A Mixed Methods Analysis of the Effect of Online Course Completion on Online Technology Use Self-Efficacy

• In Event: AI, Assessment, and Algorithmic Mediation of Learning

Proposal

In this mixed methods investigation, 153 students in a cohort-based paced online Doctor of Education (Ed.D) program at IQU (pseudonym), a top ranked global research university, took part in the quantitative study. They rated their online learning self-efficacy on a preexisting Online Learning Self-Efficacy Scale (OLSES). Descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were computed on the data using SPSS (v.28) software. Data analysis compared the mean rank for online self-efficacy scores for participants who had completed an online course and the mean rank for participants who had not completed any online course. Results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the mean ranks for these two groups of participants, U (nonline course = 67, nnone = 13) = 364.00, Z = -0.947, p = 0.344, r = 0.106. A qualitative study was conducted to explain the observed statistical insignificance between the variables, by utilizing in-depth focus group interviews with a total of 29 participants from the Ed.D program. Emergent coding was used to analyze the qualitative data and generated four main themes that constituted factors that partly influenced online technology use self-efficacy. These themes included personal characteristics of self-efficacy, community support, technology successes and setbacks, and learning outcomes.

Author

• John Oirya, Johns Hopkins University, School of Education