Organised by the Singapore Institute of Technology, the 3rd Applied Learning Conference, themed “Embracing Change in an Era of Disruption”, focused on exploring ways to evolve higher education to connect graduate competencies directly to workforce needs and strengthening interdisciplinary learning for coping with future uncertainties.

As part of the event, a case competition was set up to promote case method and encourage participants to write high quality teaching cases to enhance applied learning. It was open to all educators, researchers, administrators, practitioners, and students. 

Each case was judged based on the importance and innovativeness of the topic, its relevance to the theoretical concepts and frameworks, the general presentation of the case (structure, clarity, language etc.) and the extent to which it addresses the theme of “Embracing Change in an Era of Disruption”.

Singapore Management University’s entry, submitted by Associate Professor of Accounting (Education) Yuanto Kusnadi and Professor of Accounting (Education), Gary Pan was one of four winners in the case competition. The other winners were from the Singapore Institute of Technology and Temasek Polytechnic. SMU’s case study was based on a SMU-X module conducted by Assoc Prof Kusnadi, titled “Accounting for Entrepreneurs”.  The SMU-X course is designed to provide a broad base coverage of issues related to accounting, such as basic accounting concepts & their applications to businesses, capital raising, short-term & long-term financial planning, managerial accounting principles & concepts, management planning & control, and taxation, all of which are relevant to (future) business owners and entrepreneurs. The programme helps them plan and control business operations and finance, and equips them with negotiation skills to deal with other stakeholders of the business.

Titled “Turning the COVID-19 Pandemic into an Opportunity for Digital Disruption in the E-Commerce Industry: A Case Study of DCI Pte Ltd”, the case illustrated how e-commerce companies are turning to companies like DCI (Digital Commerce Intelligence) Pte Ltd to obtain insights on how their products perform in the e-commerce space. It also highlighted the challenges for DCI as the industry becomes more competitive, with more companies providing such services.

Said Assoc Prof Kusnadi, “SMU-X projects are relevant in bridging practitioners and the academics. They give students an avenue to provide practical out-of-the-box recommendations to the challenges faced by client companies. The DCI case provided an excellent opportunity to examine the real-life challenges that companies are facing during the age of digital disruption, in the midst of unique conditions brought on by the pandemic”.

The prize presentation was held on 21 January during the virtual Applied Learning Conference, which also included talks, presentations, and workshops conducted by a variety of experts from institutes of higher learning in Singapore.