As higher education has experienced a steady increase in online course offerings, accounting education has offered more courses in the online setting, however, its effectiveness has less been examined. The accounting industry has emphasized the necessity of accounting graduates to have effective communication and collaboration skills (i.e., soft skills). Yet, current accounting education tends to focus less on developing those soft skills, and less empirical research has delved into how collaborative learning in online accounting courses has been perceived by students and instructors. This dissertation study consists of two studies. The first study examined student perception of collaboration in the online accounting classroom through student interviews. The results of the student interviews informed the second study to examine further on accounting faculty perception of online teaching in ways to enhance students' soft skills. Taking Community of Inquiry (CoI) and Teaching Efficacy as frameworks, the second study investigated faculty perception of teaching soft skills and online teaching self-efficacy through an online survey (n=170). Background information of faculty (e.g., academic rank, online teaching experiences, participation in a professional development course and more) were used as potential variables that may affect faculty perceptions and online teaching efficacy. From the statistical analyses, we found faculty's academic rank, years of experience teaching online, format of most classes taught, and experience in preparatory course/seminar in online teaching affect online teaching efficacy. Format of most classes taught affects perceptions of CoI. Furthermore, we observed a positive correlation between the variables of online teaching efficacy and variables of community of inquiry. Based on the findings from two studies, future research directions and implications for online accounting education practices are discussed. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]