Constructivist Online Learning Environment Survey

Abstract

Understanding the psychosocial classroom environment has been important in both traditional face-to-face courses and online education. Trickett and Moos (1974) pioneered the use of post-course self-report instruments to measure the classroom environment through the Classroom Environment Scale. More recently, Taylor and Maor (2000) developed the Constructivist On-Line Learning Environment Survey (COLLES) to examine the students’ perceptions of online learning environment in light of social constructivist pedagogical principles. The 24-item, Likert-type COLLES instrument is a popular measure for examining online learning environments for a least two reasons. First, it measures the online learning environment along constructivist categories, which makes it in line with the dominant pedagogical philosophy for online instruction. Second, the COLLES instrument is freely included in the Survey Module of Moodle, the most popular open source course management system available. This makes it particularly convenient for online instructors to use COLLES in their teaching and research.