Is Intelligent Online Tutoring Software Useful in Refreshing Financial Accounting Knowledge?

We examine the effectiveness of online tutoring software to ameliorate poor performance in intermediate financial accounting. Controlling for age, major, and student aptitude, we find that the number of terms that have transpired since a student took introductory financial accounting, whether they took the course at a two-year college, or if they needed to repeat the introductory course, are all negatively associated with performance in intermediate accounting. We find that an online tutoring system, ALEKS®, partially or completely removes these negative correlations. Our results suggest that in upper division courses where student knowledge of underlying basic material is uneven, online tutors are an effective tool in bringing students up to an equal level of competence without sacrificing class time.