Faculty Of Education Students' Attitudes Toward Internet And Implications For Online Learning[English

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop an attitude scale toward Internet and to investigate whether faculty of education students’ attitude levels differ significantly according to their gender, Internet experience, opinions about Internet as an instructional medium and their preferences between Internet-based and face-to-face learning. The research data were obtained from 249 undergraduate (100 male, 149 female) faculty of education students. Three factors, named as practicability, communication and usage skill, were identified after an explanatory factor analysis. The results of factor analysis and internal reliability coefficients suggest that the scale is a valid and reliable instrument. According to the t-test results, while there were no gender differences on the practicability and communication subscales, male students demonstrated significantly higher attitude levels than the females did on the usage skill subscale. The students, who prefer to participate in an Internet-based course, expressed significantly higher attitudes on the three subscales than the students who prefer face-to-face learning. The students with more Internet experience tended to have higher attitude levels on the three subscales than the students with less Internet experience. Two-way ANOVA results indicated that students’ desire to participate in an internet-based course and their Internet experience had main effects on their attitudes toward Internet. Implications for online learning are suggested depending on literature and the findings of the study.