How the Association of Chartered Certified Accountant is using technology to deliver high quality online education at affordable prices to help raise the level of financial literacy for people globally.
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
ACCA is the global body for professional accountants. Its aim is to offer business-relevant, first-choice qualifications to people of application, ability and ambition around the world who seek a rewarding career in accountancy, finance and management. It also helps businesses to grow by developing their finance capability and enhancing their brand reputation.Moreover, ACCA provides renowned finance and accountancy qualifications for any organisation in any sector. And with 92 offices and over 400 examination centers worldwide, it has the greatest capability to deliver qualifications and professional development of any accountancy body. It will work with you to deliver flexible, accessible, cost effective training at any level.
How the Association of Chartered Certified Accountant is using technology to deliver high quality online education at affordable prices to help raise the level of financial literacy for people globally.
ACCA-X is a series of digital, high quality and open access courses that enable people all over the world to learn about accountancy and business and achieve their career goals. It’s a combination of free and affordable courses leading towards our professional qualification.
We’re using the latest digital and MOOC technology to deliver an online learning programme that will be continuously improved. The courses are delivered on the world-renowned edX platform and feature high quality content developed by Epigeum.
Discovery
At the heart of ACCA-X’s creation is our desire to provide accessible, affordable and high quality learning that provides ambitious people everywhere with the opportunity to obtain the skills and qualifications they can use for a rewarding career. We believe that these courses will help raise the level of financial literacy for people globally. We are confident that this will in turn support the social mobility agenda that we believe in by providing the learning and training that individuals need.
Worldwide, there is also a large and growing demand for professional accountants who operate within a framework of ethics, accountability and robust governance. That’s why we’ve embedded these principles across the ACCA-X courses.
We also recognise that trends in technology mean that people now want to learn in a manner that gives them flexibility and convenience, as well as the appropriate pedagogy, to help them get the knowledge and training they need.
At ACCA, we’re committed to delivering public value and acting in the public interest. The ACCA-X courses directly help us to achieve this.
Objectives
Advance the public interest for accountancy by:
Providing a high quality and relevant learning experience and support for the learners
Generating new students
Serving our existing students
Providing a pathway for ACCA-X learners to become ACCA members
Improving ACCA exam success
Activities
ACCA-X is a delivered in a tripartite arrangement with partners edX and Epigeum.
The development, design and delivery of ACCA-X was a collaborative effort. The programme was delivered to extremely demanding timescales with contractual arrangements signed off in Feb 2015 and the first courses live in July 2015 (only 5 months). The project was delivered using Agile project methodology, with a core ACCA team of 6, later expanding to 8 individuals.
Key project stages:
Ideation
Business case development
Requirements
Procurement (platform, course development and course operations)
Implementation
Marketing and launch preparation
Product launch
Operational delivery
Analysis and continuous improvement
The project made use of additional internal resource and third party agencies when required.
The courses we created:
These 10-week MOOC courses are organised into weekly lesson blocks to help structure the learning and set realistic expectations for our learners. Much of the course functionality is mobile-friendly and supported by tutors who guide learners through exciting and interactive content that is designed to help them gain financial literacy skills. The demo video explains how the courses work and look.
The courses’ learning pedagogy has been designed to meet the needs of different learning styles. Using a good combination of content-rich media, interactive modules and elements delivering scenario-based learning, it links the theory to the practical.
Our introductory and intermediate courses are available free of charge. This means everyone (regardless of whether they are ACCA students or not) is now able to obtain a high quality qualification which may previously have been unaffordable for them.
A further three courses are being offered at a price of US$89 (approximately £60) each, providing students with the complete learning for each exam up to our Diploma level. We have retained the quality of the programme while making it hugely affordable to directly address the artificial barrier of cost for our students. This allows them to start their journey towards an accountancy qualification that is relevant for them, enables their future career, and is highly respected by potential employers.
Because our courses are online, they’re easily accessible. Our students can study how and when is most convenient for them, allowing them to fit their studies around their life and schedules. To ensure maximum global flexibility, students have a choice of how our content is delivered. For example, our courses are accessible at low bandwidth with offline options for students in areas with poor internet connection.
Success Factors
The team – delivering a very specific range of skills and drawn from across the wider business and from outside the business
Culture – ‘think like a start-up’. We needed individuals with an appetite for risk and ambiguity
Autonomy – the team needed to be freed from normal organisational constraints and processes
Partners – choosing the right partners with compatible culture and objectives was key
Existing network – wherever possible we leverage our existing networks of suppliers, customers and advocates
Blended Learning Toolkit - To help understand Blended Learning and explain the benefits to B2B customers (learning providers, schools, universities and employers)
Challenges
Timescales for delivery – we set ourselves very challenging timescales, which could only be met by employing an Agile approach.
Limited talent pool – there are not many individuals with the combined technical, pedagogical skills and technical, financial knowledge required for a project of this nature. At ACCA, we were fortunate in already having worked with many of these individuals on previous projects, so they already knew our organisation and products.
Internal buy-in and awareness – time neeeds to be invested in explaining the proposition’s alignment to BAU and building the internal customers for any new product innovation before launch
External promotion – it was vital to have a story to tell at launch. ACCA-X was able to hook our launch to ACCA’s ongoing public value agenda.
Achievements
Brochure cover
Part of our mission is to advance the public interest. ACCA-X is helping us to do this - and lead the accountancy profession - by removing the barrier of expensive tuition to enable as many people as possible to gain a professional accountancy qualification and access a rewarding career.
ACCA-X started with two free courses which are run quarterly. From the opening of registration in April 2015 to the start of the courses in July 2015, we had a total of 42,836 learners enroll from over 200 countries – hugely surpassing our target for 2015-16 of 1,500. To date, (March 2016) we are delighted to have attracted over 92,000 learners from 230 countries and territories.
Other achievements include:
We provided a high quality and relevant learning experience and support for the learners: learner surveys indicate a satisfaction rate of 86%
We generated new students: 1,250 ACCA-X learners have gone on to register as ACCA students
We surveyed our existing students: 4,000 ACCA students have chosen to study an ACCA-X course
We provided a pathway for ACCA-X learners to become ACCA members: 60% of those surveyed about these courses who were not already ACCA students told us they were considering becoming one
We improved ACCA exam success: early data indicate that the exam pass rates for ACCA-X learners are higher than the global average
We launched ACCA-X as a pilot programme in April 2015. It’s still in its early stages, but has already made a very positive impact:
Supporting our students by providing them with learning support in the early stages of the qualification. This builds a strong foundation of knowledge, so that they are able to progress through the rest of the qualification.
Giving people who are unsure whether accountancy is a career option for them the chance to take the courses and see the opportunities open to them as a professional accountant. And they benefit from being nurtured by us throughout their journey.
Enhancing our brand and extending our footprint globally. These courses have reached people in over 230 countries and territories with the result that we are now known in places where we didn’t previously have a strong presence.
Helping us to meet our objective of advancing the public interest and deliver public value by raising the level of financial and business literacy globally.
Promoting social mobility by providing free or affordable learning towards a professional qualification.
Raising our global profile through strong media and PR coverage globally.
What would we do differently?
While we met our timescales, it was close! For future developments to the programme we would aim to incorporate more time, as this would benefit both ourselves and our partners.
Feedback & Testimonials
“As a senior national trainer of Afghanistan Institute of Banking and Finance, serving the financial sector of Afghanistan; I am eager to complete online course related to Challenges of Global Poverty. Completing this course will enable me to deliver fruitful courses and workshops for the employees of Afghanistan Micro finance Institutes (MFIs) who attend my micro finance courses and workshops since August 2010.”
“I have cancer and can’t take regular college classes right now. I want to stay sharp while waiting to be able to go back to school.”
“I have always wanted to further my studies but money has always been a big hindrance. This is a great opportunity for me.”
“I am working for the government of Lesotho in the Ministry of Development Planning Information Technology (IT) section, so I would like to nourish my knowledge while I still at work, because the online study give those people who do not have enough time to go to high institution to further their studies opportunities to learn while working.”
“I am a working single mother, so I don’t have the time for regular classes. This online class fits perfect into my needs.”
“I am a final year Degree (BSc. Biochemistry) student. I would like to know about entrepreneurship (business). That’s why I selected edX for Study. I think it is very helpful to me.”
“I have been as a practitioner in social sector for last one and a half year. After my masters degree i had to come to a very remote area of Bihar State in India. Here due to lack of basic amenities such as power, sanitation and connectivity my education was hindered, this i believe has somehow proved to be jolt to my professional abilities. Now, with some efforts i have access to internet and power. With these now available i think edX is just the right thing for me. Currently, I am working as a head of an implementation unit. With abundant financial and human resource available, I feel my abilities as a manager/professional act as a limiting factor when we try to provide service to the people (who happen to be the Poorest Of Poor in Bihar). Therefore, i see edX as a way towards improvement and effectiveness for a job that i love.”
“I always wanted to study accountancy and finance but I needed to wait 3 years to get Student Finance. I’m studying ACCA for the moment as a home study because I don’t have enough money to assist to class, so this course will be ideal. I’m gonna start on September attending to university so it gonna be amazing starting a course to get more ready for university.”
“Due to near fatal accident in 2010, I have limitations to my physical and mental abilities. As such I need to slowly retrain, proving to myself my ability to learn once more. Prior to my accident I had achieved an MSc in high performance computing 2005. Also an MBA in 2009. My learning abilities have challenges and I need to study within the safety of my own home and at a pace I am capable of. Your course appears to offer me the above. My limitations are such that I can lose days or weeks due to the brain problems I have encountered. “
“After filing for divorce back in 2011 ex-husband didn’t keep up his part and put my credit into the ground to where I had to file bankruptcy 7 months ago, now trying to go back to school, but institution so expensive can’t really afford it on a part time job.”
