Teaching mode in the PRE-COVID, COVID-19, and POST-COVID periods and students’ learning outcomes on the example of Accounting study program

Abstract

Main research aim is assessing whether the mode of conducting classes (traditional/distance) affects the differentiation in the obtained subject grades in the period preceding distance teaching (PRE-COVID), during the pandemic (COVID-19), with distance teaching, and after its end (POST-COVID). This study was conducted on the example of the subject "Accounting" taught at the University of Economics in Katowice. The grades of 278 students in the “Accounting” course were analyzed.  To verify the hypothesis of this study, indicating the lack of differentiation of students’ grades depending on the mode of study (traditional/distance), it was necessary to assign the obtained grades to three distinguished research subperiods. The significance of variance in the grades of “Accounting” course students in individual sub-periods was calculated based on the one-way ANOVA analysis of variance. The conducted research allowed us to confirm the existence of a relationship between the adopted teaching formula (traditional and distance) and the grades (outcomes) of students. Based on the analyses carried out, it is necessary to reject the initial hypothesis about the lack of dependence between the mode of teaching in the PRE-COVID, COVID-19, and POST-COVID subperiods and the student’s learning outcomes in the introductory subject to accounting. The unique value of this study lies in the analysis of three consecutive comparative periods, in which traditional teaching, e-learning, and return to traditional education took place. This allows to set trends in the observed phenomena and make specific forecasts.