Teaching students to learn IDEA: The impact of learner attitudes

Abstract

Technology is pervasive every profession. Successful professionals must be able to learn new technologies throughout their careers. Students who learn new technologies as part of a college curriculum are more equipped to meet this challenge; this effect is enhanced if the technologies learned in college are used in the student’s future profession. However, some students learn course-specific technologies more easily than others. Our study investigates accounting students who learn the auditing software IDEA. While prior research has shown that technology acceptance and aptitude for learning technology both are relevant to technology adoption decisions of organizations, prior research has not applied these models to teaching and learning professional-level technology. We found that technology acceptance and self-perceptions of the ability to learn had significant impacts on students’ achievement with the new technology. When students believed their aptitude for learning technology was higher, they showed higher achievement in using IDEA.