John B Nicholas

Classroom technology in the form of Classroom Performance System or clicker technology was introduced in a Circuit Fundamentals course in an Electronic Engineering Technology course at a public Midwestern university. In this study, the clickers were used by the instructor to periodically monitor student comprehension by asking multiple-choice and/ or true or false questions during the lecture. The students responded to these questions by clicking the answer they believed to be correct. The software associated with the clickers instantly displayed the distribution of the student responses, allowing the instructor to immediately gauge student comprehension. This was the initial use of clickers in an Electronic Engineering Technology course at this institution. The researcher investigated students' views on the use of clicker technology in this environment using Q methodology. In Q methodology, the sample size is the number of statements used in the Q sort. In this study, the numbe...

In social research, reliability is defined such that the same response will be obtained on repeated attempts of as test or measure (Newman & Mc Neil, 1998). A test or measure is considered reliable if an individual’s score on the same test given twice is similar (Colosi, 2010). Over time, the reliability of Q Methodology has been established by various means, in particular test-retest (Amin, 2000). This paper aims to support reliability of Q Methodology.
Q Methodology is primarily an exploratory research technique that was developed by psychologist and physicist William Stephenson in the 1930’s (Watts & Stenner, 2005). Q methodology displays many of the characteristics of mixed method research techniques in that it shares many of the focuses of qualitative research while utilizing the type of statistical analyses typically found in quantitative studies (Newman & Ramlo, 2010).
The most important type of reliability for Q is replicability (Van Exel, 2005). According to Brown (1980) test-retest reliability of Q sorts has been demonstrated to range from 0.80 upward. One important notion behind Q methodology is that only a limited number of distinct viewpoints exist on any subject. With Q methodology, statistical reliability or the ability to generalize sample results to the general population is of less concern.
In this study, a student in performed the same Q-Sort with the same conditions of instruction two days apart. The student was enrolled in two separate courses with the researcher. The original study was to determine the views of the students on use of an on-line classroom management tool. The two sorts correlated at .94. The high correlation between the two sorts supports previous research on the reliability of Q Methodology.

The purpose of this study was to investigate student views on the use of classroom technology in a Circuit Fundamentals course in an Electronic Engineering Technology course at a midsized Midwestern university. The technology used in this study was Class Room Response Systems and a classroom management system called Springboard. A tablet PC was used in conjunction with Springboard. Classroom Response Systems are also known as clickers (Lasry, N. 2008) and will be referred to as such throughout this study. Student’s views using technology in the classroom were investigated using Q methodology. The literature review revealed many studies discussing the effectiveness of clickers in classroom (Lasry (2008), Fies, C., & Marshall, J. (2006)) and a number of studies touting the benefits of the use of classroom technology in engineering and science classrooms (Cromack, J. (2008), Michko, 2007)).However all of those studies compared control groups who did not have clickers or other classroom technology to experimental groups making use of clickers or classroom technology. Trees and Jackson (2007) used a standard Likert test survey to explore student’s motivation levels for participation and attendance when clickers were involved. Kraft (2008) used Q methodology to explore student’s views about the use of clicker and how the clickers were used in the classroom. This study is a modified replication of Kraft’s (2008) study. The modification was adding three statements regarding the classroom management system module called Springboard.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the views of engineering and engineering technology educators on the use of classroom technology in engineering education. In this study, views on the use of classroom technology were investigated using Q methodology. The participants were from a Midwestern university that houses both engineering and engineering technology programs. This study revealed three (3) views or factors about the use of classroom technology in engineering and engineering technology classrooms. These findings should assist those interested in discovering and potentially overcoming the barriers to using classroom technology in the engineering and engineering technology education fields.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the views of engineering/engineering technology (E-ET) educators on the use of educational technology in E-ET courses. In this study, views of the use of educational technology were investigated using Q Methodology. William Stephenson developed Q Methodology as a means of measuring subjectivity (Brown 1980, 1993; McKeown & Thomas, 1988). Students’ views on the use of educational technology in science and engineering technology courses have been investigated using Q Methodology (Kraft 2008; Nicholas, 2009, 2010a, 2010b) but very little research has been done on the views of E-ET educators’ views on the subject. The participants of this study were from a mid-sized Midwestern university that houses both engineering and/or engineering technology programs. This study aimed to elicit the views of E-ET educators on the use of educational technology in E-ET courses. A pilot study was conducted during the spring 2010 semester on the use of classroom technology in E-ET coursed by the researcher. This study replicated and improved upon the pilot study based on the results of and the post-sort interviews conducted at the conclusion of the pilot study to determine if these three factors or views will replicate and/or new factors or views emerge. The study resulted in three factors or views on the use of classroom technology in E-ET courses that were based in the pedagogy of the participants. These findings should assist those interested in discovering and implementing the best use of educational technology in E-ET education.