Student Performance in Intermediate Accounting: A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Online and Manual Homework Assignments

Abstract

Several studies have compared the performance of students using an online homework system (OHS) to that of students submitting their homework under the traditional method of a manual homework system (MHS), and have found inconclusive results. But there is no study that investigates the role of an OHS in intermediate accounting courses. In this paper, we compare student exam performance across two sections of Intermediate Accounting II, taught by the same professor, where one section submits all the homework using an MHS, and the other submits the same assignments using an OHS. We find that students using an OHS perform significantly better in the problems, but they perform significantly worse on the multiple choice questions (MCQ). The MCQs were designed to test for a deeper understanding of the course material. The results indicate that although students grasp the mechanics in completing the problems better in the OHS, they gain a better understanding of the conceptual issues and are involved in more critical thinking in the MHS. We offer a discussion of the causes for our findings and their implications for accounting education.