Engaging students in a fully online accounting degree: an action research study

ABSTRACT

Student engagement is crucial for learning, especially in online learning. For a student to be a successful online learner, they need to engage socially and collaboratively through their behaviours, emotions and cognition. This paper discusses an accounting module of a fully online degree where engagement was purposely integrated using an engagement framework. An action research design was followed to determine the degree of engagement within the module and to improve on it. The findings indicated that incorporating five forms of engagement into the module was positively received by students and resulted in more students successfully completing the module. Student reflections showed that the module was cognitively engaging, that personal preference will guide social engagement and that working collaboratively will always be a challenge. Where, due to COVID-19, entire programmes need to convert to online learning, the findings of this study, could be implemented to ensure the continued engagement of students.

KEYWORDS:

• Student engagement
• online learning
• action research
• engagement framework

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 A module is a self-contained course that covers a subject (such as Financial Accounting, Financial Management or Auditing). It is assessed independently from other modules. Every module in the online accounting degree is facilitated by a module coordinator, also known as the facilitator or lecturer. The online module is divided into seven units over seven weeks, with each unit starting on the Monday of a specific week. All activities for a unit must be completed by the Sunday of the week at 23:59 (CAT).

2 The LMS is the software application used to deliver online courses. It provides the learning interface where resources for each module are uploaded in a structured manner. The LMS used by the institution is Blackboard Ultra.

3 The programme coordinator is responsible for overseeing the development of every module within the degree in the online format, for ensuring the smooth running of the programme when modules are offered live as well as dealing with programme-related queries from students.

4 Three students in the Acc12 module were not living in South Africa at the time when the study was conducted.

5 In the online Bachelor of Commerce Accounting degree, a tutor is appointed for every 50 students to assist the facilitator with consulting with students, observing student engagement with the content and assessments and marking assessments (where necessary).