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EVIDENCE THAT INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECTS IMPROVE ACCOUNTING STUDENTS’ TECHNOLOGY-RELATED PERCEPTIONS AND SKILLS

Sudip Bhattacharjee Lewis Shaw

Accounting Department Suffolk University

We would like to thank Laurie Pant, Gail Sergenian, and participants at the Suffolk University Faculty Development Seminar. Please address correspondence to: Lewis Shaw, Accounting Department, Sawyer School of Management, Suffolk University, 8 Ashburton Place, Boston, MA 02108-2770. Phone: (617) 537-8205, Fax: (617) 573-8345, Email: lshaw@suffolk.edu

Evidence that Independent Research Projects Improve Accounting Students’ Technology-Related Perceptions and Skills ABSTRACT Advances in technology require that accountants possess skills to obtain information from various sources, complete computer-based projects, and use computers as a tool to achieve other business-related objectives. Students not only need to develop skills to access information, but, more importantly, they also need to improve their perceived ability to utilize computers successfully. This paper describes a project in which accounting students were required to independently analyze a publicly traded company using text- and Internet-based resources. The goal was to concurrently develop students’ computer-based skills and improve perceptions toward technology. In addition, since research using non-accounting students has shown that self-efficacy and confidence in the use of technology differs between the genders, this study also analyzed gender-related differences in perceptions towards computers. Our results show that the project enhanced students’ Internet knowledge and skills to access information from multiple sources. Students also improved their perceived ability to use computers to analyze technical problems, their computer-based project completion skills, and their understanding of the Internet. Furthermore, while female students indicated lower perceived ability to work on technology-related... [continues]

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