Rita Mojtahedzadeh; Atekeh Mousavi; Mandana Shirazi; Aeen Mohammadi
Abstract
Background Because of the developments and advancements in information technology (IT), unparalleled opportunities have been provided in electronic arenas; among them, electronic learning (e-learning) systems have brought attention to the facilitation of education. Since educational environment is a ...
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Background Because of the developments and advancements in information technology (IT), unparalleled opportunities have been provided in electronic arenas; among them, electronic learning (e-learning) systems have brought attention to the facilitation of education. Since educational environment is a factor influencing the success of educational programs, the current study aims at evaluating the factors that create the educational atmosphere in cyberspace. Methods The current study employed a qualitative content analysis approach and a targeted sampling method. A total of 11 students and 13 faculty members were recruited by a semi-structured interview in 2015. The interviews were continued separately for both students and lecturers up to the saturation of sample size. After the interview data were qualitatively analyzed. Results After the data analysis, 685 codes were extracted out of the qualitative data, which were reevaluated in several stages and classified into 38 subcategories. Then, 13 categories and 6 domains (The status of virtual education, learner support, teaching skills, evaluation, professionalism and professional ethics, and self-efficacy) were created. Conclusions Since the educational environment is an inseparable part of a curriculum, the factors creating an educational atmosphere in cyberspace are critically important and necessary for the qualitative and quantitative evaluations of the curriculum and prediction of educational outcomes.
Mandana Shirazi; Teamur Aghamolaei; Ideh Dadgaran; Amin Ghanbarnejad
Volume 11, Issue 1 , May 2014, , Pages 45-54
Abstract
Background & Objective: Educational environment is an important determinant in success of a curriculum The quality of educational environment is one of the elements of effective learning The aim of this study was designing a valid and reliable tool for assessing academic educational environment ...
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Background & Objective: Educational environment is an important determinant in success of a curriculum The quality of educational environment is one of the elements of effective learning The aim of this study was designing a valid and reliable tool for assessing academic educational environment in schools of health Methods: Using a theoretical sampling method eight students and three faculty members of School of Health Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences (Iran) were interviewed and 81 items related to educational environment were extracted These items were classified in six domains including school atmosphere teaching faculty members students educational equipments and facilities and physical environment Expert panels and assessing item impact were used to determine face validity and content validity ratio and index were used to determine content validity of the tool To determine its construct validity 250 students in completed the questionnaires and confirmatory factor analysis was applied Reliability of the tool was determined by Cronbachs Alpha and intracluster correlation coefficient Results: Due to expert panel and calculating item impact and content validity ratio and index the tool items decreased from 81 to 56 The results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that all of factor loadings were significant in level of 005 Cronbachs Alpha for total items was 094 and for six domains ranged from 065 to 085 Moreover intracluster correlation coefficient for total items was 094 Conclusion: The designed tool has good validity and reliability and can be used as a suitable tool for assessing academic educational environment in schools of health