McGraw Hill
Edmonds Focus Group

Transforming the Role of Accountants and the Introductory Course

AI is changing what accountants do. Today we'll show you how we're changing the introductory course to match. And we want your feedback.

Chris Edmonds

cte@uab.edu

Jennifer Edmonds

jee@uab.edu

University of Alabama at Birmingham · www.edmondshub.com

Welcome

Why we're here today

Three goals drive everything in the Edmonds series. Today we'll show you how AI is reshaping them, then put our newest resources in your hands.

🎯

Keep accounting relevantThe profession is changing fast, and the intro course needs to keep up.

🔓

Make accounting accessible to studentsProblems first, terminology second.

🎉

Make it easy and fun to teachResources that cut prep time and keep students engaged.

Fundamental Financial Accounting Concepts, 11e

Introductory Financial Accounting for Business, 2e

Fundamental Managerial Accounting Concepts, 10e

The Edmonds series · McGraw Hill

Part 1 · Students & AI

What AI is actually doing to our students

Four studies from the last eighteen months, plus what we're seeing in our own classrooms.

Part 1 · Students & AI

Your students are using AI

In the largest UK student survey, AI use is no longer a trend. It's simply how students study now.

95%

of students now use AI in their studies,
and 94% use it on assessed work

AI-generated text pasted straight into assessed work

Share of students · HEPI surveys 2024 → 2026

2024

3%

2025

8%

2026

12%

4× in two years, and self-reported numbers tend to run conservative.

Source: HEPI / Kortext Student Generative AI Survey 2026 (n=1,054 full-time UK undergraduates, surveyed Dec 2025), hepi.ac.uk/reports/student-generative-ai-survey-2026

Part 1 · Students & AI

How students actually use AI

Anthropic classified ~574,000 real student conversations. Four patterns emerged, and about half the time, students asked for the answer rather than the thinking.

PROBLEM SOLVING

OUTPUT CREATION

DIRECT

≈47%

“Solve this for me”

Direct answers to homework-style problems, minimal engagement

“Write this for me”

Complete essays, summaries, and materials produced on request

COLLABORATIVE

≈53%

“Help me work through it”

Guided, back-and-forth problem solving

“Help me improve it”

Iterative feedback and refinement of the student's own work

All four patterns occur at similar rates (23–29% each); exact per-cell splits aren't published.

~half

of conversations are Direct: seeking finished answers or content with minimal engagement.

That's the half where we can make the biggest difference.

Source: Anthropic Education Report, “How University Students Use Claude” (2025), anthropic.com/news/anthropic-education-report-how-university-students-use-claude

Part 1 · Students & AI

Your brain on ChatGPT: cognitive debt

MIT Media Lab put EEG caps on 54 students writing essays: with an LLM, with search, or with brain only. Connectivity scaled down with every layer of help.

Neural connectivity while writing (strongest → weakest)

Brain only

Search engine

ChatGPT

Schematic of the study's ordering: “brain connectivity systematically scaled down with the amount of external support.”

83%

of LLM users couldn't accurately quote from the essay they had finished writing minutes earlier

The debt compounds

LLM users reported the lowest ownership of their work, and when later asked to write without AI, their neural engagement stayed depressed.

Source: Kosmyna et al., “Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt…”, MIT Media Lab, 2025, arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872 (preprint; n=54)

Part 1 · Students & AI

We're seeing it in our intro classes

Same students, same semester. Maybe this looks familiar.

▲

Participation
on non-proctored work

Everyone's suddenly doing the homework

▲

Scores
on non-proctored exams

And the homework looks great

▼

Scores
on proctored exams

But close the laptop, and the learning isn't there

The work looks better than ever. The learning isn't keeping up.

💬 Your turn · Focus group

What are you seeing in your classes?

Before we show you what we've built, tell us what you're seeing.

1

Does this match your classroom?Where do you see AI showing up in student work, and where has it surprised you?

2

How have you responded so far?Proctoring, redesigned assessments, AI policies, leaning in… what's working, what isn't?

3

What would help most from a publisher?If McGraw Hill could hand you one AI-era resource next term, what would it be?

Part 2 · The stakes

Students are offloading the thinking their profession will pay a premium for.

Part 2 · The stakes

AI eats the routine. Judgment survives.

The tasks we drill hardest in intro accounting are the ones most exposed to automation.

TASKEXPOSURE TO AI REPLACEMENT

Most of us inherited courses built around the top three rows. The opportunity: shift weight toward the bottom two, where our graduates' careers will live.

Framework: Abbas et al. 2025; Wang et al. 2025: AI pushing the profession toward interpretation, judgment, and advisory work

The big idea

What we teach shapes what AI gives back

Anthropic studied ~400,000 real AI work sessions. The difference between slop and great work wasn't the tool. It was how deeply the person understood the problem.

🎓

Our students
+ AI

IF WE ONLY TEACH THE AI TOOL

AI does the work for them

→

Domain knowledge never develops

→

No way to judge or fix the output

→

AI slop

Novices: 15% verified success · give up when stuck ~4× as often

IF WE TEACH CRITICAL THINKING + DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE

Students understand the problem first

→

Judgment and domain knowledge grow

→

They direct and evaluate the AI

→

Great work

Experts: ~2× the success rate · direct 12-action AI chains vs 5

Critical thinking and domain knowledge aren't competing with AI. They're the multiplier.

Source: Anthropic, “How Claude Code is used in practice” (2026), ~400K sessions / ~235K users, anthropic.com/research/claude-code-expertise

Part 3 · Our approach

Same event. Two ways to teach it.

EVENT During Year 1, Cato Consultants provided $84,000 of consulting services. The work is done and the bills are sent, but no cash has been collected.

THE TRADITIONAL OPENING MOVE

Memorize the entry

          Accounts Receivable  84,000

              Revenue            84,000

Debits and credits on day one. Students can produce this. So can every AI tool they own.

THE USER-APPROACH OPENING MOVE

Ask what it means

1

What did this event do to the company's position?

BALANCE SHEET

Assets, liabilities, equity: read straight off the first columns of the model.

2

Did the owners win or lose?

INCOME STATEMENT

Revenue flows to net income, and the model shows it landing in retained earnings.

3

Where's the cash?

CASH FLOWS

Operating, investing, or financing, and the model shows when cash and earnings tell different stories.

Part 3 · Our approach

The accounting cycle: what you drill matters

Every financial accounting course walks students through the full cycle a few times. Then the semester becomes drill, and the question is which step you drill.

Business
Event

→

Journal
Entry

→

Posting

→

Trial
Balance

→

Adjusting
& Closing

→

Financial
Statements

WHERE MOST COURSES DRILL

The first step: journal entries

A semester of reps on debits and credits, the mechanical step that every AI tool now performs instantly.

WHERE OUR TEXTS DRILL

The last step: financial statement impacts

Interpretation, judgment, and problem solving: the critical-thinking end of the cycle.

We still teach the full cycle. We just spend the drill time on the last step.

Part 3 · Our approach

One event, every statement at once

Introductory Financial Accounting for Business

EVENT During Year 1, Cato Consultants provided $84,000 of consulting services on account. Work done, bills sent, no cash collected.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT IMPACT

THE SAME EVENT, LEDGER VIEWAccounts Receivable 84,000
Revenue 84,000

Balance Sheet										Income Statement						Stmt of Cash Flows
Cash	+	Accts Rec.	=	Liab.	+	Com. Stk.	+	Ret. Earn.		Rev.	−	Exp.	=	Net Inc.
NA	+	84,000	=	NA	+	NA	+	84,000		84,000	−	NA	=	84,000		NA

Assets up, equity up. Claims on the customer are real value, even before cash arrives.

The owners are better off. Revenue flows to net income and into retained earnings.

No cash moved. Accrual vs. cash becomes intuitive, not a rule to memorize.

Toggle the journal entry on or off. FFAC teaches it alongside the model; IFAB can leave it out entirely.

Part 3 · Our approach

Now a harder one: a deferral

EVENT On March 1, Year 1, Alvarado pays $12,000 cash to lease office space for one year, beginning immediately.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT IMPACT

THE SAME EVENT, LEDGER VIEWPrepaid Rent 12,000
Cash 12,000

Balance Sheet										Income Statement						Stmt of Cash Flows
Cash	+	Prepaid Rent	=	Liab.	+	Com. Stk.	+	Ret. Earn.		Rev.	−	Exp.	=	Net Inc.
(12,000)	+	12,000	=	NA	+	NA	+	NA		NA	−	NA	=	NA		(12,000) OA

An asset swap. Cash becomes a year of office space. Total assets unchanged, equity untouched.

No expense yet. The cost reaches the income statement month by month, as the space is used.

Cash left today. An operating outflow now. Students see the timing difference directly.

Later in the chapter, adjusting entries recognize the rent expense month by month as the space is used.

Part 3 · Our approach

Two approaches to financial accounting

Both texts teach financial statement impacts, real-world examples, and data analytics. You choose when, or whether, to introduce debits and credits.

Fundamental Financial Accounting Concepts

✓ Financial statement impacts

✓ Real-world examples & data analytics

✓ Debits and credits throughout

Introductory Financial Accounting for Business

✓ Financial statement impacts

✓ Real-world examples & data analytics

✓ Delayed or no debits and credits

The approach is the same in both. The difference is when students meet the ledger.

Part 3 · Our approach

Chapter by chapter: one difference that matters

Fundamental Financial Accounting Concepts

1An Introduction to Accounting

2Accounting for Accruals and Deferrals

3The Double-Entry Accounting SystemCH 3 · EARLY

4Accounting for Merchandising Businesses

5Accounting for Inventories

6Internal Control and Accounting for Cash

7Accounting for Receivables

8Accounting for Long-Term Operational Assets

9Accounting for Current Liabilities and Payroll

10Accounting for Long-Term Debt

11Proprietorships, Partnerships, and Corporations

12Statement of Cash Flows

13Financial Statement Analysis (online in Connect)

Introductory Financial Accounting for Business

1An Introduction to Accounting

2Accounting for Accruals

3Accounting for Deferrals

4Accounting for Merchandising Businesses

5Accounting for Inventories

6Internal Control and Accounting for Cash

7Accounting for Receivables

8Accounting for Long-Term Operational Assets

9Accounting for Current Liabilities and Payroll

10Accounting for Long-Term Debt

11Proprietorships, Partnerships, and Corporations

12Statement of Cash Flows

13The Double-Entry Accounting SystemCH 13 · LATE & OPTIONAL

14Financial Statement Analysis (online in Connect)

Same coverage, same order. The only structural difference is where the double-entry system lives: chapter 3 or chapter 13.

Part 3 · Our approach

The resources, all in one place

📖

Resources to prepare students for class

Author created lecture videos with assessment

E-book with AI Reader

Smartbook

🧑‍🏫

Resources for use in class

PowerPoint

Active Learning Worksheets

Problem Based Learning Cases (edmondshub.com)

Teach the News (edmondshub.com)

📝

Additional resources

Brief Exercises, Exercises, Problems

Guided Exercises

Self-Study Review Problems – With Videos

Test Bank

🚀Career readiness

Tableau Dashboard Activities (TDA) – Focus on Reading Financials

Applying Integrated Excel Problems – With Videos

Critical Thinking Problems

Application Based Activity

Applying AI in Accounting

· Output Validation

· Prompt Design

Everything is built by the author team.

💬 Your turn · Focus group

Your feedback

You've seen the research, the approach, and the resources. Help us make them better.

1

Which resource would move the needle most in your course?SmartBook, lecture videos, worksheets, TDA, Integrated Excel, AI in Accounting problems: what matters, what doesn't?

2

What's your reaction to the AI Reader?What would make an AI reading companion genuinely useful, and what would make you turn it off?

3

Where do debits and credits belong in your course?Throughout, delayed, or optional: does the two-text choice fit how you actually teach?

4

What's missing?If you could add one resource to the series, what would it be?

Thank you.

Want the case materials, the worksheets, or to swap notes on what's working in your classroom? We'd love to hear from you.

Chris Edmonds

cte@uab.edu

Jennifer Edmonds

jee@uab.edu

edmondshub.com

news · cases · updates

University of Alabama at Birmingham · Focus group sponsored by McGraw Hill

Appendix

Sources

HEPI / Kortext Student Generative AI Survey 2026. 95% of students use AI; 94% on assessed work; AI-generated text in assessed work 3% (2024) → 12% (2026). hepi.ac.uk/reports/student-generative-ai-survey-2026

Anthropic Education Report (2025). “How University Students Use Claude.” ~574K anonymized conversations; four interaction patterns; ~47% Direct. anthropic.com/news

Kosmyna et al. (2025). “Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt…” MIT Media Lab preprint, n=54; 83% of LLM users failed to quote their own essay. arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872

Blue J & CPA.com (2026). Weekly AI research use in tax firms 33% → 60% in one year; 84% report time savings; 69% expect billing model shifts. cpa.com

Li, Mustakim & Muhamad (2025). Meta-analysis of PBL and critical thinking, 25 studies, g = 1.08: the average PBL student out-scores ~86% of traditionally-taught peers. European Journal of Educational Research

Anthropic (2026). “How Claude Code is used in practice.” ~400K sessions; experts ~2× verified success vs novices; novices abandon ~4× as often. anthropic.com/research · Abbas et al. (2025); Wang et al. (2025) on AI and the shift to judgment and advisory work.