Abstract:

Swansea University Educators have been utilising short term testing through fortnightly online tests using the Canvas quiz learning platform to first year university economics students studying accountancy for the first time, and final year taxation students.

The aim of this study is to capture student feedback on whether this approach and the methods used to prepare students for this assessment method has been helpful to their taxation and accounting learning. It also incorporates looking at the effect on engagement, understanding and motivation.

The direction of the study involved first year economics students having little, or no accounting background completing four short thirty minute tests, with the best three marks from the test contributing to their final grade. The taxation students completed five compulsory short tests worth 5% each contributing towards their final grade.

The study will also seek to compare student preference to alternative assessment types such as essay’s, midterm tests, group work or a final examination only.

We seek to gather the information required via questionnaires to current and previous taxation and economics students to compare assessment preference, the learning approach, and its suitability to the subject of study.

This paper seeks to inform taxation and accounting and economics educators on the benefits and disadvantages of using short testing as part of module assessment, focusing on the benefits of using an online platform for example providing students with immediate feedback, reduced marking load for educators, creating essential building blocks for accounting learning, self-paced learning and student familiarity with the VLE.

Keywords:

Taxation, accounting, regular testing, online testing.