Dr. Henri Akono
Name: Dr. Henri Akono
Title: Associate Professor of Accounting
Department: Maine Business School (Primary Affiliation)
How long have you been teaching? Since Fall 2008
How long have you been at UMaine? Since Fall 2013
SEATLE Award for: “The By-the-Numbers”
Meet Henri
Courses you Teach
Principles of Managerial Accounting. Principles of Financial Accounting, Cost Accounting, Auditing, Advanced Managerial Accounting, Advanced Financial Accounting (MBA), Managerial Accounting for Decision-Making (MBA), Accounting Data Analytics (MBA)
Tell us a bit about you
If your teaching (or research) had a theme song, what would it be?
I think it would be more like a jingle, like liberty liberty liberty jingle; rather a theme song. However, my style is not to mix those two activities together.
What’s something you would secretly love to teach, even if it has nothing to do with your field?
Actually, there is none. I have been lucky enough to teach many different subjects within the accounting discipline.
What’s something you have always wanted to learn, but haven’t yet?
Astronomy at an advanced level.
Tell us a bit about your approach to teaching
How would you describe the changes to your course design or approaches to teaching?
I have worked hard over the years to develop and improve my course designs with the knowledge gained from attending CITL training sessions, and various seminars organized by entities within the accounting/auditing profession.
Accordingly, I focus on designing effective and contemporaneous learning activities that give UMaine students not only sound conceptual knowledge, but also applied activities that can help them relate concepts to the workplace, stay up to date with developments in the profession, and be competitive within the New England landscape.
Recent developments include, for instance, the usage of analytical and visualization tools as well as Artificial intelligence in accounting and audit decision-making.
Furthermore, I have worked at improving the organization of my courses to facilitate navigation by students and to foster more learning engagement.
This is a continuous and fun process, indeed.
How would you describe the impact of these changes on the students in your classes?
The changes to the course design and teaching approaches have led to greater student engagement and more satisfaction.
As a result of this work, what has changed for you as an instructor and/or colleague in terms of your own teaching. Was anything different for you or more available to you as a result of your efforts? Was there anything that you were able to do that you could not do before as a result of your efforts?
I operate with a mindset of continually improving my teaching techniques and delivery. As I adopted various changes, I have been able to make various aspects of my teaching clearer; I have also been able to smoothen the overall structures of my courses in a way that allows students to follow easily.
What would be a piece of advice you might give a new instructor at UMaine?
Be willing to learn and adapt teaching methods and techniques; there is always something interesting to incorporate in the classroom; ultimately it results in better experiences for both students and instructors.