The author investigated whether students' effort in working on homework problems was affected by their need for cognition, their perception of the system, and their computer efficacy when instructors used an online system to collect accounting homework. Results showed that individual intrinsic motivation and computer efficacy are important factors in determining effort and whether students perceive the system to be useful. These findings are of interest to educators and system designers as they consider implementing online homework systems and determine which types of students benefit most from the use of these systems in classrooms. (Contains 2 tables.)