Abstract

This study aimed at building a reliable and valid scale for environmental factors related to student persistence in online courses, particularly relevant for adults or lifelong learners. Drawing on the social integration and external attribution scales and subscales of Kember et al. as a starting point, data collected in Canadian universities were randomly split into two samples. The first sample (n₁ = 385) was used to explore the data set through principal component and reliability analyses. These confirmed a two-factor environmental scale composed of encouragements (factor 1) and time-events items (factor 2), as well as a two-factor persistence scale that included potential dropout (factor 3) and cost-benefit items (factor 4). All factors showed a very good internal consistency. The second sample (n₂ = 381) was used to confirm the structural validity of environmental and persistence scales through confirmatory factor analyses and to compare this new structure to the subscales of Kember et al. While the latter resulted in an insufficient model fit, the new environmental and persistence scales yielded a very good model fit with strong goodness-of-fit indices and statistics. These results confirmed the structural validity of the new scales, which can be trusted for use in further empirical studies related to online student persistence. The new scales can also be used by practitioners to detect at-risk students early in a semester, allowing to offer them specific individual support to foster student persistence in online courses.

摘要

本研究旨在为与学生坚持在线课程相关的环境因素建立一个可靠和有效的量表，特别是与成人或终身学习者相关。借鉴 Kember 等人的社会整合和外部归因量表和子量表。作为起点，在加拿大大学收集的数据被随机分成两个样本。第一个样本 ( n ₁= 385）用于通过主成分和可靠性分析来探索数据集。这些确认了由鼓励（因素 1）和时间事件项（因素 2）组成的双因素环境量表，以及包括潜在辍学（因素 3）和成本效益项目（因素 4）的双因素持久性量表）。所有因素都表现出非常好的内部一致性。第二个样本 ( n ₂= 381）用于通过验证性因素分析确认环境和持久性量表的结构有效性，并将这种新结构与 Kember 等人的子量表进行比较。虽然后者导致模型拟合不足，但新的环境和持久性尺度产生了非常好的模型拟合，具有很强的拟合优度指数和统计数据。这些结果证实了新量表的结构有效性，可以信赖用于与在线学生持久性相关的进一步实证研究。从业者还可以使用新的量表在学期早期发现有风险的学生，从而为他们提供特定的个人支持，以培养学生对在线课程的坚持。