Using an Electronic Tutorial to Enhance Students' Knowledge of Advanced Tax Accounting.

Abstract This paper presents an innovative approach to teaching tax accounting which also may have application to other areas of accounting. One of the authors used commercial software to transform his lecture notes into a computer tutorial designed for self-study class preparation. About half of the in-class time was shifted from lecture to group activities without reducing technical content coverage. The tutorial's design was based on several fundamental learning principles identified from the educational psychology literature. The tutorial also provided current feedback to both the instructor and student group members on the extent of each student's daily class preparation. Tentative evidence suggests that the tutorial, along with the intentionally induced peer pressure, was effective in enhancing pre-class preparation and in improving class attendance, test scores, and course evaluations. This paper describes the design of the tutorial and the context in which it was employed.