Establishing Research instrument to measure inclusiveness of adaptive methodologies in engineering education

Abstract

Engineering Education has been a key to socioeconomic growth of India (developing economy). However, during the last decade there has been less enrollment in engineering institutes especially across rural India which has even led to closure of some institutes. It is conjectured that this problem can be addressed by adaptive educational strategies. Hence it is necessary to understand the efforts taken by engineering institutes in practicing adaptive educational strategies. The objective of this study is to design and test a reliable survey instrument to understand the extent of existence of adaptive education in engineering educational institutes. For the same, a research survey instrument with 8 constructs involving 57 items related to adaptive educational techniques was developed. A pilot survey comprising 61 students at various engineering institutes was carried out and its analysis was done using SPSS software. The reliability test was carried out by checking Cronbach alpha. Research instrument so tested, found reliable since scale reliability for all constructs lies within permissible range. Descriptive Statistics, demographics and related cross tabulation, and correlation between the constructs were established. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was carried out. It was found from the result that the constructs are independent of demographic variables. Out of 08 constructs, 04 are factorable based on BTS, KMO and PCA tests. The deviation of mean from the top ratings of likert scale indicates the need of adaptive system inclusiveness in almost all educational parameters. The Research instrument can be used for large sample surveys.