Enhancing the Change Process in Accounting with Site Visitations.

Faculty members in many accounting programs are discussing and evaluating potential changes to their courses and/or curricula. Using what others have already learned prevents "reinventing the wheel," and takes advantage of learning curve effects. The use of site visitations in learning what others have done provides a valuable tool in the process. Site visitations provide the capability to adapt the changes made by one or more programs to suit the particular circumstances of another institution. Based on site visitations to Arizona State University, Kansas State University, Mesa Community College and The University of Southern California, the authors explain how these visits enhanced the change process at their institution and provide a series of questions to ask when on a site visit. These questions help to evaluate the host institution's community, administrative and academic environments, faculty and student culture and physical facilities. Information about these factors, when compared to the same factors at your institution, aids in anticipating their impact on the change process. While evaluations of these factors are admittedly subjective, they add richness to the information base and contribute to better decisions about course and curricula changes.