{"id":6175,"date":"2025-07-28T10:23:40","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T08:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/?p=6175"},"modified":"2025-07-29T12:24:35","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T10:24:35","slug":"ai-driven-sustainability-transforming-accounting-education-for-a-sustainable-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/blog\/2025\/07\/28\/ai-driven-sustainability-transforming-accounting-education-for-a-sustainable-future\/","title":{"rendered":"AI-Driven Sustainability: Transforming Accounting Education for a Sustainable Future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This year\u2019s <strong>EAA Education Committee Hackathon<\/strong> entitled <strong>AI Driven Sustainability: Transforming Accounting Education for a Sustainable Future<\/strong> took place on the eve of the annual conference. The event was run by Karen Brickman (University of Greenwich), David Derichs (Aalto University), Jenni Rose (University of Manchester) and Susan Smith (University College London) supported by two Education Committee members, Joan Ballantine (Ulster University) and Greg Stoner (University of Glasgow).<\/p>\n<p>Hackathons are hands-on, time-limited events where participants work in teams to solve real problems by creating prototypes or new ideas using various tools (like AI) to accelerate the development process. This is a great approach for developing teaching activities around sustainability, given the need for tailored teaching resources.<\/p>\n<p>The pre-event questionnaire indicated that there was a range of expertise in the room from those who were very experienced using AI tools and embedding sustainability into their curricula and others who were keen to build confidence. Almost all participants had prior knowledge of sustainability with many highlighting the fast pace of change in relation to accounting making it challenging to keep up. For those who had experience of using AI tools, most had experimented with ChatGPT and 49% of respondents had used paid versions of various tools.<\/p>\n<p>The event was attended by 54 academics from more than 40 institutions. The day started with an ice-breaker activity linked to the SDGs which helped group formation and framed the activity the groups went on to develop.<\/p>\n<p>Using a futuring exercise, the groups quickly focused on the selection of a teaching activity that would develop student skills for a sustainability mindset. Groups were then free to use any AI tools to assist in the activity development to achieve their specific learning objectives. Some illustrations of how a range of free tools could be used were included on a Padlet to support the task. Many participants shared their experiences of other tools which was particularly insightful.<\/p>\n<p>Selected teaching activities were linked to the group\u2019s SDG theme and development took place through a rapid prototyping process with fast paced elevator pitches to other teams and refinement based on feedback prior to the final pitches to the full room. Overall, it was a great collaborative learning experience that produced a range of teaching activities which can be polished further for classroom use.<\/p>\n<p>Outputs from the hackathon included the following, a case study on selecting a T shirt supplier comparing Italy and Bangladesh, the \u2018Great Debate\u2019 activity \u2013 a structured class debate as a pedagogical tool which could be applied across a range of topics, a custom GPT built around an offshoring scenario, \u2018Gender issues in the accounting profession\u2019 lesson plan and resources along with suggested assessment tools, \u2018Brewing a sustainable future\u2019 case study, and \u2018Ecostride\u2019, a gamified app for measuring carbon footprint. Using AI as part of the creative activity development process enabled groups to explore different ideas and ways to support activity development.<\/p>\n<p>The rapid prototyping also revealed some of the issues working with AI tools \u2013 autogenerated videos were not always wholly aligned to the content, images tended to reinforce stereotypes, some of the content was too generic or not at the correct level, amongst other issues. This is where it is important to critically evaluate and correct the outputs to ensure accuracy and appropriateness before using with students. The materials developed were interesting and, in many cases, inventive, but there would be the need for remodelling and refinement prior to use with students.<\/p>\n<p>Our thanks go to all participants for their enthusiastic engagement during the Hackathon.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-6188 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/anastasia.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"608\" height=\"456\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/anastasia.png 608w, https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/anastasia-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 608px) 100vw, 608px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This year\u2019s EAA Education Committee Hackathon entitled AI Driven Sustainability: Transforming Accounting Education for a Sustainable Future took place on the eve of the annual conference. The event was run by Karen Brickman (University of Greenwich), David Derichs (Aalto University), Jenni Rose (University of Manchester) and Susan Smith (University College London) supported by two Education [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2620,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[259],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.12 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>AI-Driven Sustainability: Transforming Accounting Education for a Sustainable Future - ARC<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AI-Driven Sustainability: Transforming Accounting Education for a Sustainable Future - ARC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This year\u2019s EAA Education Committee Hackathon entitled AI Driven Sustainability: Transforming Accounting Education for a Sustainable Future took place on the eve of the annual conference. The event was run by Karen Brickman (University of Greenwich), David Derichs (Aalto University), Jenni Rose (University of Manchester) and Susan Smith (University College London) supported by two Education [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/blog\/2025\/07\/28\/ai-driven-sustainability-transforming-accounting-education-for-a-sustainable-future\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ARC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-28T08:23:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-29T10:24:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/anastasia.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anastasia Kopita\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anastasia Kopita\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/blog\/2025\/07\/28\/ai-driven-sustainability-transforming-accounting-education-for-a-sustainable-future\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/blog\/2025\/07\/28\/ai-driven-sustainability-transforming-accounting-education-for-a-sustainable-future\/\",\"name\":\"AI-Driven Sustainability: Transforming Accounting Education for a Sustainable Future - ARC\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-28T08:23:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-29T10:24:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/#\/schema\/person\/3021670a0f0024286bf8477fb4afa4dd\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/blog\/2025\/07\/28\/ai-driven-sustainability-transforming-accounting-education-for-a-sustainable-future\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/\",\"name\":\"ARC\",\"description\":\"Advanced Resources Center\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/#\/schema\/person\/3021670a0f0024286bf8477fb4afa4dd\",\"name\":\"Anastasia Kopita\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/blog\/members\/2620\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"AI-Driven Sustainability: Transforming Accounting Education for a Sustainable Future - ARC","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"AI-Driven Sustainability: Transforming Accounting Education for a Sustainable Future - ARC","og_description":"This year\u2019s EAA Education Committee Hackathon entitled AI Driven Sustainability: Transforming Accounting Education for a Sustainable Future took place on the eve of the annual conference. The event was run by Karen Brickman (University of Greenwich), David Derichs (Aalto University), Jenni Rose (University of Manchester) and Susan Smith (University College London) supported by two Education [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/blog\/2025\/07\/28\/ai-driven-sustainability-transforming-accounting-education-for-a-sustainable-future\/","og_site_name":"ARC","article_published_time":"2025-07-28T08:23:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-29T10:24:35+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/app\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/anastasia.png"}],"author":"Anastasia Kopita","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anastasia Kopita","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/blog\/2025\/07\/28\/ai-driven-sustainability-transforming-accounting-education-for-a-sustainable-future\/","url":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/blog\/2025\/07\/28\/ai-driven-sustainability-transforming-accounting-education-for-a-sustainable-future\/","name":"AI-Driven Sustainability: Transforming Accounting Education for a Sustainable Future - ARC","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-07-28T08:23:40+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-29T10:24:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/#\/schema\/person\/3021670a0f0024286bf8477fb4afa4dd"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/blog\/2025\/07\/28\/ai-driven-sustainability-transforming-accounting-education-for-a-sustainable-future\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/#website","url":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/","name":"ARC","description":"Advanced Resources Center","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/#\/schema\/person\/3021670a0f0024286bf8477fb4afa4dd","name":"Anastasia Kopita","url":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/blog\/members\/2620\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6175"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2620"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6175"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6189,"href":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6175\/revisions\/6189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eaa-online.org\/arc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}