Methods - Student Survey
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Designing the student survey
The student survey belongs to the first stage of the research. The factors identified by Collis and Moonen (2004) influencing the uptake and sustainability of software will serve to provide an overarching framework for the survey questionnaire items and included:
- Delivery and usage dimensions in relation to access, usability, usage patterns and preferences
- Effectiveness in relation to the type and quality of experiences offered by teachers and encountered by students
- The ability of the technology to engage students in the learning process; the nature of those engagements and the strengths and weaknesses of the technology in relation to the traditional lecturing experience
- The impact of the technology on the learning environment - the nature of the curriculum, communication and collaboration with fellow students and staff, and the development of learning communities.
The process of developing the student survey involved collaboration from all 4 participating Universities. Inputs were sought for the construction of the survey from previous research on the use of iLecture and similar technologies (Fardon, 2003; McElroy & Blount, 2006), the findings from evaluation surveys conducted at the four participating universities and the experiences of staff and students.
Once an initial draft was produced, feedback was collected from interested academics at each University and focus groups were conducted at Macquarie and Murdoch. A cohort of Macquarie students (n=128) contributed feedback on the items for use in the survey. Refinements were incorporated and a pilot of the survey was conduced with a cohort of Macquarie students (n= 30 students.)
The student survey collected data on four specific areas:
- their experience of WBLT in the context of a specific subject;
- their strategies and motivation for learning using the Study Process Questionnaire (Biggs, 2001);
- their overall experience of WBLT in the university including their perceptions about impact on relations with peers, grades or ease of learning; and
- general demographic information.
The survey was delivered online using SurveyMaker.
Participants
Students from units/courses at all four universities making use of web-based lecture technologies were invited to participate. Stratified sampling was used to identify a range of courses /units making and included representation from:
- disciplines
- class sizes (less than 50 students, 50-200 and more than 200 students)
- enrolment mode (distance and internal students)
- level (undergraduate and postgraduate)
The table below indicates the total number of students invited to participate and total number of respondents from each University.
University |
Total No of Invited Participants |
Total No of Respondents* |
Flinders |
2943 |
350 |
Macquarie |
3343 |
124 |
Murdoch |
2757 |
235 |
Newcastle |
4235 |
106 |
TOTAL |
13278 |
815 |
(* excluding corrupted records)
In total, invitations were emailed to 13,278 students who enrolled in units making use of WBLT from across the four universities. The units surveyed included both users and non-users. At the time of the survey we were unable to distinguish between these two groups. As a result, the response rate cannot be determined as the total number of WBLT users is unknown. Nonetheless, a sample size of 815 students was obtained which allow statistically valid conclusions to be drawn.
Analysis
The statistical package SPSS was used to undertake analysis of the quantitative data and the general descriptive data was supplemented by selective correlational analysis to further explore the data set. Factorial analysis, analysis of variance and regression analysis were used to further explore the relationships between the independent and dependent variables. A significance level of p> .005 was used for correlations throughout the study.
The Software package NVivo was used to analyse the qualitative data, with the data being classified and line coded in relation to emerging themes.
References
Biggs, J., Kember, D., & Leung, D. Y. P. (2001). The revised two-factor Study Process Questionnaire: R-SPQ-2F. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 71, 133-149.
Collis and Moonen (2004) Flexible Learning in a Digital World, 2nd ed. Routledge and Falmer, London.
Fardon, M., Ludewig, A. (2000). iLectures: A Catalyst for Teaching and Learning? Paper presented at the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Teriary Education (ASCILITE) Conference, Coffs Harbour, Australia.
McElroy, J., & Blount, Y. (2006). You, me and iLecture. Paper presented at the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE) Conference, Sydney, Australia.
The Project | Methodology | Student Survey | Staff Survey | Vignette | Case Study | People | Progress
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