Proceedings
Instructional Technology Conference
Middle Tennessee State University
Building Communities of Learners
April 3-5, 2005
Speech-Language Pathology Students and Online Communities of Professionals
Track 2
Promoting Learning in Online Communities
Pedagogy and Research for the Technology-Based Learning Environment
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Christene L. Stackpole-Hodges Charles B. Hodges Presentation |
Abstract
Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) often work in rural areas without other SLPs nearby to discuss cases and evidence-based practices. Others work with several SLPs in the same building; however, specialties may vary leaving a need for communication with others in the field. Online communities of practicing SLPs may present an effective means of communications with other professionals to discuss research, assessments, and therapy. Preliminary findings from a pilot study designed to prepare SLP students for such interactions will be presented.
Description
Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) provide assessment and therapy for multiple disorders in a variety of settings. Often, they work in rural areas without other SLPs nearby to discuss cases and evidence-based practices. Others work with several SLPs in the same building; however, specialties may vary leaving a need for communication with others in the field. Online communities of practicing SLPs may present an effective means of communications with other professionals to discuss research, assessments, and therapy.
This project investigates the self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997) beliefs of beginning SLP graduate students regarding the use of online technologies for the discussion of research articles. The central question in this study: Will exposure to the online discussion tools in a professional context result in enhanced self-efficacy for participation in online communities of professionals? A pretest-posttest design is being used. Subjects are required to access eight research articles delivered electronically via WebCT. Subjects will be required to read articles and discuss them using the threaded discussion feature of WebCT. Two surveys are being used in this study: The Online Technologies Self-Efficacy Scale (Miltiadou & Yu, 2000), and a survey constructed for this study to measure self-efficacy for reading and discussing research articles in Speech-Language Pathology. The self-efficacy scale was constructed for this study following the guidelines of Bandura (1986) regarding context specific items. Multon, Brown, and Lent (1991) confirm Bandura's guidelines in their meta-analysis of self-efficacy studies finding that the strongest effects were found by researchers who used specific measures of self-efficacy. Schiavetti and Metz's (2002 pp. 392-396) research article evaluation criteria was used as a framework for the development of this scale. An analysis of the survey results will be presented.