Exploring first-year students’ experiences of using Moodle in learning an accounting undergraduate module at a South African University

Abstract

This qualitative case study explored first-year student’s experiences of using Moodle in learning an Accounting undergraduate module at a South African university. Studies have revealed that students are driven by three different types of experiences when using Moodle to learn an Accounting undergraduate module. These types of experiences comprises of usercentred, interaction-centred and written-centred experiences. Such experiences drive students’ actions when they are learning an accounting undergraduate’s module on Moodle. Thus, the focus of this study was to explore first-year student’s experiences of using Moodle to learn an Accounting undergraduate module. This study is a qualitative case study of six first-year accounting students in one of the South African universities. Its main purpose was to explore their experiences of using Moodle in learning an Accounting undergraduate module; and to further probe how their experiences improved their learning of Accounting module using Moodle. This qualitative case study is situated within the interpretive paradigm. Therefore, the researcher engages the situation from the viewpoint of the participants through generation of authentic data. Six first-year students who were doing accounting module in the social science discipline were purposively and conveniently selected at the university in which this study was conducted, based on their experience and expertise of learning accounting and other modules through Moodle. This qualitative interpretive enquiry was characterised by multiple datageneration methods, such reflective activity, one-on-one semi-structured interviews, and document analysis, to respond to key research questions of this study. Data generated in this qualitative research were analysed by using a thematic qualitative data analysis. These qualitative research questions were as follows, exploring what are the first-year student’s experiences of using Moodle in learning an Accounting undergraduate module at a South African university; how first-year student’s experiences of using Moodle can improve the learning of accounting, and why first-year student’s experiences are in a particular ways in the use of Moodle in learning an accounting undergraduate module at a South African university.