Many years ago, accounting students were required to complete a practice set, a lengthy problem detailing the full accounting cycle.  This has gone by the wayside with advancements in technology.  However, the downside is the full accounting cycle is rarely assigned as a project from start to finish.  This paper is a means of addressing the issue of the students understanding all of concepts in accounting.

Institutions of higher education are preparing a new generation of students called digital natives or Generation Z.  Like previous generations, these students have learning preferences and life experiences unlike their predecessors.  They desire "real world" business experiences, engaged classroom activities and visual learning.  This paper explains a classrom project that couples the need for reinforcing the full accounting cycle with the students learning style.

The project assigned to each of my accounting classes (Principles and Intermediate) requires students to play the game of Monopoly.  Each students owns a real estate investment firm.  With each role of the dice, the student must complete a business transaction.  After 48 transactions, the equivalent of 12 months, the student must complete to remainder of the accounting cycle from journal entries to producing financial statements to the closing process. With three semesters of data, this project has overwhelmingly helped students gain a deeper understanding of accounting.