Philippine E-Journals

Development and validation of an instrument to measure students’ perceptions of an outcome-based learning approach

Ronnie H. Shroff | Gavin T. L. Brown | Christopher C. Deneen

 

Abstract:

This paper reports the design, development, and validation of a new instrument, the Student Evaluation of OBL Survey (SEOBLS), to measure students’ perceptions of an Outcome based learning approach (OBL). A research model on alignment is presented based on research into five aspects of OBL (i.e., intended learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities, assessment, alignment and feasibility) identified from OBL literature. The survey items were verified by two panels using a formalized card sorting procedure as well as confirmatory factor analysis of a large-scale (n=672) survey within one institute of teacher education in Hong Kong. Five inter-correlated factors matching the five OBL aspects were found to fit well to the data with high levels of internal reliability. Mean scores were moderate, with statistically significant, but relatively small differences between the five factors. The feasibility of the OBL design received the lowest rating. The SEOBLS provides a promising tool that can be used in future research to gather data on students’ perceptions of outcome-based learning.