Distance Learning In Accounting Courses From The Students Perspective (1999-2006)

Abstract

Universities throughout the nation are faced with the reality of an increase in demand from placebound, adult working students who live and work in locations that may be hundreds of miles from traditional college campuses, and require a less centralized mode of course instruction. At the same time technological advances are now available that provide universities with a wide range of instructional modes of instruction that include interactive television (ITV) with real time audio and visual at a number of decentralized classroom sites, live and remote. Distance learning/distance education (DE) technologies currently allow an instructor to deliver university course instruction to several remote sites in real time via live ITV, while teaching a class to students in a traditional university classroom setting. While there are a growing number of studies on distance education, there are relatively few research studies on student satisfaction, with existing research showing mixed results (Anderson, Banks and Leary, 2002, Beaghan, 2006), and very little research on the effect of two-way ITV on university accounting and business course instruction (Arndt and Lafollette, 1991, Pirrong and Lathen, 1990, Seay and Milkman, 1994). University accounting course instruction may involve a number of different modes of instruction that include live instruction, online instruction and distance education. This research study looks at differences in student perception of value and satisfaction with quantitatively oriented courses delivered via ITV between groups of students in accounting courses taught between 1999 and 2006. Specifically this study looks at differences in attitudes between two groups of students, live and remote, and whether students who receive course instruction at remote sites via ITV perceive the same degree of value and satisfaction as do students receiving the same course instruction live and in real time.