Are "readiness" questionnaires really useful?

[cbokhove]

After having looked at the first two questionnaire I couldn’t find any more motivation to look at more of them. I actually found them rather poor with:

The suggestion that all items were just as important (although I wouldn’t know, don’t know much about the scoring);
A mix of motivation, hardware etc. and (!!!??) Learning Styles. Say it ain’t so.
Scales and scores that don’t really say much. And how come to this score. WHY am I scoring 45? Are the scales validated?
Sweeping generalizations;
Some were far too long;

No, not for me.

[imogenbertin]

I think really most are checklists…?

[SueFolley]

I agree – mixing in some deal-breaker questions like ‘do you have access to a pc with internet’ with some others where the skill involved would take a few minutes to learn or even could be developed via participation in the course, just does not make sense. I think it is more likely to put people off taking an online course. All these things need to be checked and discussed but to reduce them to a survey is over simplifying things.

[georgeroberts]

These seem dated: relevant to e-learning c. 1999? Not just the content and questions but also the look and feel of the questionnaires. No consideration of social media. But, that said, for the more recent digital arrival, they may help?

The emphasis on deadlines, procrastination-management is such a simplistic, almost moralising one. And possibly not relevant to MOOCs. I am hopeless at time management, because life is too interesting and fun. Somehow managed to squeak out a PhD and a career despite obviously not being cut out for it 😉

[teflteacheruk]

i also wondered about how well students know how they learn and if they would be able to answer all these questions accurately. I got through my undergraduate and two professional qualifications without any conscious awareness of what my learning style was or even that I might have one. Also asking what someone would do in an emergency (i.e. you computer breaking down the day before an assignment is due) does not mean that their answer is what they will actually do.

Maybe the questionnaires are better at getting people to think about whether they are really ready to do the online course and to raise their awareness of the differences and challenges it holds.

[cbokhove]

Exactly. Me too. Although we only provide anecdotal evidence of course 🙂

[MmMouton]

I am of two minds about these questionnaires and have enjoyed reading the comments above as I try to figure our their validity as tools to potentially “weed out” unsuitable learner-types. Firstly, I think the 2 most important things a person needs for an online course (which I teach so you must excuse me as I come from this specific angle) are:
a) experience and comfort with online tools; and
b) self-motivation (and all the wonderful skills related to this).
Georgeroberts above mentions that questions about procrastination etc seem moralising, but from my experience over the last 3 years, students that have struggles with time-management, regardless of their computer skills, cannot succeed in an online course (or at the very least struggle painfully through). Personally I  believe that students signing up for a fully online course should be informed in advance that they MUST have a certain level of self-motivation and time-management skills.

And which students are most likely to take an online survey – the students that can’t manage their time to log in before week four or figure out how to open a hyperlink, or the students that are already exploring the course and have a comfort level with technology? What I am suggesting is that the people most likely to take a survey may indeed be the very types of students that are already suitable for online or technology-enhanced learning, while those who struggle will have skipped the survey altogether or not even know it was there. Regarding the survey that asks about using a mouse – a person who doesn’t know how to use a mouse would not have navigated far enough to even get to this question. It would be great if students had enough self-awareness that they would recognize their suitability for traditional versus distance learning, but I have had numerous students tell me that they have low computer literacy and despite this, still signed up for a fully online course. I don’t understand it, but it happens semester after semester.

Michelle Mouton (Whitby, Canada)

[ScottJohnson]

I believe our college has used these questionnaires on the general student population though it’s unclear what the purpose was. No one has been turned away based on a low score (whatever that means) so my guess is the ministry requires it so we do it. Numbers? Given that management is fond of numbers using different types of fruit to indicate levels of readiness was likely passed over.

We do a lot of academic upgrading and most of it is face to face or blended. As part of the placement process a lot of personal interviews are done and this is one place where any of these questionnaires might be useful but that presumes person to person give-and-take and time spent clarifying responses, which isn’t available to our purely online students. We also have orientations added to explain computer use though it all comes in a single 1 1/2 hour session, and only once. There is also a digital literacy course online for student use–how do students know how to access it? Unknown.

Our students are from small isolated communities, ranches, farms oil extraction and logging work-sites and have limited digital access. We also have a problem with faculty being largely digitally illiterate as are the students’ parents leaving them unassisted by the most common paths to training.
Our situation is common in our area and we do get some help from the local school district. Schools’ programs are up-to-date which creates the odd problem for some of our students who find college less digitally enabled than their high school. Too bad there isn’t more training for everyone available constantly but I think it’s being held back by unfounded assumptions that all kids are computer adept so who needs it?

[James Kerr]

To whom are they most useful?  To the student, to visualize their readiness or provide them information on support options and an unreliable predictor of success?  Or to the instructor, who could potentially gain some insight into the participant audience makeup?  Or to the institution, as a disclaimer, or a source of further data collection?

[ShunaMarr]

I can procrastinate at Olympic level standards at times, but it never stops me always achieving my deadlines; the two are not mutually exclusive. 🙂

[ShunaMarr]

I wasn’t impressed with any of the questionnaires for the reasons other have already outlined in other posts in this topic  – although what they did do was make me reflect on what aspects were involved in taking an online course. So in that respect I agree with James – what is the purpose of these questionnaires?

I did all 4 and I think all of them they asked how much I ‘needed’ to study online because of home or work commitments. I said I didn’t ‘need’ to study online and it brought my score down as being suitable for online learning (I checked by going back and changing my answers to ‘yes it fitted in with my work needs).

Does this measure motivation? If I ‘have’ to study online does that make me more or less likely to succeed? I’m not sure how not being tied to online study made me less of a willing participator. So I think the purpose of giving a ‘score’ is a bit problematic.

Apart from making me reflect on the 4 main aspects of what is involved in online learning  (computer literacy, time management, being an able participator in an online environment and self motivation) I’m not sure what else it did. However, maybe that’s all it was trying to achieve?

[ElizabethECharl]

MmMouton,
Perhaps if this happens every semester it would be worthwhile exploring the possibility of  prefacing the semester with a 1 or 2 weeks “clinics” that would provide the opportunity for those skills to be aquired? Of course that does assume that they will realise that they would benefit from this in the first place and participate.

[RebeccaOGM]

Hi everyone,

I think these questions are very useful to both the student and the teacher/facilitator/school.

We have to remember that everyone has different circumstances and different abilities and a school should provide support for these.  The surveys help establish any potential problems that someone might have studying online and in their own time and learning space.

For the student the surveys help highlight areas where they might need support and also suggest links to places they can go to for support.

I studied by distance while living in Bangkok and would have some times where the internet was very slow and I couldn’t download materials.  I also couldn’t buy some support text books (not online) as the book sellers would not post to Thailand.  The instructor was aware that I might have some issues and was able to find other ways of support.

Surveys like these are incredibly insightful for establishing a starting point and highlighting any potential problems someone might have learning online or by distance.

 

[Jillian Pawlyn]

So may really great comments and insights.

I agree with RebeccaOGM, I think the surveys provide a useful starting point for learners who have yet to engage with distance/on-line learning.

I sub consciously appraised my technology provision and skills before signing up for ocTEL (as someone who has been engaged in the technology for many years perhaps I have already been conditioned to think about my own learning using intrinsic ‘survey questions’).

Geography and local infrastructure is a significant factor for me at the moment.  I am studying ocTEL from New Zealand and my home broadband is sluggish at times,  because of instability I access the recorded webinars rather than the live streams.

You can read my ramblings on my blog.

 

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