The Online Faculty Development and Assessment System

This article evaluates the role of the Online Faculty Development and Assessment System (OFDAS), created at universities in the Canary Islands, Spain, in staff development. The evaluation indicates that the system helped staff in learning to teach curriculum and teaching capacities. The tasks, online resources and opportunities for discussions provided within the learning environment created for the system helped shape their attitudes towards learning curriculum and teaching capacities and enabled them to share their concerns about students’ classroom learning environment assessment

Development, validation and use of an instrument for assessing business management learning environments in higher education in Australia: the Business Management Education Learning Environment Inventory (BMELEI)

Although there are numerous instruments available for assessing classroom learning environments at the tertiary level, no instrument has been specifically designed and validated for measuring the business management education learning environment (Brennan & Ahmad, 2005). My aims were (1) to design, develop and validate an instrument, the Business Management Education Learning Environment Inventory (BMELEI), for assessing business management students’ perceptions of the psychosocial learning environments of university seminars and tutorials and (2) to relate learning environment to attitudes towards the subject and attitudes towards the case study teaching strategy. This study is distinctive in that it involved both quantitative and qualitative methods. The BMELEI and two attitude scales were administered to 480 final-year undergraduate and postgraduate business studies students in 30 classes at both Curtin University of Technology and Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia. The qualitative component of the study involved semi-structured interviews with 42 randomly-selected participants from the above universities. Factor analysis supported a six-factor structure (Student Cohesiveness, Teacher Support, Involvement, Task Orientation, Cooperation and Equity) with scale alpha reliabilities ranging from 0.78 to 0.90 for the actual form and from 0.80 to 0.92 for the preferred form using the individual as unit of analysis. Students’ attitudes were found to be positively associated with classroom learning environment.Also differences were found between students’ perceptions of the actual and preferred classroom environment, and between male and female students’ perceptions of the actual and preferred classroom environment. Findings suggested that students preferred a more positive and favourable classroom learning environment than they perceived as being actually present

The Development and Validation of the Emporium Model Motivation Scale (EMMS)

The purpose of this research study was to begin the development and validation of a new survey instrument; the Emporium Model Motivation Scale (EMMS). The instrument is designed to be used as part of a more holistic evaluation of non-traditional student-centered mathematics courses or programs redesigned using the Emporium Model (E-Model). EdResearch suggested that the design of the E-Model environment was better suited to help students become more autonomy-natured (Williams, 2016). The present research was rooted in Self-determination Theory (SDT), which asserted that all individuals had a natural desire to strive for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in their social environments (Ryan & Deci, 2000; 2017). The research study consisted of a random sample of n = 463 respondents from both a U.S. community college and 4-year public university. Results of an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) produced four parsimonious factor solutions that showed potential to be valid, highly reliable with (ω ≥ .89) and replicable across other samples or populations. The factors were analyzed using Polychoric correlations, with Unweighted Least Squares (ULS) extraction and Promax rotation. Correlational analysis, MANOVA, ANOVA, and Standard Multiple Regression were performed with accurate and reliable standardized factor score estimates. Overall results revealed statistically significant differences between the two institutions of higher learning across levels of the EMMS factors. Further analyses revealed that age was a statistically significant predictor of the EMMS factors and that older respondents were more autonomous and receptive of the E-Model design for course instruction

An Introduction to the Integrated Community-Engaged Learning and Ethical Reflection Framework (I-CELER)

Cultivating ethical Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics researchers and practitioners requires movement beyond reducing ethical instruction to the rational exploration of moral quandaries via case studies and into the complexity of the ethical issues that students will encounter within their careers. We designed the Integrated Community-Engaged Learning and Ethical Reflection (I-CELER) framework as a means to promote the ethical becoming of future STEM practitioners. This paper provides a synthesis of and rationale for I-CELER for promoting ethical becoming based on scholarly literature from various social science fields, including social anthropology, moral development, and psychology. This paper proceeds in five parts. First, we introduce the state of the art of engineering ethics instruction; argue for the need of a lens that we describe as ethical becoming; and then detail the Specific Aims of the I-CELER approach. Second, we outline the three interrelated components of the project intervention. Third, we detail our convergent mixed methods research design, including its qualitative and quantitative counterparts. Fourth, we provide a brief description of what a course modified to the I-CELER approach might look like. Finally, we close by detailing the potential impact of this study in light of existing ethics education research within STEM

Development and Validation of an Instrument for Assessing Distance Education Learning Environments in Higher Education: The Distance Education Learning Environments Survey (DELES)

Globally, as distance education has become firmly embedded as a part of the higher education landscape, governments and institutions are calling for meaningful research on distance education. This study involved designing, developing and validating a learning environment survey instrument for use in distance education-delivered courses in post-secondary education. Specifically it involved merging two distinctive areas of study: psychosocial learning environments research and distance education research. The unique social structure of asynchronous distance education learning environments requires a unique and economical instrument for measuring the perceptions of distance education course participants. The research followed a three-stage instrument-development process of identifying salient scales, developing survey items, and field testing and analysing data using item analysis and validation procedures. This was followed by an investigation into the associations between the psychosocial learning environment and students enjoyment of distance education. The results yielded a new six-scale, 34-item Web-based learning environment instrument suitable for use in a number of asynchronous post-secondary distance education environments. The new instrument, the Distance Education Learning Environment Survey (DELES) assesses Instructor Support, Student Interaction and Collaboration, Personal Relevance, Authentic Learning, Active Learning, and Student Autonomy. Analyses of data obtained from 680 subjects supported the factorial validity and internal consistency reliability. The results also indicated statistically significant associations between the distance education learning environment and student enjoyment of distance education

Variations in gender and age perceptions of mobile technology enhanced learning in a New Zealand tertiary institution

The major purpose of this study was to investigate students' actual and preferred perceptions of a mobile enhanced learning environment at a tertiary institution in New Zealand and if these variations in perceptions differed based on gender and age. In order for this to be achieved, a new learning environment instrument was developed based on modifying the existing Web-based Learning Environment Instrument (WEBLEI) with scale items being modified to create the Mobile Enhanced Learning Environment Instrument (MOBLEI). A review of the literature examined learning environments and questionnaires on which the theoretical framework for this study was based. The use of mobile technologies in learning environments was provided along with a discussion around gender and age and differences between males and females and generational groups in relation to learning and technology.Students’ perceptions of their learning environment were determined through the use of qualitative and quantitative methods with open-ended questions being included in the MOBLEI, along with follow up focus groups. The MOBLEI was distributed to 141 tertiary business and computing students, and was found to be a valid and reliable tool for application in a tertiary environment in New Zealand. Results from the MOBLEI showed no significant differences between the perceptions of males and females, however younger age groups had a more positive attitude toward the use of technology than did their more mature counterparts. Overall, the study provided an insight into how students perceive a mobile enhanced learning environment, along with practical implications for education practitioners with an aim to provide direction for an ideal mobile enhanced learning environment for education practitioners in the tertiary environment

The reflective learning continuum: reflecting on reflection

The importance of reflection to marketing educators is increasingly recognized. However, there is a lack of empirical research which considers reflection within the context of both the marketing and general business education literature. This paper describes the use of an instrument which can be used to measure four identified levels of a reflection hierarchy: habitual action, understanding, reflection and intensive reflection and two conditions for reflection: instructor to student interaction and student to student interaction. Further we demonstrate the importance of reflective learning in predicting graduates’ perception of program quality. Although the focus was on assessment of MBA level curricula, the findings have great importance to marketing education and educators

OLES: An instrument for refining the design of e-learning environments

Designing and implementing effective e-learning is a complex process, which involves many factors. Lecturers need to constantly consider, evaluate and adjust these factors to provide effective e-learning environments for students. In this paper, we report on the design and development of the Online Learning Environment Survey (OLES), an instrument which can be used to gather and represent data on students' ‘actual’ (experienced) and ‘preferred’ (ideal) learning environments. We describe the use of this instrument in blended learning environments with university classes, illustrating how OLES can be used by educators striving for good practice in the design of effective online learning environments

An Empirical Study Comparing the Learning Environments of Open and Closed Computer Laboratories

In Computer Science and Information Systems courses, where the computer is an integral part of the course, there are two main ways in which the practical component of the course, the computer laboratory class, may be organized. They may be closed laboratories which are scheduled and staffed in the same way as other classes, or open laboratories where the students come and go as they please. In universities in the United States, the open laboratory is more common, whereas in Australia, it is the closed laboratory that provides the practical experience for students. This study investigates differences between students’ perceptions of some aspects of the learning environment of open and closed computer laboratories, and also investigates differences in student outcomes from courses that adopt these two approaches to organizing computer laboratory classes. The use of closed laboratories requires more resources in terms of physical space and equipment and greater commitment on the part of the faculty. This study investigates whether the extra resources and commitment lead to an improvement in student outcomes. In the study, two previously developed instruments, the Computer Laboratory Environment Inventory (CLEI) and the Attitude towards Computing and Computing Courses Questionnaire (ACCC) were used. The CLEI has five scales for measuring students’ perceptions of aspects of their laboratory environment. These are Student Cohesiveness, Open-Endedness, Integration, Technology Adequacy and Laboratory Availability. The ACCC has four scales, Anxiety, Enjoyment, Usefulness of Computers and Usefulness of the Course. Of the environment variables, significant differences in the means were found for Open- Endedness, Technology Adequacy and Laboratory Availability. There was also a difference for Anxiety. There was no significant difference in achievement by students on the courses

An evaluation of student perceptions of learning environments across fully on-line versus blended course delivery formats.

The primary focus of this evaluation study was to describe students\u27 perceptions of their course experiences within two distinct groups of students who participated in either a fully online or a hybrid/blended version of an introductory course. The groups differed in course format (hybrid versus online group) and measures used included primarily the seven scale scores on the Distance Education Learning Environments Survey (DELES) (Walker & Fraser, 2005). Additionally students were asked to respond to one open-ended question designed to assess perceptions of the course delivery format specifically. Although findings must be interpreted with great caution, due primarily to low response rates, a sample limited to one community college, and a focus on perceptions alone rather than broader outcomes, the evaluation study leads to a number of preliminary conclusions. First, it appears that one key outcome from the survey is that students desire that instructors provide constant and prompt feedback to students whether it be negative or positive communication. Second, being able to apply the course content to workplace or life situations was seen as valuable to the students in the online section more so than those in the hybrid section. Third, while there was some negativity from the students enrolled in the online section, overall the comments in the open-ended questions portrayed the instructor in a positive light. Suggestions for further research on this topic include accessing broader and more diverse and representative samples of student participants, working to ensure higher response rates, and gaining measures of actual course impacts on learning or other performance outcomes, rather than relying on perceptions alone