On-Campus Vs. Online Course Delivery: An Empirical Look At Both Approaches In A Controlled Setting For Introductory Managerial Accounting

Abstract

There continues to be much discussion about whether or not students learn as much in an online course as they do in an on-campus face-to-face setting. This paper presents empirical observations about four sections of introductory managerial accounting, two taught on-campus and two taught online. The on-campus face-to-face approach provided the same course content available in the online approach but also used classroom lectures and discussions. A comprehensive final exam covering all learning objectives of the course was used as the overall measure of content learning. The hypothesis was that content learning was not equal in the two groups, but a h-test using unequal variances indicated that essentially equal content learning was occurring under both approaches (the null hypothesis). Quantile regression also was used to uncover some insights not revealed by the t-test, indicating that among the worst-performing students, online students performed better than face-ta-face students and that younger students outperformed older students.