I have to say, I found the two questionnaires I completed quite interesting. I did the Penn State and San Diego questionnaires, and while they are visually very different, they have a lot of similarities. However, their style of questioning is sometimes quite different…
Penn State utilises a kind of Likert Scale type system, with questions that made me think quite a lot about where I would rank myself in the scale. The questions are pretty obvious at what they are getting at, what kind of point they are trying to make, but because of the scale, you can get an idea pretty quickly how ready you are without seeing the analysis of your scoring. Some of the results come up as obvious, but others prompt further contemplation about whether the style suits you.
San Diego’s questions feel much more limited, forcing you to select one of 3 statements for each readiness question. Early questions almost seem set on debunking myths about online courses: the question about how much time you’d be prepared to dedicate to the course suggests that you would only want to use minimal time because online courses are easier! Think that’s definitely boxing potential participants into specific categories! Maybe they’ve had problems with people thinking the courses are easier that way before?!
The clear similarities could be grouped into time management skills, commitment levels, and IT competence. I found it interesting that so much of the questionnaires were dedicated to evaluating IT competence. Initially I wondered why anyone would sign up for an online course if they don’t have some level of IT literacy, but then personal life may limit or restrict students enough to force them to look only at online options, and that doesn’t necessarily equate to competence in IT… The questions made me think quite a lot about just how much I would expect of my students before they even start studying, and the thought that some of them may not have IT facilities at home, or need specialist equipment to enable them to participate is not surprising, but would make me think a lot more about what course materials I would create.
I wouldn’t use this kind of questionnaire with my own students for a couple of reasons.
- The amount of interaction I get with them is a small section of their module.
- The nature of the course/students means that they are often away on placement, which means they tend to only do what they need to do or what is beneficial to them. Therefore, linking back to point 1, it wouldn’t really suit what they were doing.
- The way students are accepted onto our courses means they are required to have a certain level of competence and commitment, so I would expect them to be at a skill level capable of dealing with online learning.
I’m sure I’ll think of more once I’ve published this blog post though! I do think that modern students, while being assumed to have a lot of characteristics given they are often of a generation who has grown up with the internet and technology, will most of the time have the skills necessary, but seeing these questionnaires does raise the question as to how many assumptions we perhaps shouldn’t make about who we teach. And certainly we need to make sure that our materials are accessible to all kinds of students.
As a last thought – I’m mostly ready, apparently! 
Hopefully I’ll stay that way! 
I'm a subject librarian at the University of Huddersfield, mainly supporting nursing students.