Using Online Tutorials to Teach the Accounting Cycle

Journal of Education for Business, Vol. 95(4): 263-274

Singapore Management University School of Accountancy Research Paper No. 2020-118

26 Pages Posted: 12 Feb 2019 Last revised: 6 Apr 2020

See all articles by Tracey Chunqi Zhang

Tracey Chunqi Zhang

Singapore Management University - School of Accountancy

Lay-Chin Low

Singapore Management University - School of Accountancy

Poh-Sun Seow

Singapore Management University - School of Accountancy

Date Written: February 1, 2019

Abstract

The accounting cycle is an important yet difficult topic for introductory financial accounting students to learn. These students often lack the business context to understand the accounting cycle and find the traditional teaching approach dry. This problem motivates the authors to examine whether a blended learning approach via online tutorials can improve students’ perceived knowledge of the accounting cycle for the undergraduate introductory financial accounting course. The authors developed four innovative online tutorials with a coherent storyline to enable students to learn the accounting cycle and to supplement in-class learning. To test the effectiveness of online tutorials, an independent survey was conducted by the Centre of Teaching Excellence at the authors’ University. The survey results suggest that the accounting cycle online tutorials substantially improve students’ perceived knowledge of the topic (an increase of 59.8% in the perceived knowledge) and the improvement is statistically significant. Meanwhile, the results indicate that the online tutorials are valued by students for the enjoyable learning experience. Students credited the online tutorials for increasing their interest in the course and providing the business context to understand the accounting cycle, which enhanced their learning. Given the positive impact reported by students, the paper recommends instructors for introductory financial accounting course to use these accounting cycle online tutorials to supplement in-class learning as there is only minimum cost of implementation. One caveat of the paper is that students’ perceived knowledge may not reflect the actual knowledge of the accounting cycle.

Keywords: accounting cycle, introductory financial accounting, online tutorial, e-learning, blended learning

Suggested Citation

Zhang, Tracey Chunqi and Low, Lay-Chin and Seow, Poh-Sun, Using Online Tutorials to Teach the Accounting Cycle (February 1, 2019). Journal of Education for Business, Vol. 95(4): 263-274, Singapore Management University School of Accountancy Research Paper No. 2020-118, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3327139 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3327139

Tracey Chunqi Zhang (Contact Author)

Singapore Management University - School of Accountancy ( email )

60 Stamford Road
Singapore 178900
Singapore

Lay-Chin Low

Singapore Management University - School of Accountancy ( email )

60 Stamford Road
Singapore 178900
Singapore

Poh-Sun Seow

Singapore Management University - School of Accountancy ( email )

60 Stamford Road
Singapore, 178900
Singapore

HOME PAGE: http://accountancy.smu.edu.sg/faculty/profile/76099/SEOW-Poh-Sun

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