Assessing E-learning Readiness of Instructors in Turkey

Abstract

As more and more universities worldwide have been offering e-learning environments for their course and program delivery, researches in e-learning subjects are interested to examine whether instructors are ready for the new e-learning environment. E-learning readiness (e-readiness) is a critical component in evaluating the effectiveness of online course delivery at the institutional and the instructor level. E-readiness is already well covered in the literature and several models are suggested. This study aims to measure e-learning readiness of instructors in Turkey. Based on the existing e-learning readiness assessment models in literature, the authors designed e-learning readiness measurement instrument. This research study adopted a survey method to conduct the study of e-learning readiness of instructors in various universities in Turkey. A questionnaire was sent to 144 instructors during January 2014 – March 2014. All items were measured on a five-point Likert scale, with 5 as strongly agree and 1 as strongly disagree. 144 were completed and returned are found valid. Descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Independent-Samples T Test, and multinomial logistic regression will be applied to analyze the data. Data has been collected from 144 instructors across several universities in Turkey using a questionnaire survey instrument. The preliminary findings suggest that although instructors have been using electronic gadgets for their day-to-day activities and have been comfortable in using technology, however, they have a lack of awareness in using various technology tools that can help the instructor improve engagement and learning. Although universities have made investments in e-learning environment of one or the other kinds, however, majority of instructors are still at the initial stage of employing e-learning in their daily teaching and learning activities. The instructors also lack the requisite formal training for e-learning thus affecting their e-readiness. It seems that universities needs to invest more in training instructors on a continuous basis so that instructors are well versed with state-of-art instructional tools to bring pedagogical innovations in their e-learning instructions. The low e-readiness of instructors in Turkey could impact the quality of delivery of online programs.

Keywords

• E-learning,e-learning readiness,e-readiness,instructors,learning style

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