Anyone like Monopoly?
Ok, so I know that most of our posts lately have seemed really busy and I'm sure that I seem stressed. So I've decided to let you in on some of the type of work I've been up to inside the classroom. I'm in an accounting class that I hated at the beginning of the semester, but I'm getting the hang of it. One major component of that class is a project and in my class, it's a monopoly project. I'm sure you're wondering why a bunch of college students are playing monopoly in class, but I promise it has been really helpful and is actually, experiential learning is really refreshing.
Here's how it all works: We split into groups of four and play monopoly as any American family would do at home.... the only difference is we record everything involving finances in a journal. For example, if I bought the Boardwalk, I'd record it in two accounts; assets and cash. If I wanted to put a house or hotel on it, I could do that as well. Passing "Go" deals with an account called "Go" revenue, and when you land on someone else's property, it is a rent expense and a loss in cash. There are many more accounts and many more things to deal with, but those are just examples.
After the game is played, we're responsible for logging all of these entries on an Excel spreadsheet that has been set up by the professor. We record all of our transactions, add any more transactions that the professor specifies, and email him our spreadsheet before and after our closing entries. During this project, monopoly is played on three class days and we always pick up right where we left off. It's not a matter of winning the game, it's a matter of fulfilling the task as an accountant no matter how much debt you get in (because trust me, I'm in a lot of debt). If you're interested in Accounting or for more majors/areas of study that involve experiential learning, click here.
