business organisations. Jayasinghe (2020) conducted a study to evaluate the feasibility of implementing radical constructivism for teaching management accountant students and concluded that this could provide learners with innovative, constructive learning structures and cultures.

From the early stages of developing constructivist learning strategies, experts have claimed that using advanced digital technologies might contribute new opportunities to design and implement constructivist learning experiences. The recent progress in Information Technology and software development allows the creation of Virtual Constructivist Learning Environments (VCLEs), bringing new features and potentialities to online learning. Dabbagh et al. (2018) argued that immersive learning tools can significantly support affordances and significance in designing meaningful learning experiences. Immersive learning design can greatly benefit from developments in new applications like Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Virtual Reality (VR) for designing and implementing innovative constructivist-based learning strategies, representing the multiple affordances needed in learning to varying degrees. Integrating Virtual Reality (VR) digital content into one existing course supported by an LMS may represent an attractive alternative to instructional strategies using 2-D or 3-D virtual worlds or business simulation packages.

However, several conditions are necessary to successfully integrate virtual Reality (VR) digital content into one existing course supported by an LMS. Firstly, the overall pedagogical approach and instructional strategy should be underpinned by constructivist learning. Secondly, educators must combine the resources from VR immersive learning technology solutions with LMS-embedded tools as effectively and efficiently as possible. Thirdly, it is very likely that a progressive approach where the immersive learning experience can be developed, tested, and refined through iterative steps and multiple reviews of the learning experience must be adopted. Instructional designers and educators need to follow a number of steps, like creating scenarios and scripts of speaking, using a special camera to shoot 3-D images and 360 interactive videos, rethinking those scenarios, and creating, redesigning, restructuring, or deleting learning activities.