Students’ experiences with online education: a validation study using Item Response Theory models

Abstract

This study aims to validate a measure of students’ experiences regarding online education based on the Community of Inquiry framework (CoI). Although it has been validated in different educational contexts and languages, the analysis of its psychometric properties using Item Response Theory models (IRT) remains unexplored. Method: 626 undergraduate university students (60% female;Mage = 26 years; SD = 6) answered voluntarily the “CoI Spanish scale” during online synchronic instruction. It consists of 34 four-point Likert scale items, grouped into three factors: teacher (TP; = .91), cognitive (CP; = .93), and social presence (SP; = .89). The unidimensionality assumption was checked with exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses(EFA-CFA).