Summary:
Many studies (Bonwell and Eison,1991, Meyers and Jones, 1993, Raux, 2004, Smith and Meador, 2001) have shown that students retain more information when active learning is utilized in the classroom. Additionally, professional organizations and professional and corporate employers have been quite active over the past decade in indicating that they prefer to hire students that have learned how to learn actively, can think critically, and are adept at the second-level learning skills (critical thinking, communication skills, interpersonal skills, technical skills, and analytical skills). The experience of the authors has been that there is a growing number of students, particularly transfer students, entering intermediate level course work with weak and/or poor retention of prerequisite material. This article examines the combining of two teaching methods, active learning and online learning, in an attempt to expose students to active learning, improving students' retention of new knowledge, and increase students' second-level learning skills. An in-class study using both active and online learning in intermediate financial accounting I was used to evaluate these teaching methods. This study evaluated whether a combination of active and online learning can be successful in increasing the students' knowledge base to an appropriate level while also enhancing retention. The results of the study provide support that the methodology was successful in both regards. Although the study was conducted in an accounting course, this methodology has the potential to be effective in many other disciplines.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHORCopyright of Review of Business Research is the property of International Academy of Business &Economics (IABE) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.
Excerpt from Article:
EFFECTIVELY USING ACTIVE AND ONLINE LEARNING TO HELP STUDENTS WITH WEAK RETENTION OF PREREQUISITE SKILLS SUCCEED IN INTERMEDIATE FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING Donald J. Raux, Siena College, Loudonville, NY, USA Walter Smith, Siena College, Loudonville, NY, USA ABSTRACT Many studies (Bonwell and Eison,1991, Meyers and Jones, 1993, Raux, 2004, Smith and Meador, 2001) have shown that students retain more information when active learning is utilized in the classroom. Additionally, professional organizations and professional and corporate employers have been quite active over the past decade in indicating that they prefer to hire students that have learned how to learn actively, can think critically, and are adept at the second-level learning skills (critical thinking, communication skills, interpersonal skills, technical skills, and analytical skills). The experience of the authors has been that there is a growing number of students, particularly transfer students, entering intermediate level course work with weak and/or poor retention of prerequisite material. This article examines the combining of two teaching methods, active learning and online learning, in an attempt to expose students to active learning, improving students' retention of new knowledge, and increase students' second-level learning skills. An in-class study using both active and online learning in intermediate financial accounting I was used to evaluate these teaching methods. This study evaluated whether a combination of active and online learning can be successful in increasing the students' knowledge base to an appropriate level while also enhancing retention. The results of the study provide support that the methodology was successful in both regards. Although the study was conducted in an accounting course, this methodology has the potential to be effective in many other disciplines. Keywords: active learning, online learning, clickers, retention, intermediate accounting, financial accounting, teaching methods 1. INTRODUCTION One of the primary objectives of a college accounting curriculum is the learning and retention of material learned for utilization in later courses and the student's subsequent career. Anecdotal evidence and the study in this paper suggest that many students enter intermediate financial accounting without retaining the appropriate prerequisite knowledge and skills from principles of financial accounting. This lack of retention could result from failure to initially master the material at the principles level or due to a failure to retain the prerequisite material. The study conducted in this paper attempts to determine if online learning tools and active learning may be used to overcome retention failure and enable students to succeed in intermediate financial accounting. The following sections illustrate why active learning and online learning are methods that may help students to master and retain the course material. 1.1 Why Use Active Learning Instead of Passive Learning Information on average learning retention rates from the National Training Laboratories (NTL, 2006) in Bethel, Maine indicates that students retain as little as 5% from lectures and 10% from reading. This clearly demonstrates that the passive learning activities of reading the textbook and attending lecture are not effective methods for helping students to retain material. Even when the teaching methods are combined, such as a Power Point presentation that is seen, heard, and read, the retention rate is only about 20%. However, when a student learns by actually doing something, active learning, they retain about 75%. If the student actually does something and then explains it to someone else, then the retention rate increases to the 90% range. Other studies (Bonwell and Eison, 1991, Meyers and Jones, 1993, and Raux, 2004) have examined classroom learning methods and found that today's students learn more, retain more, and more successful when active learning methods are employed in the classroom instead of traditional passive learning methods. Smith and Meador (2001) found that students using active learning methods in REVIEW OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, Volume VII, Number 5, 2007 135 principles of financial accounting had statistically higher grades (12.8% fewer D and F grades) and statistically lower drop rates (12% lower drop rate) than students using passive learning methods. The American Accounting Association's (AAA, 1986) Committee on Future Structure, Content and Scope of Accounting Education (the Bedford Committee) called for accounting education to take a much broader role than what is currently offered by most universities today. Consider the following quote from the Bedford report: "There is little doubt that the current content of professional accounting education, which has remained substantially the same over the past 50 years, is generally inadequate for the future accounting professional. A growing gap exists between what accountants do and what accounting educators teach. Accountants who remain narrowly educated will find it more difficult to compete in an expanding profession. The Committee's analysis of accounting practice has indicated that accounting education as it is currently approached requires major adjustments between now and the year 2000." The Big 8 White Paper (1989) advocated changes in accounting education and felt so strongly that change was needed that they contributed five million dollars to fund the Accounting Education Change Commission (1990). The Commission called for significant changes in accounting education in several publications and funded of innovations in accounting education programs at several schools. These studies clearly indicate that professors need to increase the usage of teaching methods that promote active and cooperative learning in order to achieve the goal of increasing student retention. This requires some major changes in the "typical" accounting class. Historically, accounting classes have been predominately a lecture format that promoted passive learning by students. Many accounting students are introverted and reflective and would prefer to be passive in the classroom, therefore, professors may need to convince some students that active learning techniques will result in a better educational experience. These previous efforts have given us sufficient warning that accounting education must change to meet future needs of students. The traditional passive classroom does not facilitate learning, retention, or the development of second-level skills such as critical thinking, communication skills, interpersonal skills, technical skills, and analytical skills. Several of the above cited sources also emphasize the importance of students becoming better life-long learners and active learning facilitates that objective (Meyers and Jones, 1993). Thus, passive learning methods need to be replaced with active learning methods. 1.2 Why Online Learning and Why Homework Managers The only way that the instructor and the students can gauge whether or not the students understand the course material is via feedback. Traditional, passive, feedback is conducted via exams and quizzes. These sources of feedback are infrequent and do not encourage the student to do additional work to master the material as the feedback arrives too late and the student has already moved on to new material. Lectures do not provide adequate feedback either as the students are passive listeners instead of active participants. "Passive listening is a one-way communication that does not give the speaker feedback. For learning to be effective, a two-way process must exist so the send knows whether the message has been understood (McIntyre-Birkner and Birkner, 2001)." "Clicker technology can dramatically alter the atmosphere in large lecture classes, transforming students from passive observers to engaged learners who interact with each other and with the professor (Loebbaka, 2007)." A poll of students using clickers in the classroom revealed that 90% of the students said clickers increase the instructors' awareness of their teaching effectiveness and 80% of the students said the clickers helped them to understand the material better (Loebbaka, 2007). Thus, clickers and online tools such as a homework manager can help to transform the classroom into an active learning environment and they also provide the instructor and the students with instant feedback. Instead of asking `Any questions?' or `Does everybody understand this?' instructors can have everybody in the class answer a question about the material and receive instant feedback by displaying the percentage of right and wrong answers (Carnevale, 2005). Both the instructor and the students can benefit from this feedback by seeing if the students understand the material as it is covered. If students understand the material, the instructor can confidently move on to the next topic. If students do not understand the material, the student can ask additional questions or the instructor can do additional classroom activities to help students master the material before moving on to new material. REVIEW OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, Volume VII, Number 5, 2007 136 Online, or web-based, learning is the use of online homework managers that can give students immediate feedback. The online homework manager "improves learning by increasing student effort, engagement, and course preparation." and results in "better-prepared students, more effective use of class time, enhanced discussions, and more in-depth learning." (Thomson Learning Corp, 2007) Online homework managers allow students to complete selected homework problems and receive instant feedback about whether their answers are correct or not. If the student's answer is incorrect, the homework manager can guide the student through a review of the appropriate textbook material and then allow the student to reattempt the problem. Homework managers also can provide students with additional upgraded practice problems, 24/7 tutoring, and vocabulary quizzes (WileyPlus, 2005). "In fact, students have came to expect these types of technologies, which are an extension of the materials they became accustomed to in their K-12 years (Skelly, 2007)." Thus, both homework managers and online learning engage the student resulting in active learning replacing passive learning, which can result in an increase of retention rates by 55% (NTL, 2006). They also both provide the instructor and the students with instant feedback so that classroom and study time may be used more effectively. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW There are many examples in the current literature demonstrating the success of active learning and online learning. These successes are taking place both at the college level and at the K-12 level. Some of these successes are reported below. "Beyond Paper, Ink & Cardboard" (Skelly, 2006) reports the following: Online mathematics homework managers have led to increases from 19% (Gadsden State Community College) to 40% (Odessa College) in the number of students receiving a C or better in college math classes. A survey of students reported that 82% of students believed that they were better prepared for test after using an online homework manager.
