Introduction to Financial Accounting

It turned out to be one of the best courses I’ve taken so far on any platform, for several reasons. First, the weekly videos were just hokey enough to be entertaining in a way that sort of hid all the math we were doing. Math is not so complicated, but I never enjoyed it for sport. A memory still lingers of dropping out of my first college math course because the inaugural week had me napping by each class’ end. The idea of staring at numbers on financial sheets was NOT immediately appealing. However, the videos were filmed with a cast of virtual students, each with their own personalities and bad jokes. Their interjections helped break up the number crunching and tie concepts back to past ones. Even though their tone was a little silly, it was appropriately so. Clearly Professor Bushee had spent quite a bit of time developing each video, and it really worked.

By following a real example throughout the course, I was able to get a better connection between abstract concepts we learned and the places they appear in the real world. So useful. The last lecture of each week took a look at 3M (you know, Scotch Tape and Post-Its?) and its publicly available financial statements

I found it a little misleading saying that I could "Audit" the course for free. I enrolled and when I got to the end of the 1st section and took the test before moving on, I was informed that I would need to pay for the course in order to have my test graded or even to find out if I was correct or not. Wow! Talk about bait and switch! Sadly, I will not move any further in the course as it is impossible without knowing what concepts I remembered correctly or not. I guess it is free after all but still, say it at the beginning or give us an option to check our answers.
But the course is done well by the Professor and he does change it up a bit to keep you engaged. Well done Professor Bushee! I would have given you 5 *'s for the course itself.

A wonderful course, excellently delivered. Professor Bushee has clearly invested a significant amount of time developing the course, and it shows from the first video to the last. As a novice to financial accounting, I was impressed with the way the Professor acknowledged difficult concepts and questions, in a way that had clearly been developed from teaching the course to classes over many years. Indeed, throughout the four weeks, the lessons provided an impressive illusion of interactivity, with lots of checkpoints and plenaries to test understanding. The course was also pitched effectively as it felt challenging throughout, yet effort to understand the material paid off. I would recommend this course to anyone looking to gain an introduction or refresher into the world of accounting.

I signed up for this thinking I'd get a refresher but soon realized the instructor, Brian Bushee, is a gifted teacher. He has a way of explaining things that drill right to heart of confusion for students and makes things perfectly clear using examples, problems, and snarky cartoon students that ask just the right question. He also knows how to have fun and can even sing (but not very well). I found myself looking forward to learning the next part of each video. He's really THAT GOOD!

I took a financial accounting class 20 years ago when I was working on my MBA and never really understood the Cash Flow Statement. After this class I not only know what it is, I now realize it's the most important for discovering how a business is functioning. I plan to take the second half of the course next.