Search

Many universities, and other higher education institutions, have adopted an approach to teaching and the delivery of course content that combines traditional face-to-face delivery with online teaching resources: a blended learning approach. It does not follow, however, that merely defining a policy in this area will cause the desired result, as first the new ideas have to be adopted by all those involved. Many factors act to determine how online learning is accepted and how the balance between online and face-to-face delivery is formed. This paper investigates the factors that determine the way that online resources have been implemented in a core first-year accounting subject. The approach used is one involving actor-network theory because of the combinations of both human and non-human actors involved. In this paper, the main actors are identified, and we look at how their views of the value of each approach and their willingness to attempt to convince others of the ''rightness" of these views affects the outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To remain globally competitive, there is increasing pressure for universities to incorporate a greater use of technology and innovation into their curriculum. In response, many higher education institutions have adopted a blended learning approach, which combines traditional face-to-face delivery with online teaching resources, to deliver course content. At Victoria University this is now policy and all units offered by the University are required to have an online presence by the first semester of 2009. Our first-year core accounting unit is taught in Australia and overseas locations including Hong Kong, Malaysia and Beijing. There are a number of variations of how this blending occurs and the extent to which it is used may be influenced by a number or factors. These include the technical skills and time allocation of the teaching staff, professional IT support, student motivation, internet speed and access, explicit connection to assessment, and ease of use for assessment tasks. Some of these issues were addressed when this unit was moved to the online learning platform of WebCT. This paper documents the design and implementation of e-assessment and online resources in this introductory accounting unit and monitors its impact on learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]