UCOL accounting and business lecturers gain top accolades for research project

A study led by UCOL Senior Lecturer Business/Research Coordinator, Dr Chandra Poudyal, has been recognised and published in the Journal of Accounting Literature, a very highly ranked journal based on the quality of its publications by both the Australian Business Dean Council and the Scientific Journal.

After UCOL’s accounting programme adopted blended delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic as an emergency teaching and learning approach, Dr Poudyal says he became interested in investigating this new style of teaching and learning.

“In 2024 I decided I wanted to look in depth into the opportunities and challenges around blended delivery. I believed the research would be an effective way to ensure we as lecturers understood how to continue to help our students achieve their goals and gain their qualifications without having to be on campus full-time.”

Dr Poudyal collaborated with other UCOL business and accounting lecturers Fumie Yokoi and Elizabeth Dazell for the research, where they conducted a systematic literature review of 46 peer-reviewed articles published between 2006 and 2025 to investigate how blended learning is shaping accounting education.

“The study identified common challenges in accounting education delivery, including the adaptability, motivation and acceptance of blended learning for both learners and educators.

We discovered the enhanced flexibility and inclusivity of blended delivery provides improved access to education for a diverse range of learners. This style of learning ensures no one is excluded from gaining a qualification. Parents of young children, those already working, and people who are unable to commute to classes are still able to learn.”

Yokoi says one of the most interesting findings was the evidence that well-designed blended learning can enhance student engagement, motivation, academic performance, technological proficiency, and critical thinking skills.

“The literature showed that while blended learning improves accessibility and flexibility, students still highly value face-to-face interaction with lecturers and peers. This reinforced the importance of designing learning experiences that combine the benefits of technology with meaningful human engagement.”

Drawing on her experience as both an accounting educator and former accounting practitioner, Yokoi helped develop the study's theoretical foundation and examined how blended learning can support technical accounting knowledge alongside professional skills development.

“The research strengthened my confidence in blended delivery as a sustainable and valuable approach to accounting education. It showed that flexibility and connection are not competing priorities. The most effective learning environments provide both.”

For Dalzell, who has since left UCOL, the project highlighted the consistency of findings across the international research landscape.

“It was interesting to see many common themes emerging from researchers around the world regarding both the opportunities and challenges of blended delivery in accounting education. Many of these aligned closely with my own teaching experiences.”

She says the research reinforced the importance of strong institutional support, technology infrastructure, and leadership in delivering successful blended learning initiatives.

“The findings confirmed that adequate ICT systems and leadership are critical to the success of blended learning. They also reinforced the importance of maintaining academic rigour in a blended environment, particularly in protecting the value and integrity of accounting qualifications.”

From the research, the biggest challenges were related to technology infrastructure and a reluctance among both learners and educators to adopt technology in online teaching and learning.

Dr Poudyal says UCOL has worked hard to address these issues.

“We have developed well-established and successful systems around blended delivery. From our learner outcomes, we now know it isn’t necessary to be full time in the classroom for students to receive the support and guidance they need to achieve their goals.”

Another highlight of the project for the team was being able to collaborate on a topic they are all passionate about.

“It was a valuable opportunity to share different perspectives and contribute to meaningful research in accounting education. The project has also inspired me to pursue future empirical research to build on these findings and contribute to the ongoing development of accounting and business education,” says Yokoi.

Dr Poudyal believes blended delivery programmes will continue to grow and play an important role in tertiary education in the 21st century.

“Teaching institutes must adapt themselves to blended delivery like UCOL has. We hope our research helps teachers, lectures, institutes to educate them on how important it is to teach both in person and online. This style of delivery keeps programmes running.”

The research was presented by Dr Poudyal at the RMIT Accounting Educators' Conference in Melbourne in November 2024. Dr Poudyal and Yokoi also presented the findings at the Auckland Region Accounting (ARA) Conference in Auckland in December 2024 before the paper was published in the Journal of Accounting Literature.

Read the full research paper here.