Examining university students’ attitudes towards using web-conferencing systems in distance learning courses: A study on scale development and application

• Published in: Knowledge management & e-learning Vol. 12; no. 2; pp. 209 - 230
• Main Authors: Basaran, Bulent, Yalman, Murat, | |
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong - Faculty of Education 01.06.2020; Laboratory of Knowledge Management & E-Learning; Hong Kong Bao Long Accounting & Secretarial Limited
• Subjects: Attitude Measures; Attitudes; College Students; Colleges & universities; Computer conferencing; Computer Mediated Communication; Conferencing systems; Distance Education; Distance learning; Electronic Learning; Expectation; Factor Analysis; Integrated Learning Systems; Interactive systems; Literature reviews; Online Courses; Preferences; Student Attitudes; Student Problems; Students; Synchronous Communication; Teleconferencing; Test Construction; Test Reliability; Undergraduate study; Videoconferencing
• ISSN: 2073-7904; 2073-7904; 2309-5008
• DOI: 10.34105/j.kmel.2020.12.011

The study aimed to develop a scale to assess students’ attitudes towards using interactive web conferencing systems in distance learning courses. An item pool was formed based on a review of the literature and the participants’ written views. A draft scale was developed with 29 items selected from this item pool. It was applied to 1100 undergraduate students in a distance program in theology, who took courses using Adobe Connect as a video conference system, together with Moodle as a learning management system. After removing incomplete or improperly filled questionnaires, a total of 596 participants’ responses were used for factor analysis. The scale was made up of four factors: user expectations on web-conference systems, user preferences for web-conferencing system, user attitudes towards using web-conferencing systems, and user problems experienced while using web-conferencing systems.