Quantitative research methods

4.3.1.1 Validation

The questionnaire was initially sent to 10 PhD candidates in the Computer Science department at Warwick University to test the readability of the questions. Moreover, the contents validation was applied in order to confirm if the contents suits the objectives of this Chapter. Contents validation is defined as ―The extent to which the items of a test or procedure are in fact a representative sample of that which is to be measured; e.g., items relating to ability in arithmetic and defining words are appropriate content for an

intelligence test.‖ (Mondofacto, 2000)

After validation some minor modifications and alterations in the writing style and contents related to security were made. Then, the reliability of the questions which use Likert–like scales has been check using SPSS, and the result was 0.77. Data from pilot respondents were not used in the main study.

4.3.1.2 Respondents

. The paper based and online questionnaires were distributed among 200 undergraduate students in UOB. 187 respondents answered the questionnaires. The collected data was analysed using SPSS software to address the main research questions of the study.

4.3.1.3 Questionnaire design

The first section of the questionnaire-1 (See Appendix A) was designed to understand the demographic background of the students, covering gender, age, course studied and experience in using LMSs.

The second section focused on obtaining information about the respondents‘ experience of some of the most familiar OCG tools in the web as discussed above. In addition, the researcher desired to obtain the participants‘ feedback about most desirable features of OCG tools that provide them benefit.

The third section of the questionnaire covered general questions regarding the respondents‘ awareness of security technologies such as authentication and authorization.

The fourth section asked the respondents questions about the type of assessment they prefer and which types of information they think their teachers provide in order to deliver a course efficiently using OCG tools.

4.3.1.4 The scale used in the questionnaire survey

Likert scales 1-5 were used in Section 2 (question 6) to acquire quantitative data and therefore facilitate data analysis of this study. The scale is from 5 (Very effective) to 1 (Completely ineffective). In the scale of 1-5, the median is 3 (defined as neither effective nor ineffective) for the purpose of this study as shown in Table 4.1.

4.3.1.5 Analysis of student questionnaire results

A. Students‘ perception of the efficiency of the OCG tools

Figure 4.1 illustrates the opinion of the respondents regarding the usage of CSCL tools. There are 10 tools in total, including Instant Messaging (IM), social media, forums and email.

A sample of 200 respondents was taken for the survey, each of whom was asked to judge the effectiveness of the tools.

Table 4.1: Likert scales used for question 6

Scale used in the questionnaire

Description

5 Very effective

4 Effective

3 Neither effective nor ineffective

2 ineffective

1 Completely ineffective

IM 11% socmedi 11% forums 7% email 18% Shared whiteboard 6% A/D conf 9% calendering 7% Doc_shar 12% Wikis 7% tele 12%

Out of 187 respondents, the majority (72%) regarded IM, social media and forums as effective, while 49% of the respondents chose IM, social media, document sharing and telephones as very effective. Email was also chosen as a very effective tool by a significant proportion of those surveyed (80%).

Figure 4.1: Students’ perception of the security of the different OCG tools It is notable that:

1- Only 8% of the respondents feel that IM and social media are ineffective, while 18% of the respondents think calendaring is an ineffective tool.

2- Nearly 30% of the respondents have not used most of the tools above.

B. Respondent’s opinions of good authorization of OCG tools

Figure 4.2 illustrates the opinion of the respondents regarding authorization of CSCL tools. In the questionnaire, the respondents were asked to list three different CSCL tools that they think have good authorization. Out of 187 respondents, the majority – at about 20% – thought social media and email have good authorization whereas forums were selected by only 1% of the respondents.

Figure 4.2: Respondent’s opinions of good authorization of OCG tools

Similarly, Skype, shared documents, and passwords were also only picked as having good authorization by a noticeably small number of respondents (5%, 4%, 3% respectively).

C. Respondents’ opinions of the poor authorization of CSCL tools

Figure 4.3 shows the opinion of respondents regarding the poor authorization of CSCL tools. In the questionnaire, the respondents were asked to list three different CSCL tools that they think have a poor authorization.

Figure 4.3: Respondents’ opinions of the poor authorization of CSCL tools

A/D

7% CHAT 2% DOC SHAR

2% EMAIL 4% EMAIL 22% FORUM 1% IM 9% PASSWORD 3% SHARED WHITE 4% SKYPE 5% SOCIAL MEDIA 20% TEL 16% YouTube 5% A/D 1% BLOGS 10% CALENDARING 3% CHAT 3% DOC SHAR 3% EMAIL 3% FORUM 7% IM 2% MYSPACE 3% SKYPE 3% SOCIAL MEDIA 6% TEL 6% WIKIS 19% YU 31%

Out of 187 respondents, the majority – at about 31% – thought YouTube has a poor authorization followed by wikis, which was selected as having poor authorization by 19% of the respondents.

It is shown in the chart that the tools Skype, MySpace, document sharing, and chat each have the same percentage of respondents that regard them as having poor authorization.

C. Security solutions software deployed in respondents’ homes

The questionnaire respondents were asked to choose the security solution that they use at home.

Figure 4.4: Security solutions software deployed in respondents’ homes

There are 5 different security solutions in total, including Firewall (A), Antispyware (B), Security solution in respondent’s homes

Spam filter (C), Antivirus (D), and Other (E). It is clear from Figure 4.4 that the majority (37.2%) of the respondents use antivirus (D), while a few of the respondents stated that they use all of the security solutions in their home.

C. Security technologies familiar with respondents’ environmentThe respondents were asked in the questionnaire to choose the security solutions that were familiar by the respondents. There were four options listed in the questionnaire including: Public/Private key (A), Biometrics (B), Protected Passwords (C) and Other (D).

Figure 4.5: Security technologies familiar with respondents’ environment

As is evident from the chart, the majority 100 (58.9%) of the respondents use passwords (C), while a small number stated that they use public keys (A).

D. Security technologies used by the respondents in their home environment.

Figure 4.6 shows the security technologies that are used by the respondents. Those surveyed were asked to choose the security technology that they used in their home from a choice of Public/Private key (A), Biometrics (B), Protected Passwords (C) and other (D). From the chart it is clear that a significant majority of the respondents 58.5% - chose C as the tool they were familiar with, while only a small minority were familiar with Biometrics (B) as a security technology.

Figure 4.6: Security technologies used by the respondents in their home environment.

The respondents were asked about the types of information a teacher needs to preserve and with what level of access in order to deliver a course efficiently. There are six types including students‘ submitted assignments, shared whiteboard, and messaging history amongst others. For each one the respondents have to choose their preference from the following options:

Security technologies used by the respondents in their home environment.

 Private (A) means that the assignments are kept private and confidential to the administrator (and not available to the teacher).

 Access with permission from the user (B) means data is available to the teacher with the student‘s explicit permission.

 Preserved with permission from the user (C) means that data are available to the teacher but without any editing rights.

 Public (D) means data are visible to the teacher and all the students.

It is notable from Figures 1,2,3,4 (See Appendix G), that 39% of the total prefer their assignment answers to be private where as 9% of the total prefer them to be public. In addition to that, the majority (58%) preferred their grades, collaborative data (chatting between each other), and personal data (including age, course name, names, year of study) to be private.

4.3.2 Qualitative research methods