Learning Internal Control Evaluation via An Internet-Based Expert System

Internal control issues are important to all organizations to insure the accuracy, reliability, and timeliness of the resulting financial reports. All accounting students must understand basic internal control concepts and learn how to evaluate weaknesses in an organization' s internal control system. Nevertheless, teaching this topic is very challenging. Students are often overwhelmed with examples of potential internal control weaknesses that are possible in one organization. An Internet-based expert system which allows students to practice with the activities of detecting the weaknesses in an internal control system might prove to be useful. This study intends to investigate whether it is feasible to develop such a system and use it as a teaching tool in the classroom environment.