The US GAAP Essentials course is composed of the following areas:

• Announcements: Your instructor might post announcements in this section. You will receive an email notification of any new announcements.
• Ask the Instructor: If you have specific questions, please feel free to post them in this forum at any time during the course.
• Discussion forum: Information sharing is extremely valuable in any learning experience. Your fellow course participants are excellent resources to tap for stories, information, and different perspectives on the topics being covered. At the same time, they can benefit from your ideas and insights. That is why you need to participate by posting questions and responses as often as possible. If you do not participate, you and your classmates will miss out on worthwhile opportunities to enhance learning. Below are some tips for participation:
  • Keep postings short and to the point. Not more than a couple of paragraphs is a good rule of thumb.
  • Reference specific parts of the original message in any response. You can also include links or citations to supporting sources.
  • Be respectful of others' ideas and comments.
  • Consider what is useful in the opinion shared and how it is similar to and different from your own point of view.
  • Choose words carefully and consider how the reader might interpret them. Sometimes text may seem more harsh or critical than the spoken word. (e.g. ALL CAPS is the online version of yelling)
• Guidance: This section contains useful information to help you get started with the course.
• Resources: Resources are supporting material that, while not strictly necessary for the completion of the course, are often referred to in the Lessons and can add considerable depth to the subject.
• Modules: The course is composed of 11 modules. Each module contains the following:
• Lessons (Required): There are 17 Lessons in total in this course and these contain what you need to learn. Each Lesson covers one or more US GAAP topics and also includes examples to demonstrate key learning points.
• Practice Quiz: The practice quiz takes exactly the same form as the final exam. You can take the practice quiz as many times as you like. When you take the practice quiz you will be given feedback to help you understand the correct answers.
• Assignment: Each module contains an optional assignment. Although not a requirement for gaining a course completion certificate, we recommend that you attempt this activity as well. Participants receiving a minimum 70% grade on the assignment will be awarded a badge.
• Final Exam (Required): The final exam will be automatically marked and you will immediately know your grade. A pass grade requires a score of at least 70%. You may take the Exam as many times as you wish, but if you fail, we recommend that you review the Lesson(s) and attempt the Practice Quiz again. Participants passing a Module’s final exam will be awarded a badge.
• Certification: Once you have successfully gone through all the lessons and passed all 10 final exams you will be awarded a course completion certificate. You may print the certificate at any time.

This course also utilizes a "companion" textbook which will allow you to delve deeper into each of the topics covered and will also serve as a reference source throughout the course. Your Desktop Edition textbook is:

Intermediate Accounting, 17th Edition
by Donald E. Kieso, Jerry J. Weygandt, Terry D. Warfield

You will receive a voucher code and a website link to access a digital version of the book. An e-book "Reader" is also available for download.

Note:  Due to the dated nature of the textbook and the fact that it is used only for background and reference purposes, the information provided in the Lessons and by your expert Instructor take precedence over the textbook.