Search results

The demand for Accounting Information Systems (AIS) knowledge has increased exponentially over the past two decades, but studying AIS has not proved easy for many accounting students. The aim of the study is to understand the challenges accounting students face in studying AIS through investigation of the factors which may be contributing to their difficulties.

A survey instrument was developed for this study, and data were gathered from 618 students enrolled in AIS courses, 95 per cent of whom were accounting students. The data were analysed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) with the Partial Least Squares (PLS) technique.

The results show that course structure, pre‐existing knowledge of Information Systems (IS), assessment of critical thinking, teaching style and the availability of academic assistance to students all have a significant influence on students' learning experience in AIS courses.

The study has important implications for AIS educators through its identification and analysis of possible difficulties faced by students. It is hoped that remedial measures to enhance this experience will be explored and implemented.

The study was conducted in one university context, so caution should be exercised in generalising the results. Future research could further validate, question, or extend the findings in multiple tertiary education institutions, in various countries.

This is one of the first studies to introduce scales to measure students' perceptions and experiences in AIS courses. It is hoped that this paper will initiate a discussion that leads to a better understanding of students' perceptions of challenges, and thus make AIS learning a richer and more enjoyable experience for students.

The paper aims to introduce this special issue on LEAD, the research management system under which the papers collected in this issue were produced. The paper explains the background that led to the establishment of the system, presents a short history of LEAD, describes how it is managed, and details the various stages of a typical LEAD “cycle”. It concludes with a brief description of the papers to follow.

Reflective description.

LEAD is a successful collaborative system for organising “action research” in learning and teaching within a business faculty. The papers in this issue serve to demonstrate the system's outcomes.

The paper is essentially descriptive. The described system illustrates one way of organising collaborative research in a university faculty, in this instance focused on research into learning and teaching in a business faculty.

LEAD provides a model for managing collaborative university research, one that could be applied in any university faculty and across different research areas. Apart from illustrating the potential of the system, each of the papers collected in this issue is of interest in its own right, as a study of learning and teaching in a particular disciplinary context.

The LEAD system is a novel way of organising learning and teaching research in a university context.