An Experiment with the Old and the New: Online Practice versus Practice by Hand in Learning GAAP for Pension Accounting

Abstract

Fifty-six undergraduate accounting students with no knowledge of pension accounting were placed into one of two experimental groups. Both groups listened to the same lecture covering the computation of pension expense. One group practiced and computed pension expense using only pencils and paper while the second group used an online homework tool to practice and compute pension expense. The students who performed the work by hand scored higher on a post-quiz covering pension expense and reported a higher level of confidence in their knowledge of pension expense as compared to students using the online homework tool.