Online Review: Its Effect on the Certified Public Licensure Examination

Preparation of USL Accountancy Graduates

By Jedediah Renier B. Abad, Mark Angelo B. Bustos, Jayward F. Sambu,

Daisy Joy B. Basquez, Yuan January G. Pittong

INTRODUCTION

All throughout the years, the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Board Examination had
been considered as one of the hardest licensure examinations here in the Philippines.
One of the cultures of the aspiring Accountancy graduates to pass the CPA Board
Examination is to enroll in review centers. The Commission on Higher Education (CHED,
2007) defined review centers as hubs offering programs or courses of study intended to
refresh and enhance knowledge, competencies, and skills of students who have already
studied in any formal school to prepare them for upcoming licensure examinations given
by any license-giving body such as those given by the Professional Regulation
Commission (PRC). These years, Review centers for Certified Public Accountant Board
Examination have been offering face-to-face classes for their review programs not until
this start of the year 2020 where the Corona virus outbreak that leads to global
pandemic affects the conduct of review classes in the Philippines. Telecommunications
evolution provided avenues for Filipinos to learn from others even at a distance.
Bandalaria (2007) wrote about the development of open and distance learning in the
Philippines that was divided into four generations, characterized by the different
technological advancements within each epoch: (1) first-generation DE via radio
technology; (2) print-based materials with supplementary, non-compulsory face-to-face
classes and/or with instructional content via radio; (3) print-based materials and pre-
recorded supplementary audio or video materials; and lastly and currently, (4) fourth-
generation DE via different affordances (e.g., discussion forums, chats, Web-browsing)
made possible by the internet. Many review centers adapt the changes brought by the
pandemic and made necessary adjustments to their review programs such as
implementation of Online review for the students. Online review is a review program that
is made for the students to continue reviewing in their homes by means of internet,
online classrooms, and applications made by review centers to assess the learning
outcome of the students.

There are limited number of resources, literatures, and articles concerning the review
centers and their programs in the Philippines even there are many review centers
established in the country that are regulated and licensed by PRC.

Research Questions

The study aims to find out the effect of online review on the CPALE preparation
of USL accountancy graduates. Specifically, it aims to answer the following:

1. How do USL graduates review for the CPALE online?

2. How does online review affect the USL graduates in terms of?
A. Mastery of subjects
B. Memory retention
C. Time management
 3. Is there a significant association between online review and the CPALE
preparation of USL accountancy graduates?

Hypothesis

There is no significant association between online review and the CPALE

preparation of USL accountancy graduates

Significance of the Study

One reason why there is so much discussion around online learning is that there
are many purported benefits and uses of online learning. One important benefit is, its
effectiveness in educating students (Bartley & Golek, 2004; De la Varre, Keane, & Irvin,
2011; Gratton-Lavoie & Stanley, 2009; Koller & Ng, 2014; Lorenzetti, 2013). The findings
of this study will redound to the benefit of the accountancy programs considering the
need to assess the effectiveness of the transition from a face-to-face review to an online
setup and since there is a national trend on the declining percentage of school
performance in the Certified Public Accountant Licensure Examination (CPALE) even
before this COVID pandemic started, this study could reveal critical areas that should be
considered in conducting online reviews and demonstrations specially to review centers
to further discover effective strategies and techniques in delivering accounting review
courses online. Lastly, it touches on the significance of the study to the researchers’
themselves, how does the transition affect the whole USL CPALE takers, and the
difference it makes on their accountancy journey.

Literature Review

Underpinning Theory

The drastic shift from traditional face-to-face education to distance learning due
to the implementation of community quarantines to decrease COVID-19 cases increased
the dilemma of students as well as graduates who will soon take the board exams. With
the relatively low passing rates in the previous CPA Licensure Examinations and health
issues brought about by the pandemic, BS Accountancy graduates also struggle on how
the use of online learning for their review affects their preparation for the CPALE. In the
paper of Lopez (2019), he discussed the benefits of distance learning used by review
centers as it offers flexibility in terms of time and location. The use of online learning
helps students save their time and have the drive to learn despite having other
responsibilities. He also discussed that distance learning is not just simply converting
offline materials online. It is a mistake of institutions with distance education programs to
believe that they can just make materials always accessible and call it a form of distance
education. Aside from study materials and pre-recorded videos, review centers can
increase student satisfaction by establishing learning plans or schedules for students,
group discussions, giving prompt feedback and making student materials downloadable.
He further stated that it is important to take note of the perceptions of the students
regarding teaching, learning, educational materials, and student support in order to
achieve a successful distance education program. 

Process of Online Review

Online Review: Its Effect on the CPALE preparation of University of St. Louis Graduates | 2
 As the so-called new normal, review centers also transitioned to online learning.
The rise of many online review centers for the accounting profession has been very
rampant. With all the transitions, Majority of University of St. Louis Accountancy
Graduates tend to enroll in Online Review Centers despite the challenges we are facing.
According to study by Dhawan (2020) it shows that online learning modes enable us to
customize our procedures and processes based on the needs of the learners. Review
centers are as much as possible trying to cope up with the sudden change to give quality
knowledge for the preparation of examinees. Despite the coping up of all the review
centers there are still improvements needed to achieve quality review. According to
Flores (2020) recommendations “There are still aspects of the review activities that need
to be improved, like the enhancement program after the evaluation process, building
camaraderie among reviewees and lecturers which could enhance the learning process
of the students in the review.” Hence processes for the online review centers are not yet
fixed. 

Mastery of the Subject 

In online learning perspective, it is the ability to move forward at their own pace
as they master knowledge, skills and disposition. Affecting the cognitive load of the
students, the instructors and course designers who face similar challenges relating to
interaction in online classes. Many times, the individual perceptions of 6 SAGE Open the
students and the teachers are dramatically different, resulting in overall poorly designed
courses that are confusing and dissatisfying for the learners (Bawa, 2016)

Memory Retention 

In online learning perspective, it is the ability to recall information over a period of

time. Online courses have a 10% to 20% higher failed retention rate than traditional
classroom environments (Herbert, 2006). Totally, 40% to 80% of online students drop
out of online classes (B. Smith, 2010). Review of existing literature indicates that online
courses have several social, technological, and motivational issues existing from both
the learners’ and the faculty’s perspectives.

Time Management
In online learning perspective, it is the ability to efficiently manage time in a way
that helps the students to finish the required tasks. Time managing is a massive
distinction between formal and web-based education academically and administratively.
In formal education, there was the sort of learning opportunity that incorporates a
clarification of everything. Because in this system, teachers are in front of students and
they can ask anything without delay or any hesitation. But distance learning students
have no this kind of academic environment as compared to formal learners. Physical
distance exists between student and teacher in online learning. Therefore, it is more
difficult to manage time and gain high scores in distance education. Web-based students
learn and discover online that just incorporates shallow data and the rest is their
business to think about and investigate further (Britton & Tesser, 2001). 

Effect of Online Review on Licensure Examination Preparation

Due to the restrictions imposed by the government to control the spread of

Coronavirus disease in the country, face-to-face classes in educational institutions
Online Review: Its Effect on the CPALE preparation of University of St. Louis Graduates | 3
including review centers were suspended. This resulted in the use of alternative learning
methods like online and blended learning to let students have continuous access to their
lectures and course materials. Review centers made adjustments in their operations and
offered online learning to cater the needs of graduates who will soon take the board
exams. In the study of Flores (2020), the review experiences of the students can be
generalized also as a very relevant component of the student’s preparation for the board
examination. Their attendance to the review classes, the content of the review program,
the delivery of the review lessons, the methods of student performance evaluation, and
the care and assurance to pass the board, are all present in the experience. According
to Hart (2012), although students generally report being satisfied with the online
environment and learning outcomes are similar to those of the traditional classroom,
challenges exist and it still needs improvement and more upgrades.

RESEARCH PARADIGM

The figure shows the relationship of online review, an independent variable and
Student’s preparation for CPALE, a dependent variable in this study. It explains that
online review may have negative or positive effects on students' time management,
memory retention, and mastery of subjects.

Online Review: Its Effect on the CPALE preparation of University of St. Louis Graduates | 4