Digital self-contained module to assist a writing task on evaluating the financial, social, and environmental performance of a company: Teaching note

As a response to the rapid and ongoing advancement in digital technology, we have developed a digital self-contained module in a website format to help accounting students succeed in writing a report on a company’s financial, social, and environmental performance. This teaching note describes the task and the digital tool to be implemented as additional learning support for the students. The assignment is designed to assist students in demonstrating their competency in a real-world setting and to learn how to write a professional report. Combining e-learning and visualization techniques with traditional classroom teaching, the innovative web-based module is designed and developed to guide and educate students through the assignment. The findings from the survey provide support for the achievement of the learning outcomes, as perceived by students, and manifest their satisfaction with the digital module. The step-by-step approach in the writing process and the self-explaining tips and hints (e.g., on academic literacy) were the highest-rated features of the module. The efficacy results revealed that by completing the assignment itself, the students experienced how to apply a reasoned judgment regarding the financial, social, and environmental performance of a company.