Evaluating the Effectiveness of Computer Tutorials Versus Traditional Lecturing in Accounting Topics

Colleges and universities are continually making efforts to incorporate computers and technology into the varied aspects of their teaching environments. However, it is difficult to distinguish the effectiveness of these machine tutors from their human counterparts. There has been much debate about technology-based instructional strategies in learning environments. This article addresses one issue of that debate—the effectiveness of teaching undergraduate engineering students using computer-mediated tutorials versus traditional lecturing. Specifically, this research compared student test scores using computer-mediated accounting tutorials alone with those of students who received traditional lectures and computer-mediated tutorials on the same topic. Statistical analyses were performed to determine which was a better instructional method. Based on previous research by the authors and other published research, it was hypothesized that both methods would be satisfactory instructional tools and yield similar educational results. The results indicate that there was no statistically significant difference between the two methods. This was consistent with previous studies. This study concludes that computer-mediated tutorials could be substituted for traditional lectures without impacting what a student learns—at least for teaching accounting fundamentals.