A Comparison of Student-Teachers' Attitudes Toward Ccomputers in On-Line and Traditional Computer Literacy Courses : A Case Study

Abstract

This study examined the effect of two computer literacy courses at METU, (one offered on-line and the other given by traditional methods. These two courses were compared in terms of their effectiveness on the attitudes of the student-teachers towards computers. Different demographics such as gender, whether any computer-related courses had been taken before, previous computer attitude, and possession of a home computer were taken into consideration. This study also explored the other factors that contributed to changes in attitudes of the student teachers. The study used data from 209 (147 female, 62 male) student-teachers of which 69 attended the on-line computer literacy course IS100 "Introduction to Information Technology and Applications", and 140 attended the traditional computer literacy course SCE300. "Computer Applications in Education", which were offered at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Turkey.Results of Multiple Regression Analysis indicated that there is a combined effect of gender, computer literacy course type (traditional vs on-line), whether any computer related course had been taken before, previous computer attitude and possession of home computer on student-teachers' post-attitude toward computers. The follow-up study results also supported the results of statistical the analysis, and they investigated student teachers' perceptions about the computer literacy course they attended.