Accounting students' perceptions of a virtual learning environment: Springboard or safety net?

This research study elicits students' perceptions of the extent to which a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) supports, or indeed enhances, their learning experiences. A phenomenographic research study was conducted among first year, undergraduate accounting students at a UK business school that adopts the commercially provided VLE, Blackboard. Although the aim of using the VLE as a supplementary tool is to add value to the broader teaching-learning environment, the findings revealed that students perceived tutors to be using the VLE simply as an 'online textbook', resulting, at best, in the use of the VLE as a 'safety net'. The findings also suggested that taught sessions were perceived as adding little or no value to the VLE provision. By providing a clearer understanding of students' perceptions, this study enables tutors to review both their classroom and online provisions within Entwistle's (2003) conceptual framework to facilitate changes that would enrich the teaching-learning environment.