American Institute of Higher Education Presentation 09/10/08

Accounting Faculty Utilization of Web-Based Resources to Enhance In-Class Instruction

By

Thomas BlackProfessor of Accounting

San Jose State University

And

Howard Turetsky*Professor of Accounting

San Jose State University

* Corresponding Authorturetsky_h@cob.sjsu.edu

Motivation

• The accounting profession, in particular, has been very proactive in harnessing the power of the internet.

– American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) has transformed the Uniform CPA Exam to a year-round computer-based test, incorporating simulations.

– Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), & State Accountancy Boards have extensive websites providing membership access to a wide range of products and services, including web-based continuing education courses.

• Implicitly presumed that the academic communities, especially at the university level (the “breeding ground” for the embryonic professional), have likewise embraced the internet as a critical pedagogical tool.

– American colleges and universities have invested heavily to upgrade their computer systems, local area networks, and internet links. Academics from a diverse array of disciplines have utilized the internet in as an instructional tool to enhance their students’ in-class learning and overall educational experience.

Research Question/Hypotheses

• Broad-spectrum of our study is to examine whether the premise of web-based resource utilization holds true for the accounting discipline within academe.

– While the utility of the internet to enhance the learning experience has been embraced in many academic quarters, there is scant empirical evidence that indicates whether or not accounting faculty have followed suit.

– Consequently, our study examines the extent to which accounting faculty use web‑based resources to augment classroom instruction.

• Specifically, we explore the effects of two institutional and two individual factors upon accounting faculty use of web-based resources to enhance face-to-face instructional activities.

– Institutional Factors: • Accounting Accreditation• Accounting Ph.D. Program

– Individual (control) Factors:• Academic Rank• Gender

Data Collection

• 413 U.S. accounting programs within AACSB accredited colleges of business were identified.

• 3,753 tenured and tenure‑track accounting faculty members were included in the sample after eliminating adjunct and clinical faculty, as well as lecturers.

• Dependent Variable:

– We code faculty members with a “0” to indicate “non‑integration” of web-based resources if:• Solely a faculty name listing, no evidence of pedagogical internet use.• Faculty name listing only and an e-mail address, no evidence of pedagogical internet use.• Added biographical information ranging from a list of degrees and certifications to extensive

curriculum vitae complete with a photograph, no evidence of pedagogical internet use.

– We code faculty members with a “1” to indicate “integration” of web-based resources if:• Faculty who utilized the internet for supporting pedagogical materials, inclusive of syllabi,

lecture notes, PowerPoint slides, as well as assigned problems, cases, quizzes/tests, often followed by the posting of solutions.

• Faculty who used learning management systems courseware such as WebCT or Blackboard.

Model

• The structure of our complete model that considers the extent to which accounting faculty, at AACSB accredited business colleges, integrate web‑based resources in their courses is specified as the probability function:

– Prob(Internet_Use) = F(1*Accreditation + 2*Doctoral + 3*Rank + 4*Gender)

• Where:– Institutional parameters

Accreditation = 0 if business-only accreditation, 1 for accounting accreditation.

Doctoral = 0 if no accounting doctorate program, 1 for accounting doctorate.

– Individual parameters Rank = 1 if assistant professor, 2 if associate professor, 3 for full professor.

Gender = 0 if male, 1 for female.

– Dependent Variable

Internet Use = 1 if internet usage, 0 for non‑use.

• We estimate our model utilizing logistic regression.

Findings

• Based solely on the descriptive data, there is an indication that the accounting accreditation program affiliation will be a significant factor in differentiating between who utilizes the internet and those that do not.

• The odds that faculty integrate the internet in their courses is significantly increased when the affiliated college of business carries separate accounting accreditation.

• When accounting accreditation is coupled with (interacted by) the presence of an accounting doctoral program, the odds that faculty integrate the internet in their courses is significantly increased.

• The interaction of accreditation with assistant professors and likewise with full professors enhances the likelihood of internet integration; and the interaction of accreditation with females is significantly associated with an increase in the utilization of the internet as an instructional resource by accounting academics.

• Within the “accounting accreditation” subgroup of faculty members, female assistant professors are more likely to integrate the internet in their courses; whereas, for female full professors, the odds of internet use are reduced.

• Within the “business-only” (i.e. not separate accounting) accreditation subgroup, faculty (especially assistant professors) at colleges with an accounting doctorate program are less likely to integrate web‑based resources into pedagogy. When we restrict the sub-sample further to male professors, they are likewise less likely to integrate the internet.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

• Considering our findings, we speculate that with the reward (promotion) system at many colleges being weighted toward the research component, faculty are unwilling to expend a scarce resource (time) on activities (integrating the Internet into the classroom) that have little or no economic/professional payoff. This tends to offer an explanation as to the relative paucity of internet integration by accounting faculty.

• As for the strong positive significance of separate accounting program accreditation as a determining factor of internet integration, the AACSB guidelines for accounting program accreditation provide some elucidation. The AACSB (2005) states that the separate accreditation process is intended to promote high quality innovative accounting education programs, where in considering the quality of accounting programs such factors as the design and effectiveness of the curriculum and the resources needed and used for educational purposes are critical. Thus, if accounting accredited programs are more innovative (i.e., integrating the internet into the classroom) and have more resources to promote such innovation (i.e., release time and grants) than accounting programs that don’t have separate accounting accreditation we would expect accreditation to have a positive effect on internet use.