This cross sectional survey aimed to investigate undergraduate paramedic students’ attitudes to e-learning in five higher education institutions (HEI) in Australasia.
A paper-based questionnaire consisting of demographic questions plus the computer attitude survey (CAS); the online learning environment survey (OLES); and the attitude towards computer assisted instruction semantic differential scale (ATCAISDS) was distributed to convenience samples of students from each of the five HEIs during the first semester of 2009.
The CAS is designed to assess participants’ attitudes towards computers; the OLES assesses participants’ actual and preferred experience of a recently completed online learning module; and the ATCAISDS requires participants to identify which words most reflect their feelings about the use of computers. Participants were provided with 14 pairs of differential descriptive terms and were asked to rate each pair on a scale of 1 to 7 e.g. stimulating (score of 1) through to boring (score of 7).
A total of 339 students participated in the study. Just over half were female (57.7%), with the majority aged under 24 years (76.1%). The CAS has 2 subscales: the CASg focuses on attitudes towards computers in general, and the CASe towards computers in education. Responses to both subscales indicated overall attitudes in the middle of the scale (CASg mean=49.2, SD=4.9; and CASe mean=31.0, SD=5.2). Statistically significant differences in attitudes to computers in general and computers in education between participants from the different universities were found (P<0.0001).
OLES results identified significant differences between actual and preferred results for computer usage, personal relevance, authentic learning, and asynchronicity subscales, with participants indicating that they would prefer to use computers less than they actually do for university work.
Responses to the OLES teacher support item indicated that students from two of the HEIs would prefer more support from lecturers. Mean responses to the ATCAISDS were close to the midpoint for each pair of descriptive terms, with the exception of the ‘impersonal/personal’ scale item, where results indicated that students viewed computers as personal. Participants from two of the HEIs reported more negative attitudes towards computers, particularly in their perception of computers as being more inefficient.
It is not surprising to find that although participants appeared to have no particular strength of feeling towards computers and demonstrated no overt enthusiasm for them, the majority of study participants had access to internet linked computers.
The authors conclude that post-registration students’ attitudes toward computers were generally moderate, with a degree of ambivalence evident, indicating that students are unlikely to use e-learning activities to their full potential.
It would be interesting to expand this research to include other student groups such as post-registration students, especially given the growing number of UK programmes beginning to employ this approach.
However, these results suggest that e-learning activities are unlikely to be universally successful or welcomed by students in paramedic education. Further research is required to determine the optimum nature and level of e-learning activities in paramedic education.