Designing public financial management systems: exploring the use of chatbot-assisted case studies

IMPACT

The design of public financial management (PFM) systems requires the exploration of the problem space before solution options are generated. Case studies are often employed to teach the design of PFM systems, but conventional forms of delivery of case study materials fail to help develop the skills needed to explore the problem space. This article investigates the use of chatbot-assisted case studies as a way to stimulate students’ efforts to pose questions about features of the problem scenario.

ABSTRACT

This article describes the use of a chatbot-assisted case study in teaching accountancy students how to design a public financial management system. A case study on the redesign of invoice payment system at the government of Andalucía in the 1980s was delivered to 18 distance-learning postgraduate students via a chatbot that helped explore the problem space. Analysis of conversational interactions and students’ feedback provides some support for the use of chatbot-assisted case studies but also some limitations.

KEYWORDS:

• Accountancy teaching
• case study
• chatbot
• design
• distance learning
• natural language processing
• payment system
• public financial management

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Centre for Distance Education of the University of London for funding this research project.