Hello friends! It’s been awhile since my last blog post. I hope your summer has been full of adventure and enjoyment (and maybe some accounting sprinkled in there). I’ve had a busy (but fun) summer and in today’s post, I’d like to talk about one of my summer highlights – being back in the classroom to teach IN PERSON!  

For me personally, I had not taught in person since December 2019! I consider myself to be pretty sociable, so not being able to see people sitting in front of me (either with smiles or confusion on their faces) and having the ability to interact/ask questions while instructing had been difficult for me. 

However, a few weeks ago, Bob Laffler, and I spent a week in Cleveland (you can see Bob’s excitement in the picture above!) at one of our most loyal clients. This client invests in a multi-week training program for their new analyst hires and one week is spent with us (GAAP Dynamics) learning about U.S. GAAP. For over seven years, we’ve had the opportunity to teach our client’s new analyst hires through a number of example scenarios and explanations that make U.S. GAAP seem “simple and easy to understand.” We end our training with presentations by the analysts on a specific accounting topic, which are always enjoyable.

For the past two years (2020 and 2021), we were not able to be in person and had to deliver this training virtually. Therefore, we provided a mix of online eLearning courses and instructor-led webinars (and a lot of fun between themed days and games). We made the most of it (like everybody has during the last two years) but wondered if our “tried and true” delivery of in-person training would ever be the same?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this question lately, especially after teaching this group of new hires. Most of the group had just graduated college; therefore, many of them were forced to shift to online classes literally overnight. And I think if you’re familiar with an online learning environment, it’s a big shift back to being in-person and sitting through an all-day training (or meeting).

Personally, I see advantages to both sides of the learning environment. I think when you’re in person, you can experience a more “hands-on” tailored approach, where people can exchange ideas and share differing opinions while having the chance to have more face-to-face interactions and networking opportunities. I also believe there are fewer chances to multi-task when sitting in a room with others (unless you don’t feel bad about having your computer open when somebody is talking). But with an online learning environment, it allows for a more flexible, self-paced environment (you can take breaks when needed), perhaps better time management, and of course it’s cheaper (from the employers' perspective).

While we are excited to be back in person, we are also continuing to challenge ourselves on how to deliver the best possible training experience knowing that you are coming out of a full, online learning environment. So, we’d love to hear from you – what would you like to see in future courses that you will be attending in person? Would you like to see shorter lecture times with more breaks? Would you like to see more question-based activities? Let us know!

In the meantime, we’ll be getting into better “training” shape – we were tired after standing up and lecturing all day (we hadn’t done that in a while!). And good luck to all the teachers out there heading back into the classroom for a new school year!

About GAAP Dynamics  

We’re a DIFFERENT type of accounting training firm. We don’t think of training as a “tick the box” exercise, but rather an opportunity to empower your people to help them make the right decisions at the right time. Whether it’s U.S. GAAP training, IFRS training, or audit training, we’ve helped thousands of professionals since 2001. Our clients include some of the largest accounting firms and companies in the world. As lifelong learners, we believe training is important. As CPAs, we believe great training is vital to doing your job well and maintaining the public trust. We want to help you understand complex accounting matters and we believe you deserve the best training in the world, regardless of whether you work for a large, multinational company or a small, regional accounting firm. We passionately create high-quality training that we would want to take. This means it is accurate, relevant, engaging, visually appealing, and fun. That’s our brand promise. Want to learn more about how GAAP Dynamics can help you? Let’s talk!

Disclaimer  

This post is published to spread the love of GAAP and provided for informational purposes only. Although we are CPAs and have made every effort to ensure the factual accuracy of the post as of the date it was published, we are not responsible for your ultimate compliance with accounting or auditing standards and you agree not to hold us responsible for such. In addition, we take no responsibility for updating old posts, but may do so from time to time.