The Daily Bulletin Archive

Melissa J. Miszkiewicz, director of academic computing, Computing and Technology Services; Kelly Marczynski, assistant director and senior research scientist, Center for Health and Social Research; andBarbara J. Dray, former assistant professor, Exceptional Education, and current assistant professor, Special Education, University of Colorado Denver, recently traveled to Murcia, Spain, to explore potential opportunities for collaboration with colleagues at the Universidad De Murcia Grupo Investigacion de Tecnologia Educative (GITE), a group of faculty researchers within the University’s Departamento de Didáctica y Organización Escolar.

The Murica group contacted Miszkiewicz after an Educause presentation with Dray and Marczynski in 2008. Dray and Miszkiewicz developed an instrument called the Online Learning Readiness Survey (OLRS) to measure learner characteristics and technology capabilities for online learning readiness. Colleagues Marczynski and William Wieczorek, director, Center for Health and Social Research, assisted with the design of a rigorous three-year validation study. Miszkiewicz and Dray in collaboration with Linda Castaneda and Maria Paz Prendes of Universidad De Murcia are pursuing external funds to extend the research begun by Dray and Miszkiewicz.

The Murcia team currently has a longstanding record of securing grants from the European Union, national government (Spain), and regional government (Murcia). They have been looking for a rigorously validated instrument to use in connection with their own programs and studies. A large collaborative study is planned to begin this January with a Spanish translation of the OLRS, followed by online delivery of the instrument to 500 Universidad De Murcia Departamento de Didáctica y Organización Escolar pending graduates to measure their readiness for online professional development. The potential readiness for online professional development in these students is significant. Currently the government of Spain mandates that all certified teachers complete 60 professional development credits each year through online formats (e-learning). No other delivery system is available. Their Spanish colleagues have expressed concern about the efficacy of online professional development without information about whether teacher candidates are themselves ready to learn online. They have conveyed that teachers are trained to use technology in the classroom, but are not necessarily trained to learn through online formats.

Technical support for this study is also provided by Rada Montroy, technical support specialist, and Margaret Banak, training team consultant, Computing and Technology Services. Survey technology is driven by Buffalo State licensed Opinio survey software, hosted by the SUNY Information Technology Exchange Center (ITEC), located at Buffalo State College. Miszkiewicz’s travel is supported with an Incentive Award from the Research and Creativity Council of the Buffalo State College Research Foundation.