I conducted a comparative look at student learning outcomes between two sections of Intermediate Accounting course (ACT311) that I taught during the Fall 2012 semester. One section met entirely face-to-face throughout the semester, while the other section was blended, consisting of 80% face-to-face and 20% online class time.

Study the structure and purpose of external financial statements, including how such statements are prepared and how such statements are analyzed and interpreted.

Extend students’ knowledge of primary issues of external reporting, including the structure of GAAP, the conceptual framework of accounting, and the meaning and measurement of net income and financial position.

Understand classification, valuation and reporting issues related to current and fixed assets.

Develop problem solving and critical thinking skills.

I identified one aspect of the first course objective to work with for the IBIS - how such statements are prepared.

I assigned a comprehensive project which requires students to prepare a set of financial statements.

I designed some useful queries to guide students on the online discussion board

In order to find out if online discussion board helps improve students’ performance in the blended section, similar topics were discussed in the traditional face-to-face section.

In addition to measure students’ performance in the comprehensive project, I also designed three online quizzes to test out if learning outcomes differ between these two sections.

I also compared students’ exam scores and the overall course grade under these differing learning environments.

All quizzes, exams, and the comprehensive project were identical across these two sections.

SectionProjec

t Quiz ExamOveral

lBlended

(average) 87 87 81 82Face-to-face

(average) 90 87 86 87

Further analyses using two-sample t-tests show that:

There is no significant difference in student performance in terms of completing the project across the two sections

There is no significant difference in student performance in terms of quiz score across the two sections

Students in the face-to-face section perform significantly better than those in the blended section in terms of exam score (significant at a 5% level)

Students in the face-to-face section perform significantly better than those in the blended section in terms of overall grade (significant at a 5% level)

The evidence of similar scores earned from completing the project and the online quizzes indicates that students perform equally well across the two sections when the topics are specifically discussed online or in-class.

However, when it comes to taking an exam, students in the face-to-face section outperform their peers in the blended section, which indicates that students may lack self-discipline when they learn in a more independent environment.