One Course May Not Fit All: Online Accounting Course Offerings

Abstract

Distance (i.e., online) education has become an increasingly popular form of higher-education instruction. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2011 revealed that a majority of colleges and universities now offer online courses; this trend was most pervasive among public universities (at 89 percent). Online (vs. in-class) instruction is considered more cost effective and has the potential to educate larger portions of the population. However, while some prior studies have focused on the efficacy of various educational delivery methods, some self-selection bias has generally been present in comparisons of online and traditional, in-classroom instruction. This paper provides preliminary evidence about the outcomes when students are not allowed to self-select between online and traditional instruction for an upper-level accounting course and instead are offered only an online course; our results suggest that when students are provided with this option, their exam performance and instructor-evaluation scores are higher. This suggests that upper-level accounting students self-select well between online and traditional instruction and that online education is not suitable for all students. This should be important to academic institutions and accounting researchers as we continue to explore issues pertaining to online education