Comparing the Effectiveness of Classroom and Online Learning: Teaching Accounting Theory

• In Event: Breakfast with Research Round Table Session

Abstract

As business administration programs extend their online education offerings to reach more time and place-bound students, and as accredited institutions become more interested in documenting teaching and learning effectiveness, the degree to which online students are successful as compared to their classroom counterparts is of interest to teaching faculty and other charged with assessment.

By comparing student performance measures and assessment of learning experience from both online and traditional sections of a required graduate accounting theory course taught by two instructors, one teaching face-to-face and one teaching online, this study is designed to investigate whether effectiveness of student learning is independent of the mode of instruction.

Although there is a growing body of literature on accounting distance learning, it is usually focused on measurement and recording of transactions in undergraduate and graduate accounting courses (see, for example, Chen and Jones (2007); Rich and Dereshiwsky (2011)). The accounting theory course is design to develop in student critical thinking, research skills, and oral and written communication skills. This content, emphasized by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), creates a significant challenge in on-line delivery. Therefore investigation of effectiveness of distance learning in this case is very important and the gathered empirical evidence should provide a significant contribution to the ongoing discussion about the future of accounting education.

Authors

• Irene McCarthy, St. John's University

• Sylwia Gornik-Tomaszewski, St John's University