Distance Education Learning Environments Survey

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The Distance Education Learning Environments Survey (DELES) is a psychosocial learning environment survey designed specifically to measure college and university distance education learning environments. The DELES was developed in 2003. [1]

Contents

The DELES was designed to measure students' perceptions of their distance education social environment through six scales:

  1. Instructor Support (Scale I, consisting of 8 items), (e.g. The instructor responds promptly to my questions).
  2. Student Interaction and Collaboration (Scale II, consisting of 6 items), (e.g. I collaborate with other students in the class).
  3. Personal Relevance (Scale III, consisting of 7 items), (e.g. I can relate what I learn to my life outside of university).
  4. Authentic Learning (Scale IV, consisting of 5 items), (e.g. I work on assignments that deal with real-world information).
  5. Active Learning (Scale V, consisting of 3 items), (e.g. I explore my own strategies for learning).
  6. Student Autonomy (Scale VI, consisting of 5 items), (e.g. I play an important role in my learning.

An additional eight-item scale of student affect (psychology), designated the Enjoyment scale, was included in the original DELES. An example item in this seventh scale reads, "I enjoy studying by distance education."

The 42 DELES items have response value options of: Never, Seldom, Sometimes, Often, and Always.

The DELES focuses on students' perceptions of the learning environment to the exclusion of technical factors such as Internet connectivity or learning platform as found in other distance education learning environment instruments. [2]

Applications of the DELES

The DELES has been utilized in the United States to compare social work students' perceptions of their learning environments in a face-to-face class, a blended learning (hybrid) class, and an asynchronous learning distance education version of the same class. [3] It has also been translated into Chinese and used to identify motivation of Taiwanese adult distance education learners. [4] The DELES has been translated into Arabic and used to determine undergraduate students' perceptions of blended learning in the Arab Open University-Bahrain Branch. [5] The DELES has also been translated into Turkish and used to study Turkish online learning environments—this version is referred to as the Turkish DELES (TR-DELES). [2] A Spanish version, referred to as the Spanish DELES (Sp-DELES), has been validated and utilized with Spanish students. [6] A Portuguese version of the DELES was developed and administered in 2009.

Significance of the DELES

The DELES is significant in the realm of post-secondary distance education because it was the first instrument available to seek associations between the psychosocial learning environment and student satisfaction with their distance education class. [1]

By statistically measuring associations between the six DELES scales and the scale of "Enjoyment", researchers have been able to determine that Personal Relevance is the strongest positive and statistically significant contributor to student satisfaction in distance education in one setting. [7] The Turkish DELES (TR-DELES) researchers discovered that, with their population, student satisfaction was more closely aligned statistically with Instructor Support. [2] Conversely, the Spanish determined, with the Spanish DELES (Sp-DELES), that Active Learning and Autonomy are most influential on distance education student satisfaction. [6] With the Portuguese version of the DELES it was determined that Student Interaction and Collaboration was most closely aligned with student satisfaction in Education courses. [8]

The DELES has consistently held up well in terms of validity and reliability in 27 independent studies, including studies where the DELES has been translated into Mandarin, Turkish, Arabic and Spanish. It has been modified for use in Malaysia and Palestine. [6]

Forms

In addition to aiding researchers in associating psychosocial aspects with student satisfaction, the DELES has three forms. [9] The same scales are used and the items are parallel; however, the wording is slightly different:

Results can be studied in various ways to gain an in-depth picture of the psychosocial nature of a given distance education learning environment. For instance, the instructor's perspective can be compared to those of the students to see how closely they are aligned or not aligned. Or, the Preferred form can be administered as a pre-test and the Actual form as a post-test and the results analysed for differences and changes.

Related Research Articles

Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually involved correspondence courses wherein the student corresponded with the school via mail. Distance education is a technology-mediated modality and has evolved with the evolution of technologies such as video conferencing, TV, and the Internet. Today, it usually involves online education and the learning is usually mediated by some form of technology. A distance learning program can either be completely a remote learning, or a combination of both online learning and traditional offline classroom instruction. Other modalities include distance learning with complementary virtual environment or teaching in virtual environment (e-learning).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Active learning</span> Educational technique

Active learning is "a method of learning in which students are actively or experientially involved in the learning process and where there are different levels of active learning, depending on student involvement." Bonwell & Eison (1991) states that "students participate [in active learning] when they are doing something besides passively listening." According to Hanson and Moser (2003) using active teaching techniques in the classroom can create better academic outcomes for students. Scheyvens, Griffin, Jocoy, Liu, & Bradford (2008) further noted that “by utilizing learning strategies that can include small-group work, role-play and simulations, data collection and analysis, active learning is purported to increase student interest and motivation and to build students ‘critical thinking, problem-solving and social skills”. In a report from the Association for the Study of Higher Education, authors discuss a variety of methodologies for promoting active learning. They cite literature that indicates students must do more than just listen in order to learn. They must read, write, discuss, and be engaged in solving problems. This process relates to the three learning domains referred to as knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSA). This taxonomy of learning behaviors can be thought of as "the goals of the learning process." In particular, students must engage in such higher-order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Blended learning or hybrid learning, also known as technology-mediated instruction, web-enhanced instruction, or mixed-mode instruction, is an approach to education that combines online educational materials and opportunities for interaction online with physical place-based classroom methods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Credibility</span> Believability of a source or message

Credibility comprises the objective and subjective components of the believability of a source or message. Credibility dates back to Aristotle theory of Rhetoric. Aristotle defines rhetoric as the ability to see what is possibly persuasive in every situation. He divided the means of persuasion into three categories, namely Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, which he believed have the capacity to influence the receiver of a message. According to Aristotle, the term "Ethos" deals with the character of the speaker. The intent of the speaker is to appear credible. In fact, the speaker's ethos is a rhetorical strategy employed by an orator whose purpose is to "inspire trust in his audience." Credibility has two key components: trustworthiness and expertise, which both have objective and subjective components. Trustworthiness is based more on subjective factors, but can include objective measurements such as established reliability. Expertise can be similarly subjectively perceived, but also includes relatively objective characteristics of the source or message. Secondary components of credibility include source dynamism (charisma) and physical attractiveness.

Asynchronous learning is a general term used to describe forms of education, instruction, and learning that do not occur in the same place or at the same time. It uses resources that facilitate information sharing outside the constraints of time and place among a network of people. In many instances, well-constructed asynchronous learning is based on constructivist theory, a student-centered approach that emphasizes the importance of peer-to-peer interactions. This approach combines self-study with asynchronous interactions to promote learning, and it can be used to facilitate learning in traditional on-campus education, distance education, and continuing education. This combined network of learners and the electronic network in which they communicate are referred to as an asynchronous learning network.

A learning management system (LMS) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, automation, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, materials or learning and development programs. The learning management system concept emerged directly from e-Learning. Learning management systems make up the largest segment of the learning system market. The first introduction of the LMS was in the late 1990s. Learning management systems have faced a massive growth in usage due to the emphasis on remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Online school</span> School that teaches students entirely or primarily online or through the Internet

An online school teaches students entirely or primarily online or through the Internet. It has been defined as "education that uses one or more technologies to deliver instruction to students who are separated from the instructor and to support regular and substantive interaction between the students. Online education exists all around the world and is used for all levels of education. This type of learning enables the individuals to earn transferable credits, take recognized examinations, and advance to the next level of education over the Internet.

Transactional distance theory was developed in the 1970s by Dr. Michael G. Moore, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Education at the Pennsylvania State University. It is the first pedagogical theory specifically derived from analysis of teaching and learning conducted through technology as opposed to the many theories developed in the classroom. It is considered by some to be one of the few, if not the only, theory in distance education that can be used to test hypotheses. It can be used to frame experiments in tutoring or other learner support activities to assess what change there is in the outcomes of student learning, often judged by student completion. Like any theory, the transactional distance model serves as a heuristic device, a means of identifying questions for research and also a very practical instrument to be used in making these difficult instructional design decisions.

Educational technology is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refers to the industry of companies that create educational technology.

SERVQUAL is a multi-dimensional research instrument designed to capture consumer expectations and perceptions of a service along five dimensions that are believed to represent service quality. SERVQUAL is built on the expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm, which, in simple terms, means that service quality is understood as the extent to which consumers' pre-consumption expectations of quality are confirmed or disconfirmed by their actual perceptions of the service experience. When the SERVQUAL questionnaire was first published in 1985 by a team of academic researchers, A. Parasuraman, Valarie Zeithaml and Leonard L. Berry to measure quality in the service sector, it represented a breakthrough in the measurement methods used for service quality research. The diagnostic value of the instrument is supported by the model of service quality which forms the conceptual framework for the development of the scale. The instrument has been widely applied in a variety of contexts and cultural settings and found to be relatively robust. It has become the dominant measurement scale in the area of service quality. In spite of the long-standing interest in SERVQUAL and its myriad of context-specific applications, it has attracted some criticism from researchers.

In the history of virtual learning environments, the 1990s was a time of growth, primarily due to the advent of the affordable computer and of the Internet.

Social presence theory explores how the "sense of being with another" is influenced by digital interfaces in human-computer interactions. Developed from the foundations of interpersonal communication and symbolic interactionism, social presence theory was first formally introduced by John Short, Ederyn Williams, and Bruce Christie in The Social Psychology of Telecommunications. Research on social presence theory has recently developed to examine the efficacy of telecommunications media, including SNS communications. The theory notes that computer-based communication is lower in social presence than face-to-face communication, but different computer-based communications can affect the levels of social presence between communicators and receivers.

Design Focused Evaluation (DFE) is an approach to the evaluation of educational quality.

The Questionnaire For User Interaction Satisfaction (QUIS) is a tool developed to assess users' subjective satisfaction with specific aspects of the human-computer interface. It was developed in 1987 by a multi-disciplinary team of researchers at the University of Maryland Human – Computer Interaction Lab. The QUIS is currently at Version 7.0 with demographic questionnaire, a measure of overall system satisfaction along 6 scales, and measures of 9 specific interface factors. These 9 factors are: screen factors, terminology and system feedback, learning factors, system capabilities, technical manuals, on-line tutorials, multimedia, teleconferencing, and software installation. Currently available in: German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

A virtual learning environment (VLE) in educational technology is a web-based platform for the digital aspects of courses of study, usually within educational institutions. They present resources, activities, and interactions within a course structure and provide for the different stages of assessment. VLEs also usually report on participation and have some level of integration with other institutional systems. In North America, VLEs are often referred to as Learning Management Systems (LMS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flipped classroom</span> Instructional strategy and a type of blended learning

A flipped classroom is an instructional strategy and a type of blended learning, which aims to increase student engagement and learning by having pupils complete readings at home and work on live problem-solving during class time. This pedagogical style moves activities, including those that may have traditionally been considered homework, into the classroom. With a flipped classroom, students watch online lectures, collaborate in online discussions, or carry out research at home, while actively engaging concepts in the classroom, with a mentor's guidance.

Classroom Climate is the classroom environment, the social climate, the emotional and the physical aspects of the classroom. It's the idea that teachers influence student growth and behavior. The student's behavior affects peer interaction—the responsibility of influencing these behaviors is placed with the Instructor. The way the instructor organizes the classroom should lead to a positive environment rather than a destructive and/or an environment that is not conducive to learning. Dr. Karen L. Bierman, the Director of the PennState Child Study Center and Professor of Psychology, believed that a teacher needs to be "invisible hand" in the classroom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Online learning in higher education</span> Development in distance education that began in the mid-1980s

Online learning involves courses offered by primary institutions that are 100% virtual. Online learning, or virtual classes offered over the internet, is contrasted with traditional courses taken in a brick-and-mortar school building. It is a development in distance education that expanded in the 1990s with the spread of the commercial Internet and the World Wide Web. The learner experience is typically asynchronous but may also incorporate synchronous elements. The vast majority of institutions utilize a learning management system for the administration of online courses. As theories of distance education evolve, digital technologies to support learning and pedagogy continue to transform as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">School belonging</span> Term

The most commonly used definition of school belonging comes from a 1993 academic article by researchers Carol Goodenow and Kathleen Grady, who describe school belonging as "the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school social environment." The construct of school belonging involves feeling connected with and attached to one's school. It also encompasses involvement and affiliation with one's school community. Conversely, students who do not feel a strong sense of belonging within their school environment are frequently described as being alienated or disaffected. There are a number of terms within educational research that are used interchangeably with school belonging, including school connectedness, school attachment, and school engagement.

Laura Mary O'Dwyer is a professor of Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics at Boston College known for her work on examining the impact of technology in education, especially science education, and for quantifying outcomes for K-12 student success.

References

  1. 1 2 Walker, S. L. (2003). Development and Validation of an Instrument for Assessing Distance Education Learning Environments in Higher Education: The Distance Education Learning Environments Survey (DELES) (ScEdD thesis). Curtin University of Technology. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Ozkok, A; Walker, S. L.; Buyukozturk, S. (2009). "Reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the DELES". Learning Environments Research. 12 (3): 175–190. doi:10.1007/s10984-009-9060-0. S2CID   143913225.
  3. ↑ Biggs, M. J. B. (2006). "Comparison of student perceptions of classroom instruction: Traditional, hybrid, and distance education". Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education. 7 (2): 46–51.
  4. ↑ Liang, J-S. (2006). Motivations for older adults' participation in distance education: A study at the National Open University of Taiwan (Doctoral dissertation). Pennsylvania State University.
  5. ↑ Shehab, S. A. J. (2007). Undergraduate Learners' Perceptions of Blended Learning and its Relationship with Some Demographic and Experiential Variables at the Arab Open University-Bahrain Branch (Master's thesis). United Arab Emirates University. S2CID   54106788. ERIC   ED500044.
  6. 1 2 3 Ferrer-Cascales, R; Walker, S. L.; Reig-Ferrer, A.; Fernandez-Pascual, M. D.; Albaladejo-Blazquez, N. (2011). "Evaluation of hybrid and distance education learning environments in Spain". Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. 27 (7): 1100–1110. doi: 10.14742/ajet.906 . hdl: 10045/25010 .
  7. ↑ Walker, S. L.; Fraser, B. J. (2005). "Development and validation of an instrument for assessing distance education learning environments in higher education: The Distance Education Learning Environments Survey (DELES)". Learning Environments Research. 8 (3): 289–308. doi:10.1007/s10984-005-1568-3. hdl: 20.500.11937/1303 . S2CID   144953022.
  8. ↑ Pereira, A.; Gomes, R. M.; Abrantes, N. (2010). "Psychosocial e-learning environment in Portuguese higher education by DELES". In Pedrosa-de-Jesus, M. H.; Evans, C.; Charlesworth, Z.; Cools, E. (eds.). ELSIN XV: Exploring Styles to Enhance Learning and Teaching in Diverse Contexts. 15th Annual Conference of the European Learning Styles Information Network. University of Aveiro. pp. 363–367. ISBN   978-972-789-312-6.
  9. ↑ Walker, S. L. (2005). "Development of the distance education learning environments survey (DELES) for higher education". Texas Journal of Distance Learning. 2 (1): 1–16.
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