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Australian companies typically announce profit figures and dividend payouts at the same time. During the 60's and early 70's, profit and dividend changes were positively correlated, and were associated with significant share price changes, after abstracting from market effects. When profit and dividend reports gave conflicting signals, share prices tended to decline.

In this paper we investigate the effectiveness of an online learning resource for introductory financial accounting students using a suite of online multiple choice questions (MCQ) for summative and formative purposes. We found that the availability and use of an online resource resulted in improved examination performance for those students who actively used the online learning resource. Further, we found a positive relationship between formative MCQ and unit content related to challenging financial accounting concepts. However, better examination performance was also linked to other factors, such as prior academic performance, tutorial participation, and demographics, including gender and attending university as an international student. JEL Classifications: I20; M41.

Accountants have long sought methods by which the concept of risk can be communicated through financial statements. Traditionally, certain financial ratios such as the current ratio and leverage ratios have been used for this purpose. Other information cues such as the variability of accounting earnings and asset size have also been employed as proxies for an entity's riskiness. Research suggests that these accounting numbers have an implicit, if not explicit, impact upon the risk expectations of financial analysts and securities markets (see, for example, Beaver, Kettler and Scholes [1970]; Eskew [1979]; Elgers [1980]; Farrelly, Ferris and Reichenstein [1985]).

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