Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 180 countries had to close their educational institutions as a precautionary measure [Azevedo, J. P., Hasan, A., Goldemberg, D., Geven, K., & Iqbal, S. A. (2021). Simulating the potential impacts of COVID-19 school closures on schooling and learning outcomes: A set of global estimates. The World Bank Research Observer, 36(1), 1-40]. Online educational provision thus became the only option for universities to continue with their degree programmes. Thus, the aim of this research is to examine student performance in introductory and advanced accounting courses following the shift to online provision due to the COVID-19 lockdown in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Based on 1946 exam score observations, the results reveal that student scores improved after shifting to online provision in both qualitative or less quantitative courses. However, in the quantitative courses, student scores fell after shifting to online provision. In addition, the results show that female students outperform male students not only in the online mode but also in the traditional mode of education. The findings of this study highlight the importance of the nature of accounting courses, in terms of being quantitative or not, in assessing the effectiveness of online accounting education provision.