Accounting Students’ Performance in Web-Based Courses: The Case of the Hashemite University of Jordan

Online learning has been used in accounting education for many years; arguably the subject matter lends itself to this kind of delivery. In this research the authors apply the Inputs-Environment-Outcome (I-E-O) model to investigate the ways in which students’ participation in the online learning environment, their views of the use of technology and perceptions of instructor interactivity affect their performance on an intermediate accounting module. The subjects were all students at the Hashemite University in Jordan. The I-E-O model was estimated using structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques. The results suggests that the two most important variable in explaining student performance (outcome) are prior performance on the prerequisite module (an input variable) and student participation in the online learning environment (an environment module). However, the relationships between prior performance, participation and current performance are richer and more complex than a simple direct link between prior performance and current performance.