Does Using Clickers in the Classroom Matter to Student Performance and Satisfaction in the Introductory Financial Accounting Course?

Abstract:     
Teaching and student success in the classroom involve incorporating various sound pedagogy and technologies that improve and enhance student learning and understanding. Before entering their major field of study, business and accounting majors generally must take a rigorous introductory course in financial accounting. Technological innovations utilized in the classroom to teach this course include Audience Response Systems (ARS), whereby the instructor poses questions related to the course material to students who each respond by using a clicker and receiving immediate feedback. In a highly controlled experimental situation, we find significant improvements in the overall student examination performance when teaching this course using clickers as compared to traditional classroom teaching techniques. Finally, using a survey at the end of the introductory financial accounting course taught with the use of clickers, we add to the growing literature supporting student satisfaction with use of this type of technology in the classroom. As universities look for ways to restrain operating costs without compromising the pedagogy of core requirement classes such as the introductory financial accounting course, our results should be of interest to educators, administrators, and student retention offices, as well as to the developers and manufacturers of these classroom support technologies.

Keywords: Audience Response Systems (ARS), clickers, interactive pedagogy, learning, online homework manager systems (OHMS), satisfaction

JEL Classification: A20

Accepted Paper Series