| This study reports on changes in self-efficacy (SE) and attitudes toward computers (CA) following participation in online discussion boards and electronic journals during an undergraduate course related to educational technology. A self-reported computer skills survey was used for stratified random assignment of students to one of four groups: directed web-based discussion, undirected web-based discussion, directed electronic journal writing and undirected electronic journal writing. The study was conducted as a two-phase, dominant/less dominant design (Creswell, 1994). The Computer Attitude and Self-Efficacy Survey (Delcourt & Kinzie, 1993; Dupagne & Krendl, 1992; Loyd & Loyd, 1985) was completed during the first class, midterm class, and final class. Data were analyzed using a repeated measures ANOVA. Low enrollment and attrition limited analysis to only female participants. Averaging across groups, the students (n = 96) experienced statistically significant increase in CA [F (2, 184) = 6.58, G-G adj p < 0.01] and SE [F (2,204) = 26.61, G-G adj p < 0.001]. There was no main effect for either CA [F (3, 92) = 0.73, p = 0.54] or SE [F (3, 102) = 0.24, p = 0.87] and no interaction between the groups and time for either CA [F (6, 184) = 0.31, G-G adj p = 0.26] or SE [F (6,204) = 0.41, G-G adj p = 0.85].; In the qualitative phase, a first analysis was conducted using methods derived from human ethology (Jacob, 1987). A priori characteristics were used to code discussion data for gender-based differences in tone and tenor of response. Findings indicated that the overall tone of the discussions was supportive, with minimal disagreement and confrontation. Females, adopting an approach more characteristic of males, initiated the limited disagreement and confrontation, while the limited number of male participants adopted a non-confrontational, characteristically more feminine, approach. In the second qualitative analysis, the researcher generated theory grounded in the data (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Using a reciprocal and iterative process (Corbin & Strauss, 1990) for analysis of discussion postings of five students with the greatest gains in SE, the researcher theorized students reflected on past experiences with technology, integrated the reflections into their cognitive frameworks, and thus enhanced their SE. |
