Peer Review

KPMG IFRS Institute

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Apr 4, 2009 by Business

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

The KPMG IFRS Institute is designed to help practitioners and academics remain current with emerging issues related to the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards. The home page provides links to a wealth of information such as news articles, speeches, briefing sheets, defining issues, technical briefs and industry publications. Most useful for instructional purposes is the extensive library of On-Demand Webcasts which cover a variety of topics from "Insights into IFRS in the Oil & Gas Industry" to the "Proposed Roadmap Survey Results and International Adoption" to "XBRL." Each webcast is approximately 1 hour in length. (This review speaks to the usefulness of the webcasts as a teaching tool.) Membership is free and required to access the webcasts.

Type of Material:

Practitioner oriented resource with webcast presentations about IFRS.

Recommended Uses:

Life-long learning for practitioners and academics.
Individual or team homework for students.

Technical Requirements:

Firefox browser preferred.
Windows Media Player. Real-time Player, or Silverlight Player
Briefing sheets, technical briefs, etc, require Adobe Acrobat Reader

Identify Major Learning Goals:

To provide practitioners, industry professionals, and academics with a resource to keep abreast of current developments with respect to the adoption and implementation of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Target Student Population:

Accounting professionals, academics, upper level accounting majors and graduate students.

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

A minimum knowledge at the intermediate accounting level is most useful for using and appreciating this site.

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

Relevancy and timeliness - excellent
Clarity and conciseness - very good
Accuracy - excellent
Informed by scholarship - excellent
Integration and summarization - excellent
Flexibility as a teaching tool - average
The amount of material included is sufficient to accomplish the intended objectives.

Concerns:

For instructional purposes the webcasts are probably not self-contained. Instructors will need to provide context or create an assignment to coincide with viewing them.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

This evaluation of potential effectiveness as a teaching tool applies to the On-Demand webcasts.

Viewers will learn much in a short time.
Concepts are reinforced progressively and build on prior concepts.
An overview/introduction is provided for each webcast.
Viewers of live webcasts can earn 1 CPE (continuing professional education) credit by responding to three of the five questions posed. In addition, viewers can send questions to the presenters that will be addressed near the end of the session.
The effectiveness of the webcasts as a teaching tool is limited to the creativity of the instructor attempting to incorporate them into a class. When viewed as part of an assignment they could be quite effective teaching enhancements.
Connects theory to practice.
Provides an "executive-in-residence" opportunity via the web.

Concerns:

Prerequisite knowledge is not explicitly identified. (KPMG no doubt assumes interested parties would have sufficient abilities to benefit from participating.)
Sometimes no feedback is provided for the interactive questions posed throughout a live webcast.
Merely showing the webcasts in class would very likely be ineffective. Instructors would need to develop an assignment to that requires students to reflect, discuss, or apply concepts presented.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

The webcasts consist of a video-enhanced PowerPoint presentation. The screen is split into thirds. Top left frame displays the presenter's picture. Bottom left frame displays the interactive assessment items (MPC or T/F questions). Right frame displays the PowerPoint slides.
Slides can be enlarged to enhance viewing.
Pdf version of the slides is available for download as well.
Each presentation can be paused.
Each presentation is professionally executed.
Other reading materials can be easily downloaded.

Concerns:

In some of the later webcasts, the primary presenter/host assumes the viewer understands how the system works. This is particularly troublesome for individuals hoping to earn CPE for participating in a live webcast. Some presenters alert viewers when a question pops up while others do not, so it is easy to miss them particularly when one is taking notes.
The voice and slides become out of sync if one tries to fast-forward or rewind the slides when viewed in on-demand mode.
Interactivity is limited to participation in live webcasts.
Engagement by presenters varies from webcast to webcast. Some individuals are very captivating while others are not.

Other Issues and Comments:: This site is a good resource for practitioners, industry professionals, and academics who want to keep abreast of IFRS developments.
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