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Faculty of Accounting and Informatics

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Durban University of Technology--Students

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    An examination of the factors affecting the performance of Management Accounting students at the Durban University of Technology
    (2020-06) Singh, Stephanie Caroline; Stainbank, L. J.; Green, Paul
    The success of a module at a university of technology is measured by student performance. At the Durban University of Technology in the Department of Management Accounting, students in their second year of study struggle with conceptualising content in Cost Accounting two which affects their performance. The purpose of this study was to identify the factors which may impact on the performance of Cost Accounting two students and to determine if these factors have a significant association with a student’s performance in Cost Accounting two. Many studies have identified various factors which may influence students’ academic performance. For the purpose of this study, five factors that may affect student performance were identified and examined. The independent variables or factors identified were attendance, age, gender, grade 12 results and language. The dependent variable for this study was performance (in Cost Accounting two). In order to measure the performance of students included in the study, the percentage achieved in Cost Accounting two for the semester was used. Although studies have been conducted on student performance at universities across South Africa and around the world, limited studies were conducted on the performance of Cost Accounting two students within South Africa. The study aimed to identify the factors that affect the performance of Cost and Management Accounting students at a university of technology and the impact of those factors on performance. The study found that only student attendance has a positive impact on student performance in Cost Accounting two. The findings of this study may be useful to the Department of Management Accounting at the DUT and other universities of technology. It is hoped that the current study will be useful to other teachers of cost and management accounting at universities on which factors influence the academic achievement of students.
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    Assessing students’ experiences of the effectiveness of the Blackboard Learning Management System in the Department of Information and Corporate Management at the Durban University of Technology
    (2020-04) Naidoo, Yathiraj; Millham, Richard; Skinner, Jane Phyllida
    The use of Learning Management Systems by universities worldwide has grown exponentially in the last several years and has become an important tool to help connect students and lecturers without the confines of the traditional classroom. It is an environment with digital software which is designed to manage user learning interventions as well as deliver learning content and resources to students. Since 2013, online education has been supported at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) using the Blackboard (Bb) LMS. Traditionally DUT students have been accustomed to face-to-face teaching methods. The purpose of this study was to examine students’ experiences of using Bb because understanding students’ experiences is a critical issue for academics and course designers in order to improve this LMS’s usage and to understand how to improve learner satisfaction and behavioural intention, and to enhance the effectiveness of online teaching and learning. Two main data collection instruments were used in this study. The first data collection instrument included a questionnaire which was only administered to the current cohort of students from the Department of Information and Corporate Management (ICM) who volunteered to participate in the study. This involved 109 respondents (n=109). The questionnaire was used mainly to gauge their overall experience of the online classroom in order to determine which features, used in the intervention, were of most use to the students and to guide future e-learning content designers on how to better design more effective content. The second data collection instrument involved a focus group comprising six IA3 students who volunteered to participate. The objective of the focus group was to assess in greater depth, allowing for open-ended discussions, the specific learning advantages of Bb. Other data collection instruments used informally in this study included observations of students’ behaviour on Bb use, which were made throughout the duration of the study by the researcher in his capacity as a technician in the computer laboratories, as well as a comparison of the assessment results of the current cohort of Information Administration 3 (IA3) students who were taught using a blended learning approach (n=184), compared with the assessment results of students from the previous three years who were taught using traditional face-to-face methods. These two informal data collection instruments were included for informational purposes and did not follow established research guidelines for data collection. The study found that students appreciated the flexibility of being able to access course information at their convenience although most were only able to access the online classroom using the computers at the university. While most students were satisfied with their learning experience of the online classroom in Bb, they felt training on the advanced features of the LMS could be improved. Most importantly, students viewed the role of the lecturer as having the greatest impact on their online experience. Students viewed a lecturer who posted frequently, responded promptly to student queries and demonstrated a caring attitude, was more likely to encourage students to commit themselves to using the LMS. During a comparison of the assessment marks between past students who received course instruction the traditional way, and the current cohort of students who received their course instruction through the online classroom, the study noted little difference in the results. However, what was important to note was that the class size of the current cohort of students was more than double the class size of any of the previous three years used in this study, and thus it can be inferred that there is a clear advantage in the support of an LMS system in contexts of growing student numbers, with no accompanying disadvantages. An examination of the findings reveals that, if implemented properly, Bb or any other similar LMS for that matter, has an important role to play in improving teaching and learning at DUT (and by implication other universities of technology in South Africa) both from a student and instructor perspective, by being able to create richer learning experiences for students, and for instructors to be able to manage larger classes.
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    The impact of the digital divide on information literacy training of Extended Curriculum Programme students at the Durban University of Technology
    (2011) Naidoo, Segarani; Raju, Jayarani
    This study investigated the impact of the digital divide on information literacy (IL) training of Extended Curriculum Programme (ECP) students at the Durban University of Technology (DUT). There are students entering the tertiary education environment in South Africa who have never used the Internet or have little or no knowledge of technology. Hence South African higher education institutions have a heterogeneous mix of both digitally advantaged students and digitally disadvantaged students. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of the digital divide on IL training of ECP students at the DUT and to recommend guidelines for teaching and learning of IL that would accommodate both digitally advantaged and digitally disadvantaged students. The sub-objectives of the study were: to identify in what ways the digital divide impacts on the IL training of ECP students; to identify innovative teaching and learning methods to accommodate the diversity of students in the IL classroom; and to recommend guidelines for teaching and learning of IL in the ECP that accommodates the digital divide among participating students. Hence, the three population sets for the study were: DUT ECP students of 2010, Subject Librarians teaching IL to ECP students and the DUT ECP Coordinator. The study employed a mixed method approach in its research design. Data was collected from ECP students by means of a questionnaire, an interview schedule was used to collect data from Subject Librarians involved in teaching of the IL module to ECP students and lastly, a separate interview schedule was used to collect data from the ECP Coordinator. Qualitative data that was collected from the survey questionnaire was analysed using SPSS (Version 18.0) whilst qualitative data collected from the interviews and from the questionnaires was analysed thematically using content analysis. The findings of this study reveal that the digital divide does impact on IL training in ways such as, slowing down the progress of IL lessons; basic computer skills need to be taught in the IL classroom and that disadvantaged students find it difficult to follow online lessons while advantaged students already have the expertise to access online information. Based on these findings the study recommends that computer literacy training precede IL training; that various creative teaching and learning methods, such as, group work, games, online tutorials and interactive websites be incorporated into IL training to accommodate both digitally advantaged and digitally disadvantaged students in the IL classroom.