A Study of Traditional and Online Accounting Education Systems : ACCOUNTING EDUCATION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LEARNING OUTCOMES IN TRADITIONAL AND ONLINE DELIVERY SYSTEMS

As of 2007, over 20% of all higher education students in the U.S. took at least one online course and over 200 universities offered some measure of online accounting courses. This study compared the student learning outcomes of traditional and online delivery styles in accounting courses at the university level. The survey instruments were distributed to students at a large private university in Texas and teachers from large public and private colleges in Maryland, Missouri, and Texas. The Student Evaluation Form (SEF) and the Accounting Program Questionnaire (APQ) were the two main instruments. The SEF was used to evaluate students' perception of learning outcomes, and the APQ was used to evaluate the teachers' views of student perception of learning outcomes. The results showed no difference in student perceptions of overall learning outcomes. However, traditional students were more confident than online students. Factorial ANOVA revealed interactions between enrollment status and delivery systems and significant differences in perception of overall learning outcomes in given age groups.