Understanding Students’ Use of Online Learning Tools through Online Learning Readiness Assessment

Online Learning Readiness Assessment

Watkins et al. (2004) highlight that it is the responsibilities of educators to ensure that students adequately prepared to be successful in an online learning environment, and that a readiness assessment instrument is an important tool for improving student performance through useful online learning experiences. In an attempt to understand and measure a student’s level of OLR, a number of OLR assessment instruments were developed and validated over the past decade. This research was focused on those instruments that were developed and validated within the context of higher-education. These are mainly by Smith et al. (2003), Watkins et al. (2004) and Pillay et al. (2007).

Smith et al. (2003) conducted an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on the 13-item Readiness for Online Learning questionnaire developed by McVay (2001) using a sample of undergraduate students from the US and Australia. The analysis results suggested two underlying factors of OLR: Comfort with E-learning and Self-Management of Learning. These factors were consistent with the subsequent EFA conducted by Smith (2005) using a sample of Australian undergraduate university students.