Developing an attitude scale towards distance learning

ABSTRACT

This study aims to develop an attitude scale towards distance learning and conduct a validity and reliability study for it. The study uses two study groups. The first group comprises 384 university students conducting exploratory factor analysis, and the second comprises 305 students conducting confirmatory factor analysis. The analysis resulted in a 16 item, four-factor structure with factor loading values all between 0.45 and 0.94. This structure makes up for 54.4% of the total variance. The factors were named usefulness, communication, preference for distance learning, and preference for face to face learning. The confirmatory factor analysis results show that this model displays decent coherence. The reliability studies show that internal consistency coefficients are values all between 0.67 and 0.84. It was also discovered that the scale dimensions display no difference with regard to gender. These results show that this scale is a valid and reliable tool.

KEYWORDS:

• Distance learning
• attitude scale
• usefulness
• social presence
• preference for distance learning
• preference for face to face learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.