Experimental Research Workshop in Accounting Research
(Bangkalan, February 2 2019)
Master of Accounting FEB UTM held an Experimental Research Workshop in Accounting Research. The activity is intended as an effort to train Master of Accounting students to conduct accounting research. The activity began with the delivery of an Academic Evaluation by the Coordinator of the Master of Accounting Study Program, FEB UTM, namely Dr. Tarjo, CFE., CPA. In his speech, he said that Master of Accounting students often find it difficult to complete their thesis, which can cause their study period to be longer than two years. Therefore, the Experimental Research Workshop was carried out as an effort to help students complete their theses.
The importance of increasing the competency of FEB UTM Master of Accounting students, especially in the field of research, and in order to accelerate the study period, the study program is holding an Experimental Research Workshop in Accounting Research. This workshop was held on Saturday 2 February 2019 with Mrs. Frida Fanani Rohma, S.Akun., M.Sc. as a speaker and attended by a number of FEB UTM Master of Accounting students. He is a Researcher in the WCU Program – UGM Research Directorate who is involved in experimental research methods. This workshop specifically has two objectives, namely (1) increasing the knowledge of FEB UTM Master of Accounting students regarding experimental research methods, and (2) providing alternative or additional options regarding research methods that can be implemented by students in preparing their thesis.
In terms of the content of knowledge provided, Mrs. Frida as the speaker not only provided knowledge related to theoretical but also practical experimental methods. This is very important considering that research methods are not only at the theoretical level but also practical, such as how to develop instruments, analyze data and overcome errors in the data that has been analyzed. In the first session he explained theoretical matters related to experimental methods such as types of experiments and special terms in the method. Students actively participate in asking questions about things they don’t understand. After the first session, Ms. Frida continued the material by providing real examples through research articles from Choi, Newman and Tafkov (2016) entitled “A Marathon, a Series of Sprints, or Both? Tournament Horizon and Dynamic Task Complexity in Multi-Period Settings”.
In the second session, the speaker directed the workshop participants more, namely students applied the knowledge they had gained in the first session to the articles provided. Through this presentation, students can begin to imagine what experimental methods would be like if applied to research. Apart from that, the presenter also provided an experimental case originating from a research problem taken from the article by Luft et al. (2016). Students are then divided into several groups consisting of three people each to analyze the case and work on the questions that have been given. The main point that the presenter, Mrs. Frida, wanted to emphasize was the main point of experimental research. The essential main point is a research instrument, in the form of a case which aims to measure the cause-and-effect relationship reflected in the behavior of the participants. Experimental research instruments are very important to pay attention to because according to the presenter this is something that is “easily difficult” because the development of the instrument must be carried out carefully so that the manipulations created can be internalized well by the experimental participants.
