Do team-based written or video explanations of course content enhance accounting students’ knowledge, communication, and teamwork skills?

Abstract

This study explores students’ knowledge, communication, and teamwork skills development when using team-based explanations, in either written or video mode, during an assessment for learning in a competency-based accounting education context. Both modes of team-based explanation, written or video, seem to enhance conceptual and transfer knowledge among weaker and moderate-performing students. When viewed as an interconnected and indivisible process, the video explanation mode appears more beneficial for top-performing students’ conceptual knowledge development than the written explanation mode. The team-based video explanation mode also appears to be the preferred method for developing teamwork skills, while both modes are perceived as beneficial for developing communication skills. Overall, the video mode of a team-based explanation assessment for learning appears to be the favored choice, as it facilitates whole-class knowledge development while also allowing greater opportunities for students’ teamwork and communication skills development in a competency-based education context.