Technological Impact on Teaching of Online Managerial Accounting

Using technology in teaching college level Managerial Accounting is an inevitable trend as massive open online courses (MOOCs) are proposed as cost saving tools for many entry-level college courses. However, its benefits won’t be evident for several years and there is still much debate among experts (Wall Street Journal, May 12, 2014). Our university is no exception and we are trying online teaching on a trial basis. I have been teaching online principle-level Managerial Accounting for more than two years now. From my observations over the past two years, motivated students are doing as well as the face-to-face students are, but non-highly motivated students struggle and failure rates are high. It may be acceptable to use MOOCs for social or humanities subjects, but some technical classes like accounting, do not translate effectively as a mechanism to deliver course content. I tested empirically using a Regression Analysis computer assignment to examine this issue and our class results show online students underperformed on this assignment compared to in-class students. Our college uses Echo360 for recording lectures and I made the recording available for the assignment. I provided face-to-face explanations and help for in-class students, but online students worked primarily by themselves.