HI6008 Business Research: Online Accounting Education

For this assessment, students are expected to demonstrate their understanding of the extant, academic literature related to an approved, business topic.

Topic: 

Develop A System For Online Accounting Education –  A Flip From Face To Face Accounting Education

• Develop A Model For Online Accounting Education

Topic: “Online accounting education – a flip from face to face accounting education”

Literature review

Literature review is the evaluation report for the information that are found within the literature that is associated with the selected study. The review generally summarises, describes, clarifies and evaluates the literature. It provides a theoretical view for the given research and assists the author to determine the nature of the research (Machi and McEvoy 2016).

Scope

Online accounting education is the proliferation and creation of personal computer, use of the technology and globalization of the ideas for exchanging the developed ideas and offering access to those ideas to people all over the world (Apostolou et al. 2013). In most of the cases, it refers to degree, course or programs that are completely delivered through online (DeBoer et al. 2014).

Over the last few years, the traditional education system that is the face to face education system is facing various issues and disruptions. The major issue with the face to face education system was the documenting and accountability of the evidence to value the education system. On the other hand, with the increasing trend of online courses for accounting, various questions also raised regarding the quality of education system as compared to the face-to-face instruction in accounting class room. Moreover, a recent survey report states that only one third of the participants rated the online education system as excellent or good. There are various accounting educators who are introducing new approaches in online education system for responding to the queries. These approaches focus on assessing and capturing the data that is generated from the online students and to get an insight to the online education system so that they can take further strategies to increase the effectiveness of online system of accounting (Brandon et al. 2013).

ign: justify;">The scope of the research is as follows:

• The online education system led to introduction of various accounting courses that are offered to the students from all over the world
• A major requirement for the next generation is to prepare them for participating in the information society, where knowledge will be the major factor for their career development.
• There are various accounting educators who are introducing new approaches in online education system for responding to the queries
• Online learning approach uses the electronic technologies for accessing the education program outside the traditional classroom.
• For the improvement of learning and teaching procedure as well as the clear view of the subject, techniques and strategies shall be developed in such a way that will motivate the students which in turn, will strengthen those

Objectives 

The objectives of this research are:

• Analysing the future prospects and current status of the online education system
• Focussing on the mechanisms that are required to be designed to increase the effectiveness of online accounting system
• Strengths and limitations associated with online accounting system
• Analysing the new approaches that can be implemented to online accounting system
• Analysing the effectiveness on online accounting education
• Analysing the advantages and disadvantages of face to face education system
• Evaluating the needs and growth prospect of online accounting
• Comparing the online accounting with face-to-face education for accounting

Definition of terms

Face to face education – the face to face education instruction or the traditional classroom is stated as when the student and the teacher under a non-profit educational foundation are engaged in the instruction process and the learning and teaching takes place at the same time.

Online accounting education – E-learning or online accounting education is the utilisation of internet or online technologies to the foundation of accounting education. It involves the performance of regular accounting tasks, accounting education and training, accounting research through different internet based or computer based accounting tools.

Research hypothesis

The hypothesis for the given research will be as follows –

H₀: The online accounting education will have a positive impact on the educational environment as against the face-to-face system in Australia

H_1: The online accounting education will not have any impact on the educational environment as against the face-to-face system in Australia 

Comparative analysis on the study

Online accounting education platform 

There are various opportunities to develop various online learning for providing service and access to the users. It helps in creating own website for promoting educational products, courses and online services. Questions, quizzes, lessons and courses can easily be managed and made under this. The users are getting attracted to these types of online learnings owing to their unlimited ability to generate almost all types of websites. The primary features of online learning are the drop and drag system, tool builders, unlimited page layout options, templates and various setting options. Therefore, if someone is operating the education sector, for instance, offering personal coaching, promoting and selling the courses, course materials or any other products or services online then the Study Master will be the ultimate option for the user. There are also some functions like publishing the learning content that will be pre-installed in the online learning. However, the online learning will not include all the learning features and the user will be required to create fully functioning system for learning management or the virtual learning on his own. Moreover, the online learning generally does stop the user from installing anything like plug in for course delivery to convert his learning website into fully featured system for learning management (Forsey, Low and Glance 2013).

As the online learning will enable the user to sell the courses through online, the selling procedure will get completed through the Wow Commerce portal that will be pre-installed and this will accept payments through various methods like Study master wallet, debit card, credit card and various payment gateways (Bozkurt et al. 2015). Apart from this, there will be unlimited commercial and free extensions for the online learning. The user can enhance and upgrade the services any time they want with making the additional payment. In addition, study master will give an opportunity for listing the courses online as well as promoting their services and tutors they are will work with. Moreover, there will be an option for adding the profiles and qualification of the teachers. When it will come to the designing and adding the content in the pages for making up the website, it will offer lot more as compared to the regular online learning. This online learning will also facilitate to integrate drag and drop, front end and page builder options and that will fill the layout with useful elements and features (Griff, and Matter 2013).

Factors responsible for changing the online learning management system

It has been noticed that there is a good scope for enhancement of online education system in coming years. More peoples are expected to shift in the online education system from the traditional face-to-face education system. It is clearly viewed that the method of education has been revolutionized over the past few years and the overall system of education is turning towards the e-learning system. These factors increased the online learning management system significantly. The users have the option of the choice among the open source licence and cloud based software. For example, there are variance in model, price, type of customers, their preference and any other features that the customers feel necessary.

Importance of introduction of online learning system in accounting education

Various factors are there that led to introduction of online accounting education system in the present scenario. It will have different plans at different charges. For instance, online learning system has a bunch of premium or free add-ons services. This is to say that this offers various features that will be packed under the under the learning package. More importantly, in future if the user wants to shift to another package, all the information and courses of the user will be retained under the new package. Apart from this, all the important and powerful add-ons are preinstalled under all the online learning packages. Moreover, the user will also enable to get his personal portal where he can communicate regarding the course materials, queries and any issues. In addition, regular updates and relevant blogs are alsobe posted on the user’s portal. The online learning model normally supports all types of payment systems like debit card, credit card, Paypal, stripe and Academia wallet. With fully responsive design, this learning management theme definitely looks awesome with any type of equipment. The online learning system is more like a shopping cart rather than the traditional system for teaching management (Roehl, Reddy and Shannon 2013).

Relationship among the online education system and the way of improvement

If the online accounting education is considered, it has found that its activities are quite difficult and different from face-to-face education system. It requires continuous guidance and assistance from the teachers. If an advanced form of management information or cloud computing system is implemented, it will be beneficial to the teaching and learning procedures. Apart from this, the online accounting also needs the access of economic condition of the specific area under consideration. Therefore, information related to this is also crucial for learners. If development is made in the system, it will also be related to the economic as well as accounting information that will be easily accessible by the teachers and learners and further, they will be able to cope up with the situation more significantly.

Quality and currency of the literature source

Quality of the paper for this literature review

This literature review on online accounting education includes various articles published during the year 2013 to 2016. The journals are related to:

• Online accounting education
• Journal on accounting education
• Global aspects on online accounting education
• Advances in online education
• The Accounting educator’s journal
• Issues in online accounting education.

The above mentioned articles give updates prior to the literature reviews on online education for accounting

Currency of the paper for this literature review

This study on the online education for accounting will state the cost and benefits of the online education system as compared with the traditional system of the face-to-face classroom education system. It has been analysed that initially the theme for the online education for accounting will be sold at 10% discount as an initial offer to the users. However, if it gets wide acceptance from the users and able to sustain in the competitive market then the discount will be withdrawn after it completes 1sy tear of operation in the market.

Literature review sources and reliability

The journals and articles used for this literature review on online accounting education are reliable and error-free as much as possible. Moreover the information contained there are based on the proven facts and can be verified against the other reliable sources. The name of the author for the journals and articles are mentioned in the reference list.  The purpose of the information is to analyse the online education for accounting as against the traditional face-to-face education system and give the readers a clear view of online education system for accounting. As far as possible, the information are not taken into consideration. The information that are taken into consideration are that which are published between the year 2013 to 2016.  The information provides in-depth coverage of the topic. The details of the journals used are as follows:

• American Journal of Distance Education,28,1, 27-38.
• Behavioral Research in Accounting,26,1, 1-23.
• British Journal of Educational Technology,44,1, 170-176.
• Journal of Accounting Education,31,2, 107-161
• Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences,105,2, 44.
• Journal Of Public Affairs Education Volume 20 Number 3, 441.
• The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning,16,1.
• The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning,15,5.
• The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning,15,1
• Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction ,TOCHI,22,2, 6.

Research gap and contribution

Research gap

It has been identified that, the system of online education really advantageous for the users. The students and the teachers both are benefitted through the online education system. However, certain things are there that must be considered while shifting the learning system from the traditional face-to-face education to online accounting education. It has been identified from the research gap that both the teacher and student cannot fully engage themselves through the online system. Moreover, they suffer due to lack of training approach and lack of access to various crucial things. Though the cloud computing technique assists the student to get the access over various data, at the same time the scope of training and teaching are somewhat limited. This requires the development of the cloud based system to that extent, which will assist even the teachers as well as the students in getting proper training and required assistance. Therefore, it is suggested that the research must be carried out to improve these sectors.

Further, in the research study, it has been focused only on the requirements and advantages of the online education system and the benefits of face-to-face classroom education system have not been taken into consideration.  Moreover, nothing has been researched for improving the face-to-face education system. Further the data for the research has been collected from the secondary sources, that is from published articles, journals and various websites whereas, primary data like interviews, survey, questionnaire has not been used for the research. The data collection method has a great impact on the outcome of the study. In that way, it may be said that the outcome of the research is somewhat biased (Jordan 2014).

Contribution

The shifting of learning system towards the online system has no boundaries and limits. It is a clear fact that the advancement in technology will alter the environment in which the system is operating and living. The online system enabled everyone to easily communicate and doing their work smoothly. Thus, the research regarding the online accounting education will assist the learner and teacher to shape establish their strategy in such a way that will assist the learning activity to be aligned with the online strategies.

Conclusion 

From the above discussion it can be concluded that in the current competitive world of education, it will be a big step to flip from the face-to-face education system and shifting to online education system for accounting. A good theme design for online education can improve the knowledge base of the users and the required data can be accessed from all over the world. It will also assist the users to choose the theme as per their requirement and preference. However, where it is not possible to implement the online education system, the tutor must try to make the traditional face-to-face classroom education system more innovative and to enable the students to get their preference.  Further, it is expected that if appropriate actions are taken, it will assist to generate a better system for computing system that will help the teachers and learners to carry out their work efficiently with regard to the accounting education.

References:

Apostolou, B., Dorminey, J. W., Hassell, J. M., and Watson, S. F. ,2013. Accounting education literature review ,2010–2012. Journal of Accounting Education, 31,2, 107-161.

Bozkurt, A., Akgun-Ozbek, E., Yilmazel, S., Erdogdu, E., Ucar, H., Guler, E., and Dincer, G. D. ,2015. Trends in distance education research: A content analysis of journals 2009-2013. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 16,1.

Brandon, D. M., Long, J. H., Loraas, T. M., Mueller-Phillips, J., and Vansant, B. ,2013. Online instrument delivery and participant recruitment services: Emerging opportunities for behavioral accounting research. Behavioral Research in Accounting, 26,1, 1-23.

DeBoer, J., Ho, A. D., Stump, G. S., and Breslow, L. ,2014. Changing “course” reconceptualizing educational variables for massive open online courses. Educational researcher, 0013189X14523038.

Forsey, M., Low, M., and Glance, D. ,2013. Flipping the sociology classroom: Towards a practice of online pedagogy. Journal of Sociology, 49,4, 471-485.

Freeman, R. J., Shoulders, C. D., Allison, G. S., Smith Jr, G. R., and Becker, C. J. ,2014. Governmental and nonprofit accounting: Theory and practice. Jpae Journal Of Public Affairs Education Volume 20 Number 3, 441.

Gasevic, D., Kovanovic, V., Joksimovic, S., and Siemens, G. ,2014. Where is research on massive open online courses headed? A data analysis of the MOOC Research Initiative. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 15,5.

Griff, E. R., and Matter, S. F. ,2013. Evaluation of an adaptive online learning system. British Journal of Educational Technology, 44,1, 170-176.

Jaggars, S. S. ,2014. Choosing between online and face-to-face courses: Community college student voices. American Journal of Distance Education, 28,1, 27-38.

Jordan, K. ,2014. Initial trends in enrolment and completion of massive open online courses. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 15,1.

Kizilcec, R. F., and Schneider, E. ,2015. Motivation as a lens to understand online learners: Toward data-driven design with the OLEI scale. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction ,TOCHI, 22,2, 6.

Roehl, A., Reddy, S. L., and Shannon, G. J. ,2013. The flipped classroom: An opportunity to engage millennial students through active learning. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences, 105,2, 44.