Accounting Undergraduates’ Perceptions and Challenges in Using Digital Textbooks: A Conceptual Framework for Financial Accounting Education

The rapid advancement of digital technology has transformed higher education by encouraging the integration of digital learning resources, including digital textbooks, into teaching and learning practices. This concept paper proposes a study to examine accounting undergraduates’ perceptions of digital textbooks and the challenges they encounter when using these resources in financial accounting courses. Although digital textbooks offer various benefits, such as improved accessibility, reduced learning costs, enhanced engagement, and support for self-directed learning, concerns related to usability, digital reading preferences, technological limitations, and content navigation may influence students’ acceptance and learning experiences. Guided by the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this paper develops a proposed conceptual framework consisting of two main constructs: students’ perceptions of digital textbooks, measured through perceived usefulness, ease of use, and accessibility, and students’ difficulties in using digital textbooks. This paper further proposes a quantitative survey-based research methodology involving undergraduate accounting students enrolled in financial accounting courses at UiTM Melaka. Descriptive and inferential analyses, including T-tests and ANOVA, are proposed to examine students’ perceptions and differences across demographic and usage groups. As a concept paper, this study presents the proposed framework and methodology; however, no empirical data have been collected or analysed at this stage.

Accounting Education

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