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Jonathan Tyler

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Jessica Frawley

The University of Sydney

University of the Sunshine Coast

Cyprus University of Technology

Evangelos Moustakas

Middlesex University

Deirdre Mcgrath

Cyprus University of Technology

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Papers by Jonathan Tyler

Facilitating Enhanced Learning in Tutorials through Tablet Computing Enabled Sharing and Annotation Technologies

The purpose of this study is report on a trial of t ablet computing enabled sharing and annotatio... more The purpose of this study is report on a trial of t ablet computing enabled sharing and annotation technologies in an Introductory Accounting subject. These technologies allow student homework to be photographed using a tablet computer (iPad in ou r study), shown to the class instantaneously through a data projector and annotated live by the tutor, along with student participation, using the tablet computer. These technologies are intended to address calls for more student–centred approaches to learning, moving away from the didact c approach that dominates much of accounting education. Two focus group sessions were conducted to xplore the effectiveness of the technologies, with the first group from a class where the tutor u sed the iPad and the second from a class where there was no iPad use. The findings from the focus groups suggest that in the class where the iPad was used, there was a far greater ability to focus on the questions and problems students were facing, a lot more ma...

Regulatory requirements and board composition

This thesis addresses the research question of regulatory requirements and board composition. Spe... more This thesis addresses the research question of regulatory requirements and board composition. Specifically it has two objectives: first, to provide evidence of the impact of the Principles of Good Corporate Governance and Best Practice (PGCG&BP) introduction in 2003 by the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) on board composition. Second, to examine the association between board composition and continuous disclosure as a measure of governance effectiveness. Two of the main principles of the PGCG&BP were independent boards and greater accountability, and Australia provides a unique institutional setting to test accountability with the Continuous Disclosure Regime (CDR) because of the single portal announcement repository and the almost universal single topic announcements. This latter feature removes the confounding effect found in many other studies using annual reports. From a sample of 450 firms in 2001 and 2007, I find the number of firms with (majority) independent boards and committees increased following the PGCG&BP regulation (substantially in the case of the nomination committee), however the percentage of independent directors on boards increased only marginally, with firms that initially had a high percentage of independent directors often reducing their level of independence (mean reversion). Using ordinary least squares regression (OLS) I find the relation between board composition and firm characteristics reduced after the introduction of the regulation, adding weight to the proposition that boards were forced to become less 'efficient' or 'optimal'. Further testing with OLS and two-stage least squares regression to control for potential endogeneity issues finds more independent boards do not appear to be associated with more continuous disclosures but the association is significant with other corporate governance factors. These results bring into question some of the expected outcomes of this corporate governance regulation. Chapter Two Was corporate governance regulation really the answer?

The impact of an iPad-supported annotation and sharing technology on university students' learning

Computers & Education, 2018

Supporting Graduate Attribute Development in Introductory Accounting with Student-Generated Screencasts

International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning, 2016

In recent years educational, industry and government bodies have placed increasing emphasis on th... more In recent years educational, industry and government bodies have placed increasing emphasis on the need to better support the development of “soft” skills or graduate attributes within higher education. This paper details the adoption of a student-generated multimedia screencast assignment that was found to address this need. Implemented within a large introductory accounting subject, this optional assignment allowed undergraduate students to design, develop and record a screencast so as to explain a key accounting concept to their peers. This paper reports on the trial, evaluation and redesign of this assignment. Drawing on data from student surveys, practitioner reflections and descriptive analysis of the screencasts themselves, this paper demonstrates the ways that the assignment contributed to the development and expression of a number of graduate attributes. These included the students' skills in multimedia, creativity, teamwork and self-directed learning. Adopting free-to-...

Is audit quality impacted by auditor relationships?

Journal of Contemporary Accounting & Economics, 2015

The objective of this study is to provide empirical evidence on the association of audit quality ... more The objective of this study is to provide empirical evidence on the association of audit quality with audit tenure which would support the argument for auditor rotation being prescribed by regulation. Auditor tenure is measured having regard to both the duration of relations between the lead audit partner and client firm management (person-to-person relations), as well as the duration of the audit firm's engagement by the client (firm-to-firm). Using the setting of when Australian firms were adopting the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), we examine 266 publicly listed Australian firms and find evidence of a negative association between the length of tenure between the lead audit partner and client firm management (person-to-person relations) and audit quality. Conversely we find a positive relation between audit firm engagement by the client (firm-to-firm) and audit quality. This suggests there may be quality benefits from prescribing audit partner rotation, and quality costs from prescribing audit firm rotation.

Using Students' Devices and a No-to-Low Cost Online Tool to Support Interactive Experiential mLearning

2009 Ninth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, 2009

... Interviews with professors at eight universities in Australia, New Zealand and the USA showed... more

Determinants of board composition in Australia and the impact of corporate governance regulation

This study investigates the relation between firm characteristics and board composition in Austra... more This study investigates the relation between firm characteristics and board composition in Australia for a sample of the same 432 listed firms in 2001 and 2007 and the impact of the Principles of Good Corporate Governance and Best Practice issued by the Australian Stock Exchange in 2003. Two feature of this regulation were (a) it recommended independent boards for all firms, without regard to firm characteristics (an approach commonly described as 'one size fits all') and (b) it allowed non-compliance through 'if not why not' reporting. Using various designations of independence and firm size subsamples we find for 'Top 100' firms in 2001 up to 49% (Adjusted R 2 48.8) of variation in board independence may be explained by firm characteristics, but generally the explanatory power was much lower. Evidence is provided that although more firms had majority independent boards the relation between board composition and firm characteristics may have weakened over the period. This highlights a potential concern that the regulation has imposed unnecessary costs or inappropriate governance mechanisms on Australian firms.

Interactive Classroom MLearning and the Experiential Transactions Between Students and Lecturer

ascilite.org.au

This paper seeks to address a major deficit in understandings of mobile learning, that is, its la... more

Does active participation via integrated questions in large lectures matter?

Heliyon

Facilitating Enhanced Learning in Tutorials through Tablet Computing Enabled Sharing and Annotation Technologies

by Jessica Frawley, James Wakefield, and Jonathan Tyler

The purpose of this study is report on a trial of tablet computing enabled sharing and annotation... more The purpose of this study is report on a trial of tablet computing enabled sharing and annotation technologies in an Introductory Accounting subject. These technologies allow student homework to be photographed using a tablet computer (iPad in our study), shown to the class instantaneously through a data projector and annotated live by the tutor, along with student participation, using the tablet computer. These technologies are intended to address calls for more student–centred
approaches to learning, moving away from the didactic approach that dominates much of accounting education. Two focus group sessions were conducted to explore the effectiveness of the technologies, with the first group from a class where the tutor used the iPad and the second from a class where there was no iPad use. The findings from the focus groups suggest that in the class where the iPad was used, there was a far greater ability to focus on the questions and problems students were facing, a lot more material could be covered, student felt more comfortable participating because they could see their fellow students faced similar challenges and they were far more likely to complete homework prior to class. Overall this indicates there were significant benefits for students.

A Web-Based Interactive Classroom System as a Sustainable Alternative to Clickers in Large Classes

by Jessica Frawley, Jonathan Tyler, Laurel Dyson, and James Wakefield

Engaging students and making them active participants rather than passive listeners is a challeng... more Engaging students and making them active participants rather than passive listeners is a challenge in courses with large enrolments. One solution has been interactive classroom systems – known variously as personal response systems, electronic voting systems or simply ―clickers‖. Despite their many pedagogical benefits, their use is still comparatively low. Issues with clicker-based technology include cost, management software complexity, and distribution logistics: these act as major disincentives to academics. With very large classes clickers are unsustainable. This poster reports on an alternative approach implemented in a first-year Introductory Accounting course in which students use their own Internet-enabled devices (mobile phones, tablets or laptops) to answer questions electronically in class. Prior to class, the lecturer accesses the web interface of the system to set up questions, usually three per lecture. The system allows a wide variety of question types, including multiple-choice, yes/no or true/false questions, and those requiring a numeric or text-based answer. During the class the question is displayed simultaneously on the lecturer's PowerPoint slide and on the screen of the students' device once they enter the website. After answering anonymously, the combined class response is displayed on the large screen in the lecture hall, usually in the form of a histogram. This is followed by immediate feedback from the lecturer and if necessary questions from the students and a discussion. One typical clicker feature not available on the system is a student login since we have never been interested in tracking individual performance and in fact encourage students to discuss and enter answers collaboratively. Surveys of students and feedback from lecturers have shown high levels of acceptance. For example, in the second semester of operation only 15.8% of students had never used the system or only answered once or twice. Some of these found the system useful, despite not using it: only 12% of students neither used it nor found it useful. Responses to survey questions that scored more than 4 on a 5-point Likert scale included that the use of the system made lectures more fun, engaging and interactive; students enjoyed seeing the whole class response on the graph; they liked knowing what the correct answer was and getting immediate feedback from the lecturer, and appreciated the fact that the lecturer could see where they were going wrong and explain things they hadn't understood; and they were happy to use their own mobile device. The bring your own device (BYOD) strategy, allowing students to access the system from their own devices , has proved sustainable in this large class where enrolments are typically between 600 and 1,500 depending on the semester. This has occurred through careful design of both the technology and the pedagogy. Technically, a minimal student interface incurs an almost negligible cost to students when answering questions , and, pedagogically, students are allowed to answer each question individually or as a group, thus not discriminating against students who have no device or choose not to use it. From an in-house development, the system is now freely available on the Web (www.mqlicker.com).

Facilitating Enhanced Learning in Tutorials through Tablet Computing Enabled Sharing and Annotation Technologies

The purpose of this study is report on a trial of t ablet computing enabled sharing and annotatio... more The purpose of this study is report on a trial of t ablet computing enabled sharing and annotation technologies in an Introductory Accounting subject. These technologies allow student homework to be photographed using a tablet computer (iPad in ou r study), shown to the class instantaneously through a data projector and annotated live by the tutor, along with student participation, using the tablet computer. These technologies are intended to address calls for more student–centred approaches to learning, moving away from the didact c approach that dominates much of accounting education. Two focus group sessions were conducted to xplore the effectiveness of the technologies, with the first group from a class where the tutor u sed the iPad and the second from a class where there was no iPad use. The findings from the focus groups suggest that in the class where the iPad was used, there was a far greater ability to focus on the questions and problems students were facing, a lot more ma...

Regulatory requirements and board composition

This thesis addresses the research question of regulatory requirements and board composition. Spe... more This thesis addresses the research question of regulatory requirements and board composition. Specifically it has two objectives: first, to provide evidence of the impact of the Principles of Good Corporate Governance and Best Practice (PGCG&BP) introduction in 2003 by the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) on board composition. Second, to examine the association between board composition and continuous disclosure as a measure of governance effectiveness. Two of the main principles of the PGCG&BP were independent boards and greater accountability, and Australia provides a unique institutional setting to test accountability with the Continuous Disclosure Regime (CDR) because of the single portal announcement repository and the almost universal single topic announcements. This latter feature removes the confounding effect found in many other studies using annual reports. From a sample of 450 firms in 2001 and 2007, I find the number of firms with (majority) independent boards and committees increased following the PGCG&BP regulation (substantially in the case of the nomination committee), however the percentage of independent directors on boards increased only marginally, with firms that initially had a high percentage of independent directors often reducing their level of independence (mean reversion). Using ordinary least squares regression (OLS) I find the relation between board composition and firm characteristics reduced after the introduction of the regulation, adding weight to the proposition that boards were forced to become less 'efficient' or 'optimal'. Further testing with OLS and two-stage least squares regression to control for potential endogeneity issues finds more independent boards do not appear to be associated with more continuous disclosures but the association is significant with other corporate governance factors. These results bring into question some of the expected outcomes of this corporate governance regulation. Chapter Two Was corporate governance regulation really the answer?

The impact of an iPad-supported annotation and sharing technology on university students' learning

Computers & Education, 2018

Supporting Graduate Attribute Development in Introductory Accounting with Student-Generated Screencasts

International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning, 2016

In recent years educational, industry and government bodies have placed increasing emphasis on th... more In recent years educational, industry and government bodies have placed increasing emphasis on the need to better support the development of “soft” skills or graduate attributes within higher education. This paper details the adoption of a student-generated multimedia screencast assignment that was found to address this need. Implemented within a large introductory accounting subject, this optional assignment allowed undergraduate students to design, develop and record a screencast so as to explain a key accounting concept to their peers. This paper reports on the trial, evaluation and redesign of this assignment. Drawing on data from student surveys, practitioner reflections and descriptive analysis of the screencasts themselves, this paper demonstrates the ways that the assignment contributed to the development and expression of a number of graduate attributes. These included the students' skills in multimedia, creativity, teamwork and self-directed learning. Adopting free-to-...

Is audit quality impacted by auditor relationships?

Journal of Contemporary Accounting & Economics, 2015

The objective of this study is to provide empirical evidence on the association of audit quality ... more The objective of this study is to provide empirical evidence on the association of audit quality with audit tenure which would support the argument for auditor rotation being prescribed by regulation. Auditor tenure is measured having regard to both the duration of relations between the lead audit partner and client firm management (person-to-person relations), as well as the duration of the audit firm's engagement by the client (firm-to-firm). Using the setting of when Australian firms were adopting the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), we examine 266 publicly listed Australian firms and find evidence of a negative association between the length of tenure between the lead audit partner and client firm management (person-to-person relations) and audit quality. Conversely we find a positive relation between audit firm engagement by the client (firm-to-firm) and audit quality. This suggests there may be quality benefits from prescribing audit partner rotation, and quality costs from prescribing audit firm rotation.

Using Students' Devices and a No-to-Low Cost Online Tool to Support Interactive Experiential mLearning

2009 Ninth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, 2009

... Interviews with professors at eight universities in Australia, New Zealand and the USA showed... more

Determinants of board composition in Australia and the impact of corporate governance regulation

This study investigates the relation between firm characteristics and board composition in Austra... more This study investigates the relation between firm characteristics and board composition in Australia for a sample of the same 432 listed firms in 2001 and 2007 and the impact of the Principles of Good Corporate Governance and Best Practice issued by the Australian Stock Exchange in 2003. Two feature of this regulation were (a) it recommended independent boards for all firms, without regard to firm characteristics (an approach commonly described as 'one size fits all') and (b) it allowed non-compliance through 'if not why not' reporting. Using various designations of independence and firm size subsamples we find for 'Top 100' firms in 2001 up to 49% (Adjusted R 2 48.8) of variation in board independence may be explained by firm characteristics, but generally the explanatory power was much lower. Evidence is provided that although more firms had majority independent boards the relation between board composition and firm characteristics may have weakened over the period. This highlights a potential concern that the regulation has imposed unnecessary costs or inappropriate governance mechanisms on Australian firms.

Interactive Classroom MLearning and the Experiential Transactions Between Students and Lecturer

ascilite.org.au

This paper seeks to address a major deficit in understandings of mobile learning, that is, its la... more

Does active participation via integrated questions in large lectures matter?

Heliyon

Facilitating Enhanced Learning in Tutorials through Tablet Computing Enabled Sharing and Annotation Technologies

by Jessica Frawley, James Wakefield, and Jonathan Tyler

The purpose of this study is report on a trial of tablet computing enabled sharing and annotation... more The purpose of this study is report on a trial of tablet computing enabled sharing and annotation technologies in an Introductory Accounting subject. These technologies allow student homework to be photographed using a tablet computer (iPad in our study), shown to the class instantaneously through a data projector and annotated live by the tutor, along with student participation, using the tablet computer. These technologies are intended to address calls for more student–centred
approaches to learning, moving away from the didactic approach that dominates much of accounting education. Two focus group sessions were conducted to explore the effectiveness of the technologies, with the first group from a class where the tutor used the iPad and the second from a class where there was no iPad use. The findings from the focus groups suggest that in the class where the iPad was used, there was a far greater ability to focus on the questions and problems students were facing, a lot more material could be covered, student felt more comfortable participating because they could see their fellow students faced similar challenges and they were far more likely to complete homework prior to class. Overall this indicates there were significant benefits for students.

A Web-Based Interactive Classroom System as a Sustainable Alternative to Clickers in Large Classes

by Jessica Frawley, Jonathan Tyler, Laurel Dyson, and James Wakefield

Engaging students and making them active participants rather than passive listeners is a challeng... more Engaging students and making them active participants rather than passive listeners is a challenge in courses with large enrolments. One solution has been interactive classroom systems – known variously as personal response systems, electronic voting systems or simply ―clickers‖. Despite their many pedagogical benefits, their use is still comparatively low. Issues with clicker-based technology include cost, management software complexity, and distribution logistics: these act as major disincentives to academics. With very large classes clickers are unsustainable. This poster reports on an alternative approach implemented in a first-year Introductory Accounting course in which students use their own Internet-enabled devices (mobile phones, tablets or laptops) to answer questions electronically in class. Prior to class, the lecturer accesses the web interface of the system to set up questions, usually three per lecture. The system allows a wide variety of question types, including multiple-choice, yes/no or true/false questions, and those requiring a numeric or text-based answer. During the class the question is displayed simultaneously on the lecturer's PowerPoint slide and on the screen of the students' device once they enter the website. After answering anonymously, the combined class response is displayed on the large screen in the lecture hall, usually in the form of a histogram. This is followed by immediate feedback from the lecturer and if necessary questions from the students and a discussion. One typical clicker feature not available on the system is a student login since we have never been interested in tracking individual performance and in fact encourage students to discuss and enter answers collaboratively. Surveys of students and feedback from lecturers have shown high levels of acceptance. For example, in the second semester of operation only 15.8% of students had never used the system or only answered once or twice. Some of these found the system useful, despite not using it: only 12% of students neither used it nor found it useful. Responses to survey questions that scored more than 4 on a 5-point Likert scale included that the use of the system made lectures more fun, engaging and interactive; students enjoyed seeing the whole class response on the graph; they liked knowing what the correct answer was and getting immediate feedback from the lecturer, and appreciated the fact that the lecturer could see where they were going wrong and explain things they hadn't understood; and they were happy to use their own mobile device. The bring your own device (BYOD) strategy, allowing students to access the system from their own devices , has proved sustainable in this large class where enrolments are typically between 600 and 1,500 depending on the semester. This has occurred through careful design of both the technology and the pedagogy. Technically, a minimal student interface incurs an almost negligible cost to students when answering questions , and, pedagogically, students are allowed to answer each question individually or as a group, thus not discriminating against students who have no device or choose not to use it. From an in-house development, the system is now freely available on the Web (www.mqlicker.com).