ONLINE ACCOUNTING EDUCATION AND CPA EXAM SUCCESS

Abstract

The quality of online accounting education relative to more traditional classroom-based accounting education remains a contentious and poorly understood topic. The research presented here compares average CPA exam scores of first-time candidates who have earned accounting degrees from online universities to average CPA exam scores of first-time candidates who have earned accounting degrees from (primarily) traditional classroom-based universities. Our findings indicate that graduates of online universities, on average, score considerably lower on the CPA exam than do the graduates of traditional, classroom-based universities.