| The demands of the 21st century student, professional accounting organizations, and employers have educators continually searching for the best instructional methods in the undergraduate first accounting course in higher education. This important course has been mostly offered to a diverse group of enrolled business and non-business majors in a face-to-face environment with the online method quickly increasing. A blended instructional method combining the best of the face-to-face and online methods was implemented and utilized in this quasi-experimental design to measure students' performance and satisfaction compared to a face-to-face environment. The study was completed at one university during two semesters using two instructors with similar teaching styles. The face-to-face (control group) consisted of 148 participants and the blended (treatment group) consisted of 147 participants. A pre- and post-test using a Gain variable score to measure performance of both equivalent groups, a researcher-constructed post Likert scale survey to measure the two groups' satisfaction, and a focus group interview and survey on the participant perspectives of the advantages and disadvantages of the blended instructional method were instruments used in this study. The results found positive performance gains regardless of the instructor or type of instruction. The research also showed that the student performance varied by the instructor teaching the course. The findings additionally revealed that both groups were equally satisfied and that satisfaction was not dependent on instructor or type of instruction. Finally, eight themes emerged from the nine focus group participants with additional support provided by the survey given to all the blended participants. This research suggested there was no evidence to preclude the blended instructional method from being offered to students. This blended format builds a new approach, offering students the instructor/student and student/student interaction demanded from the face-to-face environment with the benefits of flexibility and technology from the online environment. Few studies have been conducted on the blended instructional method in a first accounting course. Additional research is suggested to find the optimal design of the blended instructional method to further meet the demands of professional accounting organizations, employers and the 21 st century student.;Keywords: Blended teaching method, first accounting course, higher education, face-to-face teaching method, online teaching method, 21st century student, social benefits, flexibility, technology, synchronous teaching methods, asynchronous teaching methods, online cheating. |
