Creating a custom-published textbook to facilitate curriculum change: An example from advanced accounting

According to Smith and DeRidder (1997), faculty select texts mainly for their comprehensibility to students and the timeliness of text material they contain. Further, Foran and Olds (2002) suggest students use textbooks as their primary means of acquiring background knowledge. However, many accounting texts have failed to keep abreast with changes in accounting practice and education (Rebele et al. 1998), creating an important barrier for accounting educators who desire to effect curriculum change. We illustrate how faculty can overcome this barrier and potentially make their courses more interesting and/or informative for students (Apostolou et al. 2001). By capitalizing on recent advances in technology, faculty can create custom-published textbooks that support their curriculum revision efforts. Based on our successful experiences in creating a custom-published textbook to support a revised Advanced Accounting course, we describe not only the logistics involved in, but also the benefits and challenges associated with, creating a custom-published text. The insights we gained can provide guidance for faculty members who want to revise their courses but have been constrained because they could not find an available textbook to support their curriculum revision activities.