From Online Learner Readiness to Life-Long Learning Skills: A Validation Study

Abstract

One student success factor in higher education is students’ readiness to learn. An increasing number of students are learning in multiple modalities and the boundaries between course modalities continue to blur. In this context, there is a need to reassess readiness for online learning in ways that can serve all 21st century learners. The purpose of this study was to re-develop and cross-validate a measure of online learner readiness with different online student samples from two universities in the United States (combined N = 10,143). The reduced 25-item instrument retained four latent constructs: self-regulation efficacy, locus of control, communication efficacy, and technology efficacy. The emergence of these four factors replicates previous scale development studies, although individual items diverge from previous readiness instruments. Current and future applications of this redeveloped readiness instrument, the Learning Skills Journey Tool, are discussed, with a specific focus on how it can serve students throughout their learning journey.