Survey-based Instrument Research Articles

The Impact of Cloud Computing on Information Systems Agility

As businesses are encountering frequent harsh economic conditions, concepts such as outsourcing, agile and lean management, change management and cost reduction are constantly gaining more attention. This is because these concepts are all aimed at saving on budgets and facing unexpected changes. Latest technologies like cloud computing promise to turn IT, that has always been viewed as a cost centre, into a source of saving money and driving flexibility and agility to the business. The purpose of this paper is to first compile a set of attributes that govern the agility benefits added to information systems by cloud computing and then develop a survey-based instrument to measure these agility benefits. Our research analysis employs non-probability sampling based on a combination of convenience and judgment. This approach was used to obtain a representative sample of participants from potential companies belonging to various industries such as oil & gas, banking, private, government and semi-governmental organizations. This research will enable decision makers to measure agility enhancements and hence compare the agility of Information Systems before and after deploying cloud computing.

Development of a Student Self-Reported Instrument to Assess Course Reform

This study examines the development and implementation of a survey-based instrument assessing the effectiveness of a course redesign initiative focused on student centeredness at a large midwestern university in the United States. Given the scope of the reform initiative under investigation in this study, researchers developed an instrument called the Classroom Experience Questionnaire (CEQ), which was administered to students enrolled in redesigned courses. Early findings demonstrate strong construct validity and internal reliability of the CEQ instrument as well as concurrent validity between the CEQ and observation data gathered in concert with self-report data. The authors conclude that in the absence of trained classroom observers, the developed student self-report protocol can serve as a useful tool for measuring the constructivist orientation of pedagogy and student-centered nature of the learning environment in a higher education setting.

Some Strategies for Sustaining a Walking Routine: Insights From Experienced Walkers

This study explores the strategies that experienced walkers felt were most useful for sustaining outdoor walking routines. To investigate this issue, a survey-based instrument was used in combination with a Conceptual Content Cognitive Mapping (3CM) exercise. Seventy-one experienced walkers were asked to complete the 3CM exercise to explore the strategies that have helped them regularly walk outdoors. After 1 week these same individuals received a survey investigating these same issues as well as demographics and physical activity participation. There was general agreement between 3CM and survey data with respect to the strategies used by experienced walkers. The most highly endorsed strategies involved using health goals and supportive walking environments. Survey results also revealed that those more likely to endorse the use of social support took fewer walks per week, but engaged in more nonwalking related physical activity. Overall, the findings suggest that experienced walkers use a variety of strategies. Strategies such as focusing of the positive health outcomes, using attractive natural settings, and developing realistic action plans appeared to be the most useful. These results also indicate the 3CM technique may be an effective way to explore beliefs and motivations regarding physical activity.

Self-perceived and observable self-direction in an online asynchronous programming course using peer learning forums

This study broadens the objectives of previous work (Boyer, N., Langevin, S., Gaspar, A. (2008). Self direction and constructivism in programming education. Proceedings of the ACM Special Interest Group in IT Education Conference, 16–18 October 2008, Cincinnati, OH) in which we used a survey-based instrument, the Personal Responsibility Orientation Self-Directed Learning Scale – PRO-SDLS (Stockdale, S.L., & Brockett, R.G. (2006). The continuing development of the PRO-SDLS: An instrument to measure self-direction in learning based on the personal responsibility orientation model. Paper presented at the 20th International Self-Directed Learning Symposium, Cocoa Beach, FL), as a new perspective to measure the impact of innovative approaches in the teaching of computer programming in online courses. The data have been collected during the offering of an undergraduate online asynchronous programming course delivered in 2008 at the University of South Florida Polytechnic. Our primary pedagogical intervention has been the use of peer learning forums which attempt to (1) leverage peer learning dynamics in an online course, (2) help students better structure their work on a weekly basis, and (3) help them learn to engage actively with the material (e.g., exercises, reading assignments). This article studies the impact of peer learning forums on these students through the lens of various instruments. Some, such as the PRO-SDLS, are well established in the self-directed learning literature. Others are introduced in this article to provide a more complete picture of both the students' self-perception of their self-direction and its more observable aspects. We also identified intrinsic characteristics of our student population, which we believe to have a significant impact on these instruments' measures. Finally, we relate these data to student feedback obtained through more open question surveys. These observations, made using diversified instruments, on a small and well-characterized learner population, represent the foundation of our case study. Our findings suggest that, after using the peer learning forums for an entire semester, the self-perception of our over-committed online adult learners' ability for self-directed learning has evolved to realign itself with more observable manifestations of their self-direction.