CONSTRUCTION OF A SCALE TO MEASURE THE ATTITUDE OF THE FACULTY MEMBERS TOWARDS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

P.V. SATHYAGOPAL¹*, K. SHIREESHA², N.P. ESWARA REDDY^3
1Extramural Research Project, Department of Agricultural Extension, S.V. Agricultural College, Tirupati, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, Lam, Guntur, 522034 Andhra Pradesh
²Extramural Research Project, Department of Agricultural Extension, S.V. Agricultural College, Tirupati, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, Lam, Guntur, 522034 Andhra Pradesh
³Extramural Research Project, Department of Agricultural Extension, S.V. Agricultural College, Tirupati, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, Lam, Guntur, 522034 Andhra Pradesh
* Corresponding Author : satyagopal15@gmail.com

Received : 21-02-2018     Accepted : 13-03-2018     Published : 15-03-2018
Volume : 10     Issue : 5       Pages : 5397 - 5400
Int J Agr Sci 10.5 (2018):5397-5400

Keywords : Information and Communication Technology, Attitude, Summated rating scale, Agricultural Education
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : Author thankful to Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, Lam, Guntur, 522034 Andhra Pradesh
Author Contribution : All author equally contributed

A teacher should be dynamic and always search for innovations in his teaching abilities for effective outreach of majority of students in a class. Starting from the age-old chalk and talk to the present e-learning, several Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools were designed by the educationists to upgrade the education system. All such tools have shown tremendous effect in the teaching-learning process not only in terms of speedy delivery of the message but also improved the quality of message. Accordingly, several efforts been made by all the stake holders but could not be able to reach their expectations. As attitude is one of the precursor that contributes for extent of extent of ICT utilization an attempt has been made to develop a scale to measure the attitude of the faculty members towards ICT utilization. The method of Summated Rating scale developed by Likert (1932) was used in this study to construct an attitude scale to measure the attitude of Faculty members towards ICT utilization. All the possible statements about ‘attitude of faculty members towards ICT utilization’ represented the universe for the scale. A tentative list of 51 statements belonging to attitude of faculty members towards ICT utilization were gathered from books, magazines, newspapers, research articles, journals, academic attainments, expertise of intellectuals in extension, research, teaching, farmers, self intuitions and own experiences. These 51statements collected were carefully edited by using various informal criteria suggested by Edwards (1941) and Thurstone (1946). After editing the 51 statements, 13 statements were deleted, thus making a total of 38 statements. These statements were subjected to relevancy test with the help of 60 judges. The judges were requested to critically evaluate each statement for its relevancy to measure attitude of faculty members towards ICT utilization on a four point continuum viz., highly relevant, moderately relevant, slightly relevant and less relevant with scores 4, 3, 2 and1. After giving the scores to the statements, ‘z’ values were calculated by using Standard Normal Deviates test to screen the statements. Thus, 25 statements out of 38 were selected through relevancy testing. The 25 statements selected through relevancy test were given to 60faculty members from a non sample area and were asked to indicate their responses on a five point continuum viz., strongly agree (SA), agree (A), undecided (UD), disagree (DA) and strongly disagree (SDA) with 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 for positive statements and vice-versa for negative statements. After receiving the responses from the respondents, the ‘t’ values were calculated by using the formula suggested by Edwards (1969). The statements with ‘t’ values more than 1.75 were selected for the final attitude scale. Thus, out of 25 statements, 18 statements were selected in the final attitude scale Out of which 10 were positive statements and 8 were negative statements. Reliability and validity tests were carried out with appropriate tools. The final scale was administered to the 480 sampled faculty members. The total score of the respondent on the scale was obtained by summing up the scores of all the statements in the scale. The possible minimum and maximum score was 18and 90. The respondents were grouped into five categories based on the scores obtained by each of them duly following mean and standard deviation.

1. Jeevan V. K. & Nair S. S. (2004) Annals of library and information studies, 51 (4), 137-144.
2. Walmiki R. H. & Ramakrishnegowda C. K. (2009) Annals of Library and information studies, 56, 236-241.
3. Kannappanavar B. U. Vijayakumar M. (2001) Desidoc bulletin of information technology, 21(1), 21-26.
4. Smeets E., Mooij T., Bamps H., Bartolom A., Lowyck J., Redmond D. & Steffens K. (1999) The Impact of Information and Communication Technology on the Teacher. Nijmegen, the Netherlands: University of Nijmegen, ITS.
5. Kumar B. T. S. & Biradar B. S. (2010) Program: Electronic Library and Information Systems, 44 (3), 271 - 282.
6. Edwards A.L. (1969) Techniques of Attitude Scale Construction. Valkies, Feffer and Simons Pvt. Ltd. Bombay. 149-171.
7. Edwards A.L. (1941) Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 36, 34-50.
8. Thurstone L.L. (1946) American Journal of Sociology, 52, 39-50.