11026

11026

Refereed Paper with Presentation

**Assessing the Comparative Effectiveness of Teaching Intermediate Accounting Principles in the Online Classroom Format**
Anne Rich Central, Connecticut State University, New Britain, Connecticut, USA, annerich@aol.com Mary Dereshiwsky, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA, statcatmd@hotmail.com

As accounting departments across traditional universities in the United States are deciding to expand their online course offerings, faculty are interested in the achievement of learning outcomes when courses are delivered through the internet. Currently, there are faculty who believe only face-to-face on-campus experiences can provide the proper learning environment for undergraduate accounting students. The purpose of this study is to report on the results of comparing students taking an intermediate accounting course online with students who took the course on campus. Student assessments of learning included nine objective online homework problems and an essay on professionalism. In addition, students were surveyed to provide self-assessments of learning based on seven learning objectives for the course. If similar outcomes can be accomplished in online courses in students’ achievement of learning objectives, performance on homework, and in their understanding or professionalism, then accounting faculty will have more confidence in offering online courses as part of their academic programs.

In this study, one teacher taught three sections of an intermediate accounting course. A second teacher taught the evening on-campus section. The day sections were typical full-time students under the age of 22. The online and evening sections were attended by both full-time and part-time students who tended to be from an older population. The evening and online sections had more part-time learners with work experience. All but two students were able to enter the class format of their first choice. The research objective was to assess if online learners demonstrated similar outcomes in achieving the objectives of the course. Performance measures included the following: (1) problem-type homework problems delivered online through the publisher’s website and graded by the computer program, (2) an essay on professionalism graded by the instructor and (3) students’ self-reported growth related to the seven learning objectives for the course. The results clearly show that for all assessments, the students enrolled in the online intermediate accounting course achieved the same learning outcomes as the students enrolled in the on-campus intermediate accounting course.

All Audiences online instruction, online learning, intermediate accounting