This paper reports the results of a course redesign project for introductory financial accounting taught predominately to non-accounting majors. The objectives were to improve student learning and student retention. Student learning was measured with an assurance of learning (AOL) instrument. Retention was measured by the DFWI rate, composed of the grades of D, F, W (withdrawal) or I (incomplete). Thus, we measured the impact that the course redesign had on mean AOL scores and on mean DFWI rates. The first step in the redesign was to reduce the detailed course content. This created time for pedagogical changes in the second step. Metacognitive and active learning activities were added to foster student learning. Results indicated that the content reduction alone did not significantly impact AOL scores or DFWI rates. The pedagogical changes significantly improved AOL scores, and the combination of the content reduction and pedagogy changes decreased DFWI rates. It is hoped that the positive results will serve to inform other such course improvement efforts.

本文报告了主要针对非会计专业教授的介绍性财务会计课程重新设计项目的结果。目标是改善学生的学习和学生的保留。学生学习是通过学习保证 (AOL) 工具来衡量的。保留是通过 DFWI 率来衡量的，由 D、F、W（退出）或 I（不完整）的等级组成。因此，我们衡量了课程重新设计对平均 AOL 分数和平均 DFWI 率的影响。重新设计的第一步是减少详细的课程内容。这为第二步的教学改革创造了时间。添加元认知和主动学习活动以促进学生学习。结果表明，仅内容减少不会显着影响 AOL 分数或 DFWI 率。教学法的改变显着提高了 AOL 分数，内容减少和教学法改变的结合降低了 DFWI 率。希望积极的结果将有助于为其他此类课程改进工作提供信息。