Manual vs. Computerized Practice Set: Which Achieves Learning Objectives the Best?

Abstract

ABSTRACT A major issue for accounting departments is how to adopt a user's approach to teaching the Principles level courses and still have the accounting majors adequately prepared for upper level courses. One approach is to employ a practice set within the curriculum. However, the use of a manual practice set presents several problems. The use of a computerized practice set may solve many of these issues. This paper examines this issue by testing the student's retention of information about accounting processes and procedures. The test results indicate similar outcomes from using a computerized practice set where students manually post the transactions to those students using a manual practice set. Thus, students can gain the necessary knowledge while using a computerized practice set when they post transactions. However, the test results indicate students have inferior results when using a computerized practice set that automatically posts the transactions. This suggests that student involvement in the transaction is important. Given the computerized practice set's advantages in decreasing the time and energy expended by the accounting faculty grading practice sets and the faculty's ability to help the students remotely, a strong argument can be made for using the computerized practice set when students post the transactions. Thus, accounting departments can be more confident, in certain circumstances, to choose to use computerized practice sets.