The study was necessitated by the fact that the throughput rates of accounting
students studying at distance learning institutions in South Africa are disturbingly low
when compared to students studying at residential universities. Bearing in mind the
magnitude of the University of South Africa’s (Unisa’s) market share of accounting
students in South Africa, it was pivotal to comprehend the unique challenges related
to retention and throughput of these students. This thesis reports on a case study of
the use of mobile phones in an Accounting module by applying the theories of
didactic conversation and transactional distance to understand the retention and
throughput rates of the Accounting students in an open distance learning (ODL)
environment. Considering the landscape of accounting education in South Africa, the
specific challenges faced by accounting students at Unisa and the recent scholarly
discourse on retention and throughput of distance education students, this study
contributes to the limited theoretical understanding of students’ retention and
throughput rates in an Accounting module at Unisa.
This theoretical understanding has been obtained through combining the
transactional distance theory of Moore (1973) and the didactic conversation of Holmberg (1982) in a single conceptual framework. By applying this framework, this
thesis makes an original contribution to the deepening understanding of the retention
and throughput rates of accounting students in an ODL environment. The study has
shown that retention and throughput rates can be improved through the lessening of
the transactional distance between facilitator and student and by improving the
quality and extent of the two-way didactic conversation in the learning process.
To this effect, the study provided empirical evidence of the successful use of various
complementing technology interventions, suitable for accounting students with time
constraints, to enhance the learning process. / Management Accounting / D. Com.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:umkn-dsp01.int.unisa.ac.za:10500/19980 |
| Date | 07 1900 |
| Creators | Van Rooyen, Annelien Adriana |
| Contributors | Wessels, J. S. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (xix, 300 leaves) : color illustrations |
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