An Instrument for Assessing the Learning Environment of a Computer Laboratory

Abstract

Computers have been used in higher education for over thirty years both as a subject of study and as a tool to assist in the learning process within other disciplines. In that time, computer laboratory classes have played a major role in the teaching of computing subjects. Despite the perceived importance of laboratory classes little research has been done on computer laboratory environments and their effect upon learning. This article describes two instruments. One was designed to assess students' perceptions of various aspects of their computer laboratory environments and the other to measure attitudes toward computers and computing courses. These instruments were used to determine associations between laboratory environment and student attitudes.

Instructor-Student Interpersonal Interaction and Student Outcomes at the University Level in Indonesia~!2009-08-15~!2009-01-08~!2010-03-09~!

“…In the field of medicine, the Medical Educational Environment Measure (MEEM) [35] was developed for use in a Thai nursing school and the Teaching and Learning Environment Questionnaire (TLEQ) [36] was developed for use with American university medical students. To examine university students' perceptions of their computer laboratories, Newby and Fisher [37] adapted the Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI). In a study of mathematics courses at five universities in Australia, a learning environment instrument was developed, based on factors implicated in decision making about pursuing mathematics at the university level, and validated using a sample of 1883 students attending university mathematics courses [38,39].…”

Development, validation and use of the Online Learning Environment Survey

“…Learning environment research has provided a useful focus in evaluations of educational innovations (Fisher, Aldridge, Fraser & Wood, 2001;Fraser & Maor, 2000;Maor & Fraser, 1996;Newby & Fisher, 1997;Teh & Fraser, 1995;Zandvliet, 2003) and more recently web based learning (Jegede, Fraser & Fisher, 1995;Taylor & Maor, 2000;Walker, 2002). Past research has found links between classroom environments and student outcomes (Fraser, 1994(Fraser, , 1998aGoh, Young & Fraser, 1995).…”

Development and use of an instrument to measure students’ perceptions of a business statistics learning environment in higher education

“…Instruments have been developed for measuring different aspects of attitude in several disciplines and settings such as mathematics (Hannula 2002), science (Fraser 1978) and computer usage (Newby and Fisher 1997). Ramirez et al (2012) review a number of instruments for measuring students' attitudes towards statistics, and these cover those having a single construct, such as Self-Efficacy to Learn Statistics instrument (Finney and Schraw 2003), to six-construct instruments such as the Statistical Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS) (Cruise et al 1985) and the Survey of Attitudes Towards Statistics-36 (Schau 2003).…”

“…Given the nature of the class, the following five constructs were selected as being appropriate for the instrument: Student Cohesiveness, Integration, Technology Adequacy, Involvement and Task Orientation. The first three were adapted from the Computer Laboratory Environment Inventory (CLEI) (Newby and Fisher 1997) and the latter two from the WIHIC (Fraser et al 1996). Student Cohesiveness was chosen as a construct because it had been observed that students in such classes collaborate with each other, Integration was included because the exercises were designed to be based on material covered in the lectures, Technology Adequacy was selected because the exercises were computer based and appropriate hardware and software were necessary, Task Orientation was appropriate because the laboratory exercises are structured and students need to know what they are required to do and, finally, Involvement was chosen because students need to do the exercises in order to gain proficiency in applying statistical techniques to business problems.…”

“…The Attitude towards Business Statistics (ABS) instrument consists of four constructs: Anxiety, Enjoyment, Perceived Usefulness of the Course and Perceived Usefulness of Statistics. These constructs were adapted from the Attitude towards Computing and Computing Courses (ACCC) instrument (Newby and Fisher 1997) and the Statistical Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS) (Cruise et al 1985). Again, each construct has five items …”