Our previous study (Soydal, Alır & Ünal, 2011) revealed that among 16 departments of Hacettepe University Faculty of Letters, the Department of Information Management (DIM) was the only one whose academic staff was almost ready for e-learning. We wondered if this is also the case for DIM’s students. The aim of this study is to assess the readiness of 304 students who are currently enrolled in DIM’s undergraduate program.
Our paper addresses the following research questions: • Are the students of DIM ready for e-learning?
• What is the students’ tendency for accepting e-learning?
• Are there any differences among the students regarding their grades and genders in terms of accepting/rejecting e-learning?
• Do students need training for e-learning?
To determine the readiness level, a paper-pen questionnaire will be applied to the 304 DIM students. Participants were asked to report their perceptions on readiness for e-learning. The questionnaire was developed and tested by Akaslan & Law (2011) and based on a conceptual model of the readiness for e-learning which assesses the perceived readiness in three phases; namely, readiness, acceptance and training (see Figure 1). The original questionnaire has 78 items with binary or a five-point Likert scales, along with some free text boxes for the participants to explain their scores or choices (Akaslan & Law, 2011). However, in order to understand the basic similarities and differences in
the perception of DIM’s academic staff and students regarding their e-learning readiness levels, we will use the items that can be answered with the Likert scale only.
Students will report their perceptions on some e-learning related items belonging to the three main factors of e- learning readiness (readiness, acceptance and training) using a five-point Likert-scale where 1 being “strongly disagree” and 5 being “strongly agree”. We will use the mean score of 3.40 as the “expected readiness” level for e- learning (as suggested by Aydın and Taşçı, 2005) and interpret the findings accordingly (Figure 2) (see also Akaslan and Law, 2010, 2011; Soydal, Alır & Ünal, 2011).
Figure 2. E-learning readiness assessment model (Source: Aydın & Taşçı, 2005)
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