Michael Ozlanski ’05, chair and associate professor of accounting at Susquehanna University’s Sigmund Weis School of Business, was awarded the 2021 George Krull/Grant Thornton Teaching Innovation Award from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
The award recognizes successful and innovative practices in the teaching of junior- and senior-level accounting courses that continue to enhance accounting majors’ interest in accounting and pursuing the CPA profession as a career.
Ozlanski’s award specifically honors “Divvying Up Data: A Data Visualization Case,” a collaboration with Suzanne Seymoure, associate professor of accounting at North Central College, Naperville, Illinois. Known as an instructional resource, “Divvying Up Data” asks students to assume the role of a newly hired analyst for Divvy, the Chicago bike-share program. In this role, they use the Tableau data visualization software to learn data analysis and data visualization techniques. Instructors can implement the case into their classroom in multiple parts, and it is scalable for novice and advanced Tableau users. Ozlanski and Seymoure plan to submit their work to a peer-reviewed journal for potential publication in accounting pedagogy journals.
“The case is unique because it enables students to interact with a large, real-world dataset with over three million rows,” Ozlanski said. “So it is ideal for accounting information systems or data analytics courses.”
Award winners will present their work at the annual Conference on Teaching and Learning in Accounting and at the annual meeting of the American Accounting Association.
The American Institute of CPAs sets ethical standards for the profession and U.S. auditing standards for private companies, nonprofit organizations, federal, state and local governments. It is the world’s largest member association representing the accounting profession, with more than 428,000 members representing business and industry, public practice, government, education and consulting.
