Teaching Accounting in an Age of Distraction
Meet Wendy Tietz — passionate, award-winning educator and Pearson Accounting Author who is redefining what it means to teach accounting in an age of distraction and AI.
For many students, accounting arrives with a reputation — numbers-heavy, rule-bound, and far removed from the careers they imagine for themselves. Walk into Wendy Tietz's classroom, and that perception begins to shift.
With 26 years of teaching experience at Kent State University, Wendy has spent her career helping students see accounting not as a collection of abstract formulas, but as a powerful language that explains how organizations live, grow, and make decisions. But in today's classroom, even the most compelling content has to compete for attention.
"The biggest challenge we as accounting educators are facing is lack of engagement," Wendy says. "Students have their attention pulled in many different directions, whether it's AI or TikTok. So what we're working really hard on is making the material engaging with examples that students can relate to and reasons for them to pay attention."
It's a challenge she takes personally. "What drives me as an educator is working with students who are the future of our profession — knowing that I have the chance to influence how they interpret accounting, how they operate in business, and how they understand how business is run."
That sense of purpose shapes everything — from how she structures a lecture to how she writes a textbook.
Student-Friendly by Design
Teaching classes of nearly 300 students has sharpened Wendy's instinct for clarity. Every explanation, every example, every exercise has been pressure-tested before it reaches the page.
"What's really unique about my books is that I have tested everything in my own classes. I've run it through hundreds of students before it even makes it into the public eye. My students have seen it, I have fine-tuned it with them, so it is very clear and easy to understand by the time it makes it into the book."
That same student-first philosophy extends into MyLab Accounting, where Wendy has built a rich layer of embedded support — chapter lecture videos, tutorial walkthroughs, and homework videos designed to meet students at the moment they need help most.
"In those Excel auto-grader exercises, there is a tutorial version where I have recorded a video of me walking through that exercise to show students how to do it step by step," she explains.
Building Career-Ready Skills for the Real World
Wendy doesn't just prepare students for exams — she prepares them for the profession. Two areas she's especially intentional about are Excel fluency and responsible AI use, both of which are embedded directly into the MyLab Accounting experience.
Through Excel Grader Projects, students build technical confidence within the tools they'll use throughout their careers.
"We think it's really important to use the actual Excel environment, because when students leave college, they're going to have to upload Excel files, download Excel files, save them, and find them," Wendy explains. "The Excel auto-graders really reinforce cell references and formulas, which sound so basic, but students can't just encounter it once and know it."
That same applied approach extends to AI. Rather than avoiding it, Wendy teaches students how to engage with it critically and responsibly through structured assignments built into MyLab.
"There are assignments built into MyLab where students are told to use AI or interpret AI results, and then they can submit their answers and it's auto graded," she says, adding that she continues to build "more exercises to help develop critical thinking and professional skepticism as it relates to AI."
Together, these tools ensure students leave the course with more than accounting knowledge — they leave with the judgment and technical fluency the modern profession demands.
A Lasting Impact
Through her teaching, her textbooks, and her intentional use of technology, Wendy Tietz shows that great accounting education goes far beyond memorizing rules. It's about building curiosity, judgment, and the confidence to lead.
By listening closely to her students, testing everything she creates, and continuously refining her approach, Wendy is helping shape a generation of professionals prepared not just to pass exams — but to think clearly and act with integrity in the business world.
Voices of Impact celebrates educators like Wendy who prove that when teaching is student‑first, the impact lasts a lifetime.
About Dr. Wendy Tietz
Wendy M. Tietz is a Professor of Accounting at Kent State University and a Pearson author with over 26 years of teaching experience. A CPA, CMA, and Microsoft Certified Trainer, she is the recipient of the AAA/Deloitte Foundation Prize for undergraduate teaching and the IMA Exemplary Educator Award, among numerous other honors. Known for her student-first approach, Wendy tests every concept in her own classroom before it reaches the page — ensuring her content is clear, relevant, and career-ready. She is also the creator of Accounting in the Headlines, a widely used real-world teaching resource.