Exploring first-year students’ experiences of using Moodle in learning an accounting undergraduate module at a South African University
Date
2019
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
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.
Description
Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.