Development of the Distance Education Learning Environments Survey (DELES) for Higher Education
Conclusion
This paper has described the three-stage preliminary development of the Distance Education Learning Environments Survey for post-secondary distance education that consisted of: (1) identifying/developing salient scales within Moo's (1974) psychosocial environment dimensions of Relationship, Personal Development, and System Maintenance and Change; (2) writing individual items within each of the three dimensions; and (3) field testing the new instrument to obtain significant data to conduct item analyses to demonstrate instrument reliability and validity.
The first instrument of its kind and significant for utilization on a global scale, the DELES is a useful tool for distance education researchers and those desiring to conduct action research or evaluation of their own distance education courses or programs. Demonstration Web-based "actual" and "instructor" versions of the DELES are housed online at the South Central RTEC's Insight Instrument Library and Data Repository found at the following URL: http://insight.southcentralrtec.org/ilib/masterlist.html.