Strengthening the link between the classroom and practice

Much has been written about the "disconnect" between academia and real-world practice in many fields. While it's important for students to have foundational knowledge — often gained from textbooks and readings — it's become equally important for them to engage in experiential activities.

Future fraud fighters, whatever their specialties, benefit greatly from having opportunities to practice skills such as interviewing and expert-witness testimony. Who better than a practitioner to help bring these activities to the classroom? In this issue, I'll revisit some tried-and-true activities, add a few twists and offer some suggestions for getting involved in new ways.

Case studies

Case studies that allow students to develop their own solutions to problems are excellent tools to use in the classroom. I covered this topic in detail in an earlier Fraud EDge column. New cases are constantly becoming available through the ACFE, the American Accounting Association, the Institute of Internal Auditors and other professional organizations.

Involving practitioners and alumni in role-playing adds an additional dimension to the written case. It's been my experience that they're very interested in participating and enjoy the experience. Some of the best actors are former students who completed the cases as part of their course work, are very familiar with the material and often embellish their roles.

Students enjoy the challenge of interviewing suspects to see if they can identify the perpetrator and obtain a confession. Participating outsiders also provide an additional incentive for students to be well-prepared because they might be future employers or colleagues.

Expert-witness testimony

Serving as an expert witness is one of the many opportunities available to CFEs. I recently conducted a class exercise to demonstrate how challenging the expert-witness role can be and to emphasize the necessity of being thoroughly prepared. We used the "Arson or Accident" forensic accounting case by Cindy Durtschi and Robert J. Rufus. (See the American Accounting Association.)

Student teams prepared their side of the case and served as experts and attorneys. The jury, comprised of our master's program alumni, weighed the testimony and evidence and determined if the insurance company should pay out funds to the claimant. After the jury delivered its verdict, jury members shared their thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of the student presentations.

One of the participants — a senior IT auditor at a local bank — wrote in a subsequent email that he was surprised at the students' level of preparation and professionalism. Always nice to hear!

Younger university students also can be jury members, though this will challenge presenters because the jury will have a limited understanding of accounting or financial investigations.

Data mining

Data mining, which is growing as volumes of information continue to explode, helps fraud examiners slice and dice information as they look for anomalies and patterns. Students often can buy and use reduced-cost analysis tools such as IDEA and ACL with accompanying workbooks. They can also use Excel add-ons such as Teammate Analytics depending on the size of the data files and the analysis.

The challenge often is obtaining data to utilize — particularly data that contains fraudulent transactions. The IDEA workbook has a dataset that contains fraudulent transactions in accounts payable. Deloitte has several cases that deal with forensic accounting and provide data to utilize in arriving at a solution.

The ACFE offers sessions on big-data topics at its annual ACFE Global Fraud Conferences that you can find with a word search of "big data" on ACFE.com.

The American Accounting Association addresses the importance of big data at an annual conference that brings together practitioners, educators and researchers to proactively address the skills needed for the short- and long-term future. It also offers webinars on the subject and suggestions for finding data.

While current college students are often described as "digital natives," bringing efficiency to the work environment isn't often one of the reasons that they use technology. Exposure to problem-solving activities using a data-mining component provides both awareness of the possibilities and the chance to develop some proficiency with tools that they can transfer to the workplace.

Tools such as IDEA and ACL tend to be used almost exclusively in accounting programs, but the need to analyze information extends beyond financial records. Higher-ed programs that incorporate data analytics into computer science, information systems and criminal justice courses would help give graduates an edge as they start their careers.

IBM has recently made its Watson Analytics software available to colleges and universities at no charge. The Watson Analytics educator guide describes how Watson can help students with predictive analytics and dashboarding, and social media analytics, which can help organizations gain insight into key issues affecting their businesses.

Data visualization

Data visualization — a tool for communicating information — identifies outliers, reduces thousands of numbers to pictures and maps findings to specific locations, among many other functions. Students can use these tools wherever they find data that needs to be summarized.

Tableau has made its software available at no charge to colleges and universities for use in the classroom. Email tft@tableau.com to obtain licensing for students and faculty.

Students in my Advanced Investigations class created a dashboard using data available on "Tableau Public." The class discussion that followed showed that the students were already thinking of other opportunities in which they might utilize visualization to tell stories.

During the recent 27th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference speakers shared how they were using data visualization in the supply-chain function. They emphasized the importance of dashboards to provide information in real time plus the importance of data validation — ensuring that the pulled and analyzed data is complete, accurate and consistent with expectations for inputs.

Social media investigations

Social media is playing an increasingly large role in fraud examinations. Making students aware of relevant information they can discover via social media is a worthwhile — albeit challenging — exercise.

Educators can ask students to search on a variety of social media sites to find identifying information in developing a profile of an individual and their identifying relationships with others. For example, on Facebook they can find photographs and information about friends, employers, music and entertainment preferences. This could lead to discussions of social-media risks for businesses and the need for policies on appropriate usage. Students begin to think about privacy and online security issues from the employers' perspectives.

Research assignment

For John Little, CFE, CPA, senior lecturer of accounting at the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University, and a local practitioner, the importance of developing writing, research and communication skills led him to develop an assignment for his fraud examination class that encompasses all of these.

Working in teams of three, students in his class are required to research a fraud case and write an article that meets the Fraud Magazine Contributors' Guidelines for submissions. Students also create podcasts that feature their fraud topic choices, which they share with the class.

Little emphasizes that students need to go beyond Googling topics and summarizing articles and information they find. Students obtain documents via New York Department of State Freedom of Information Law requests and through visits to the county or federal court systems — virtually or in person. They also interview victims, perpetrators and witnesses.

The opportunity to dig more deeply into a fraud — and the possibility of submission for publication in Fraud Magazine — makes this exercise rewarding for students.

Speakers/collaborations

Of course, students love to hear from fraud detection and prevention experts — you can't do better in emphasizing the influence practice has on education. Local ACFE chapters are ready sources for speakers.

Invite students to chapter meetings, sign them up as members, introduce them to the pros and share their research projects.

From connections made at ACFE annual conferences, I've been able to bring national speakers to my school — often in collaboration with the local ACFE chapter or other professional organizations. For example, Internal Revenue Service criminal investigation team members — regular guests in my class — work through case scenarios with the students.

Career panels comprised of local experts strengthen the links between the classroom and practice.

Fresh and relevant

Keeping curriculum and classroom activities fresh and relevant is a constant challenge. I hope you find these suggestions to be springboards for your own ideas. Future fraud fighters are depending on you!

The author receives no remuneration from her comments about software products and companies. She includes them only as suggestions to aid students. — ed.

Patricia A. Johnson, MBA, CFE, CPA, is the program coordinator of the Master's in Science in Forensic Accounting program at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. She's chair of the ACFE Higher Education Advisory Committee. Her email address is: johnsonp@canisius.edu.