Abstract:

The Financial Management subject, for which this teaching experience has been developed, is taught in the Degree in Tourism of the University of Almeria. It is a subject of vital importance, since it is the only subject of finance of the degree.

The objective of the subject is not to prepare financial specialists, but to provide students with a set of knowledge and tools that allow them to establish a diagnosis of the situation of the company, mainly tourism companies, as well as understand the effects that daily decisions have in its financial structure and profitability.

Finance is a very practical discipline. Therefore, practice sessions should address the resolution of real financial problems, providing students with calculation tools (spreadsheets) for problem analysis and resolution, as well as the proper interpretation of the results. Excel is the most widely used spreadsheet application in finance, so students should be familiar with its use.

However, until the previous course, the entire practical part of the subject was done on paper, so given this situation a group of professors have created a Teaching Innovation Group focused on the design and application of a new Excel evaluation model in computer rooms. Logically, this system requires that all practice sessions also take place in computer rooms.

The pilot experience was carried out during the 2018/19 academic year, and the work plan followed was as follows:

Before the start of the course:
• Include in the teaching guide of the subject the new evaluation system.
• Plan and design the practice sessions, in which, in addition to the resolution of paper exercises carried out so far, computer room sessions have been incorporated.
• Plan and design a correction system for online activities. The autonomous work of the student in the learning process of the design of spreadsheets has been stimulated. Therefore, there are a series of exercises that students do outside of class time and delivery through the Virtual Classroom.
• Design the practical part of the exam.
• Set the measures that guarantee the safety of the exam.
• Establish a correction system that not only takes into account the result of the exercise, but the flexibility of the designed spreadsheet and its capacity to admit changes in the input data that will automatically lead to new results.

During the course:
• Control the development of the practical sessions in the computer rooms: Two formal meetings have been established during the course, one within a few weeks of the beginning and another one in the middle of the four-month period. However, the professors involved have almost weekly contact.

At the end of the course:
• Conduct a student satisfaction survey.
• Make a comparison with the results obtained in previous years.
• Hold a final meeting to discuss the results obtained and the suitability of the new computer-assisted evaluation system.
• Prepare a poster publication with the results of the teaching experience in the Teaching Innovation Conference of the University of Almeria in 2019.
• Prepare a publication in a teaching congress.

Finally, it should be noted that the results obtained have been very positive, so we plan to incorporate this system into financial subjects of other degrees that have not yet incorporated the use of Excel.

Keywords:

Financial Management, evaluation, spreadsheet, Excel.