Blending The Use Of Standards, The Internet And Retesting With The Traditional Method Of Teaching Principles Of Accounting

Abstract

Every business school has a first accounting principles course required for all its students.  Many students do not realize their full potential in this course.  What method or methods of instruction will best facilitate learning accounting concepts, principles and applications?  Although numerous methods or techniques are used in the classroom today, the traditional lecture method is still very prominent.  There does, however, seem to be an increasing emphasis upon the student learning as opposed to the teacher just teaching.  Regardless of the instructional method used, it should include as many of the Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education as possible.  This article reports the procedures and results of a study comparing an experimental group to a control group taught in the traditional lecture format.  The instructional methods in the experimental group incorporated the use of a traditional textbook, lectures, CyberClass web-based self-testing material and flash cards, and a modified standards based approach.  Students in both groups were tested at the end of the semester using a comprehensive criterion measure to determine if there was a significant difference in performance.  In addition, questionnaires were administered to the experimental group to determine the amount of time spent on the various modules, the effectiveness of CyberClass, and student attitudes toward the instructional methods.