COMPUTER-SUPPORTED INSTRUCTION AND STUDENT CHARACTERISTICS - AN EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY

The extensive use of computers by businesses makes it imperative for m ost business graduates to possess a fair amount of computer skills to effectively perform in today's work environment. Business schools are integrating computers into their curricula to provide their students w ith these skills. While many studies in education have evaluated the e ffect of computer-based education, there are very few in the field of business education. This study evaluates the influence of a computer-b ased support system on the decision-making skills of students in a int roductory financial management course. It also evaluates the impact of various personal characteristics of the student on decision-making pe rformance. An experimental design combined with a survey instrument is used to collect data from forty-two graduate students. Discriminant a nalysis is used to derive a profile of students classifiable into grou ps based on quality of performance and degree of satisfaction. The res ults of the study indicate that the computer support system does indee d improve the performance of the students. The results of discriminant analyses suggest aptitude to be an important variable that emerged co nsistently in all the discriminant models. The other important predict ors of improved performance and satisfaction with computer-supported i nstruction were observed to be domain expertise, domain experience, sy stem experience, and the gender of the students.