Using an educational computer program to enhance student performance in financial accounting

We develop an educational computer program, Principles Aren't That Hard (PATH), to enhance intrinsic motivation and performance in accounting education. We include Blackboard and the traditional paper medium as additional system types for comparison purposes. The results show that relative to Blackboard and the traditional paper medium, PATH leads to highest intrinsic motivation, which increases system use. The findings also indicate that the effect of intrinsic motivation on system use is stronger when perceived usefulness is higher than lower. When users perceive a system to be useful for attaining their goals, this form of extrinsic motivation promotes rather than impairs intrinsic motivation which further enhances system use. Additionally, the results suggest that perceived competence fully mediates the impact of system use on performance. This study's identification of perceived competence as a mediator furthers understanding of the inconsistent findings reported in previous research on the effect of system use on performance.