Abstract

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted students’ learning and collaboration capabilities across various levels. In early 2020, the transition from traditional classroom settings to online or remote learning was initiated, eventually becoming the norm in the teaching and learning communities. Hartnett (2016) highlights three key factors that determine the success of online learning: students’ ability to exercise agency in their learning, establish effective multimodal communications, and engage actively with digital resources to develop conceptual and epistemic understanding. Adapting to technology-based online learning presents students with unique challenges compared to traditional face-to-face instruction. The pandemic compelled educational institutions to enhance their infrastructure, enhance teachers’ pedagogical knowledge, and expand students’ learning repertoire. Despite the difficulties, student motivation remains a crucial aspect affecting their academic performance and the overall learning process, particularly when they spend extended hours in front of screens. To investigate the factors influencing accounting students’ motivation within and beyond the virtual classroom, this study employs both synchronous and asynchronous teaching pedagogies. A mixed-methods approach combining qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis is utilized, with a sample size of 80 randomly selected students from different public sector universities in the Sultanate of Oman. The research findings hold the potential to enhance course management in the accounting field and influence pedagogical practices employed by higher education accounting instructors. Notably, while previous studies have primarily focused on English language and business students, this research addresses a research gap by examining the motivational factors specific to accounting students