Journal of
Financial Education

This paper reports on an integrated, cross-disciplinary, undergraduate program known as the Integrated Business Curriculum (IBC) and the role of finance in the curriculum. Developed and implemented at the University of Idaho College of Business and Economics, the IBC reconfigured the entire junior-level common body of knowledge into six, team-taught modules, each based upon a key business process (e.g., product and process planning). This approach parallels the current business reengineering trend where tasks are grouped around processes. We compare topical finance coverage in the IBC and the traditional finance class. We also raise several issues that institutions must address should they attempt to implement an integrated business curriculum.

Recently developed courseware, including tutorials, simulations, presentations, electronic textbooks and computer-based exams and assignments, often contain features that provide feedback to students. Feedback has consistently been shown to have a positive impact on performance and motivation; however, the effectiveness of feedback in improving performance depends on a number of factors. When evaluating courseware for adoption or designing their own courseware, educators should consider these feedback features and their impact on the student’s learning experience. Thus, we discuss guidelines for the proper use of this technology to improve the performance of students. In addition, an example is provided of actual courseware that contains feedback that follows these guidelines.

One of the most common ways to value a firm is through the use of pricing multiples based on earnings, book value, cash flow, or sales. This approach, however, requires a set of "comparable" firms, where comparability is typically determined based on size and industry. In this paper, I decompose the Gordon growth model to illustrate the determinants of comparability and show that these variables provide additional explanatory power in explaining P/E ratios beyond size and industry. From a pedagogical perspective, this approach not only clarifies the concept of comparability but also provides a way to review important concepts covered in most introductory finance classes.

In this paper I present two takeover experiments intended for a principles of finance class. The experiments take about twenty minutes of class time to conduct and need not be accompanied by material on takeovers. The purpose is not to study takeovers; the purpose is to help give students the idea that finance is about people making decisions, not just abstract theory.

Real-time finance cases are a form of experiential learning. Teams of students analyze a real case presented to them by finance executives. Students communicate their analyses and the resulting recommendations to the executives at the end of the semester. The real-time case facilitates and encourages higher levels of learning such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation while demonstrating to students the relevance of previous course work. This paper includes a timetable for developing a real-time case. It also compares student reactions to traditional cases versus real-time cases. The findings suggest that real-time case studies are an effective innovation in finance pedagogy.

In this paper we illustrate a much simpler, cleaner approach to calculating bond prices and duration than is typically seen in textbooks. Such an approach enables students to make these calculations quickly and with minimum frustration with formulas, while allowing instructors to concentrate on the intuitive nature of the calculations. This approach eliminates the need for approximation formulas and present value tables (still seen in textbooks today), while demonstrating to students the ease with which they can calculate a present value factor and the importance of having done so.

This approach allows instructors to focus on the role of a perpetuity in explaining all bond prices, which normally is not done in these discussions. Variations of the basic calculation involving stripped principal bonds or zero coupon bonds can be efficiently presented . Finally, students can easily see how the duration calculation follows from the bond price calculation. Students should be more receptive to learning the meaning and uses of duration once they are not intimidated by a complex-looking formula.