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CYBERPSYCHOLOGY & BEHAVIORVolume 10, Number 5, 2007 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.DOI: 10.1089/cpb.2007.9974

Gender Differences in Taiwan University Students

Attitudes toward Web-Based Learning

RU-SI CHEN, Ph.D.1 and CHIN-CHUNG TSAI, Ed.D.2

ABSTRACT

This study explored gender differences on university students attitudes toward Web-basedlearning in Taiwan. A Web-based Learning Attitude Survey (WLAS) was developed. TheWLAS consisted of five scales, including access, social structure, content, pedagogy, and com-munity relationship toward Web-based learning. By using an online survey, this study gath-ered the responses of 1,866 Taiwanese university students (940 males and 926 females) whoseages ranged from 18 to 23. The results showed significant gender differences in the aspectsof social structure, content, and community relationship involved in Web-based learning. In-terestingly, although females might consider the Internet a masculine-dominated technology,they displayed more favorable attitudes than males did regarding the impacts of socioeco-nomic status (the social structure scale) on students performance of Web-based learning.Moreover, females possessed more positive attitudes than males toward the helpfulness andvariety of the content for Web learning. However, they did not think the virtual interactionon the Internet could develop adequate teacherstudent and peer relationships (the commu-nity relationship scale). Some follow-up interviews were also conducted with selected stu-

dents, and the implications derived from this study were discussed.

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INTRODUCTION

Attitudes toward Web-based learning

OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS, Web-based learninghas become a widespread practice in educa-tion.1,2 Since Web-based learning consists of bothasynchronous and synchronous communicationfeatures, if used properly, it can enable students to

be more involved in the process of learning.36 Re-

cently, some researchers have focused the peda-gogical usefulness of information technology, or In-ternet technology (IT), and examined universitystudents attitudes toward and usage of computersin the learning environment, such as using the In-ternet for searching information and communicat-

ing with teachers by e-mail.7 They found the com-puter-enriched environment was positively corre-lated with students attitudes toward computers ingeneral, their role in teaching and learning, andtheir ability to facilitate communication. It was alsoproposed that the university students having morepositive attitudes toward using the Internet as alearning tool tended to favor using the Internet forlearning and to be actually involved in Web-basedlearning environments.8 Therefore, exploring uni-

versity students attitudes toward Web-based learn-ing is quite an important research issue.

First, interactivity is an essential feature for suc-cessful Web-based learning. One of the powers ofinteractivity in a Web-based environment was thecapability to provide efficient and appropriate in-

1Department of Early Child Care and Education, Yu Da College of Business, Taiwan.2Graduate School of Technological and Vocational Education, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan.

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teraction and feedback to the students. As revealedin a previous study, university students in the Web-

based instruction reported that the quality of inter-action with teachers and peers was high.9 Therefore,the community relationship and interaction in-volved in Web-based learning was a focus for thisstudy to explore students relevant attitudes.

Moreover, the social structural factors involvedin Web-based learning should be carefully exploredwhen assessing students attitudes toward Web-

based learning. Research indicated that structuralfactors of society could influence the students ben-efits from Web-based learning. For instance, it wasfound that rural students had access to the Internetless often than urban students, and university stu-dents agreed that rural areas were being left behindwith respect to IT.10 In another study, it was re-ported that rural, minority, and female people wereless likely to have home computers or to be con-nected to the Internet.11 Rural residence, race, and

gender were found to significantly influence theiraccess to computer and Internet, and then producethe digital divides. The digital divides were creatednot only by the expenses associated with new tech-nologies but also by the difficulties of learning touse new and unfamiliar technologies. Therefore,this study examined students attitudes towardWeb-based learning in terms of access, social struc-ture, pedagogy, and other related issues.

Gender differences in students attitudes andbehaviors toward Web-based learning

Gender difference is often a major concern for re-searchers interested in students abilities and atti-tudes toward the computer or Web-based learning.It has been argued that female university studentswere less likely than males to take advantage of com-puter learning opportunities.12 Gender biases and so-cietal stereotypes, as well as differential interests, ex-periences, and attitudes, may contribute to a lowerlevel of participation by females. It was also indicatedthat the concerns about gender equity expressed bymany educational practitioners were well founded,as female students in various levels of educationtended to know less about IT, enjoy using the com-puter less than males, and perceive more problemswith software.13 In sum, the findings in previousstudies showed that gender was a factor with a sub-stantial influence on students achievement and us-age in technology-based learning environments.

The gap in Internet usage might exist betweenmen and women, but this gap may be the productof socioeconomic and other factors, not of gender it-self.14 The reasons that women were less intensiveInternet users might involve stereotyping, inher-

ently gendered technology embodying male val-ues, content that favored men, sex differences incognition or communication, or other factorsinaddition to socioeconomic factors. Furthermore,male university students on average were oftenfound to be more experienced in computing and tohave more positive attitudes and self-efficacy to-

ward computing than females.15

Moreover, a previous study, exploring a newchannel of communication (cybertalk), found thatmale communicators displayed power behaviors

by writing longer postings, by posting more fre-quently, and by writing more opinionated discourseas compared to female communicators.16 Cyberspaceremained a male-dominated atmosphere, where gen-der differentiation and power displayed in commu-nication persisted similar to other communicationmodes. Some studies might indicate women and menused the Internet equally but used it in different ways.Females used e-mail more than did males, and it was

consistent with their stronger motive for interpersonalcommunication.17 Males used the Web more than didfemales, and it was related to their stronger incentivefor searching information. As Internet usage has be-come more important, these qualitative differencesmight impact educational opportunities for learningin relevant Web-based instruction.

There were also significant gender differenceswith respect to confidence about computers andstereotypical views of computer users. According tothe results in previous studies, female college stu-dents showed stronger beliefs in equal-gender abil-ity and competence in the usage of computers but

expressed low confidence in their own ability towork with computers.18 Moreover, a significantgender difference was found on all the measures ofattitudes, anxiety, and self efficacy toward the In-ternet, with the conclusions that on average femaleuniversity students reported less time spent usingthe Internet, less positive attitudes toward the In-ternet, greater computer anxiety, and lower com-puter self-efficacy than males.19 Gender differenceswere also detected in self-efficacy and cognitive pro-cess in a technology-rich environment, and maleswere found to report higher levels of computer ortechnology self-efficacy than females.20

In a study investigating gender differences re-garding Internet use by Greek high school students

both in school and out of school environments, itwas revealed that boys used the Internet for enter-tainment and Web page creation more than girlsdid, whereas no other significant gender differenceswere noted regarding students other Internet ac-tivities, such as communication via e-mail, chat orvideoconferencing, Web surfing, and informationsearching for personal or school purposes.21

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Subsequent studies indicated few or no gender dif-ferences for students attitudes toward Internet orWeb-based learning. In a relevant study, it was foundthat there was no longer a gender gap in being on-line.22 Although there was a gender gap in frequencyand intensity of use, it appeared to have diminishedover time. Another study, exploring the problem of

community college students use of the Internet forhealth-related information, found that more than 80%had home Internet access, regardless of race or gen-der.23 Male and female students searched for healthinformation in almost equal numbers.23 In a study forTaiwan high school adolescents, males expressed sig-nificantly more positive attitudes than females on theusefulness and perceived control aspects of the Inter-net, but no significant gender differences were foundin terms of the affect and behavior aspects of using theInternet.24 More importantly, female adolescents ex-pressed higher Internet self-efficacy than males.24

These results implied that gender differences regard-

ing the Internet technology or Web-based learningmight be narrowing.

Purposes of the study

Taiwan universities and colleges rely increasinglyon IT- or Web-based learning to enrich their teachingor enhance students learning. University studentshave more freedom in making technology choices andimplementing Web-based learning. In this respect, itis important for educators to explore university stu-dents attitudes toward Web-based learning, carefullyconsidering gender differences that may impact the

effectiveness of this teaching medium. The attitudesin this study included the access, social structure, con-tent, pedagogy, and community relationship in-volved in Web-based learning.

This study first developed an online questionnaireto survey university students in Taiwan about theirattitudes toward Web-based learning. Then, the va-lidity and the reliability of the questionnaire were ex-amined and students different responses in the ques-tionnaire were analyzed. The role of gender on theresponses was further explored. Finally, some femalestudents were interviewed to elicit more informationabout their views on Web-based learning.

METHODOLOGY

Sample

A questionnaire, developed by two researchers,was used and an online survey was undertaken fordata collection. The respondents in this study con-sisted of 1,925 Taiwanese university students whoseages ranged from 18 to 23. They came from 84 uni-

versities in Taiwan. After excluding students withsome nonresponses, the valid number of studentcases was 1,866. This left 940 male and 926 femalestudents in the final sample pool. The surveyed stu-dents, with a fairly large sample size, were com-posed of those who had divergent academic back-grounds and came from different demographic

areas of various socioeconomic statuses.

Questionnaire exploring students attitudesconcerning Web-based learning

To assess students attitudes toward Web-basedlearning, a Chinese Web-based learning question-naire, the Web-based Learning Attitude Survey(WLAS), was implemented in this study. To developthe WLAS, a pool of items was collected to fulfillthe aforementioned purposes of this study. The re-searchers proposed the following five scales forWeb-based learning attitudes: access, social struc-ture, content, pedagogy, and community relation-ship. These scales included a 36 items as the initialpool of items. These items were developed after con-sulting with some experts in Web-based learning,information technology, and sociology of education.As a result, the WLAS primarily consisted of fivescales (seven or eight items for each scale), pre-sented with bipolar agree/disagree statements in a5-point Likert scale, and the responses were codedas 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree. Fol-lowing is a detailed description of the five scales:

1. Access scale: assessing the attitudes concerning

the extent to which students have opportunitiesto access Web-based learning.2. Social structure scale: exploring students attitudes

regarding the role of social structure factors onWeb-based learning.

3. Content scale: investigating the perceptions aboutthe features of the Web-based learning contentdesigned by teachers or developers.

4. Pedagogy scale: assessing the attitudes concerningthe extent to which students perceive positiveimpacts from Web-based learning.

5. Community relationship scale: assessing attitudesregarding the extent to which students believe

that the virtual community provides adequatestudentteacher and peer interactions.

RESULTS

Factor analysis

This study used exploratory factor analysis, prin-ciple component analysis with varimax rotation, toclarify the structure of the attitudes toward Web-

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based learning. The respondents attitudes weregrouped into five orthogonal factors: access, socialstructure, content, pedagogy, and community rela-tionship, as initially proposed. An item was retainedonly when it loaded greater than 0.40 on the rel-evant factor and less than 0.40 on the nonrelevantfactor. Thus, the initial 36 items were reduced to

19 items (as shown in Table 1). The retained 19items, with five factorsaccess, social structure,content, pedagogy, and community relationshipaccounted for 69.76% of variance. The eigenvaluesof the five factors from principle component analy-sis were all larger than one.

The reliability () coefficients respectively forthese scales were 0.80, 0.87, 0.79, 0.72, and 0.76 withan overall 0.88, suggesting that these scales had sat-isfactory reliability in assessing students attitudestoward Web-based learning.

Table 2 shows the retained items on the WLAS,and eight items in the WLAS were scored in a re-verse manner. In this way, students having higherscores on the scale showed better attitudes towardWeb-based learning.

Students scores in the scales

Table 3 shows students average item scores andstandard deviations on the five scales of the WLAS.According to Table 3, students scored highest on theaccess scale (an average of 3.96 per item), suggest-ing that students in general agreed that the oppor-tunity to access Web-based learning is open toeveryone. They also believed that the proliferationof Internet technology could reduce the digital di-vide between cities and rural areas. This result im-plied that most students not only perceived the pos-

CHEN AND TSAI648

TABLE 1. ROTATED FACTOR LOADINGS AND CRONBACHS ALPHA VALUESFOR THE FIVE FACTORS (SCALES) OF THE WLAS

Factor 2: Factor 5:Factor 1: Social Factor 3: Factor 4: Community

Item Access structure Content Pedagogy relationship

Factor 1: Access 0.803 0.596 0.677 0.588 0.63Factor 2: Social structure 0.879 0.7210 0.7611 0.7413 0.68Factor 3: Content 0.7915 0.5317 0.5220 0.7421 0.63Factor 4: Pedagogy 0.7223 0.53

25 0.6426 0.5028 0.46Factor 5: Community relationship 0.7629 0.6531 0.5332 0.60

Total 0.88, total variance explained in 69.76%.Loading less than 0.40 omitted.

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itive impacts of Internet access but also preferred totake optimistic attitudes toward Web-based learn-ing. The community relationship scale remained rel-atively low (an average of 2.79 per item) comparedwith the others. Thus, it was proposed that at leasta certain group of students had concerns about theeffectiveness of virtual interactions in Web-basedlearning environments. Perhaps they would rather

be involved in the learning processes of authenticenvironments.

Exploring gender differences on the scales

This study compared male and female studentsscores on the five scales of the WLAS. The resultsof t tests are presented in the Table 4. As shown, the


TABLE 2. RETAINED ITEMS ON THE WLAS

Item no.a Scale Question

3 Access The proliferation of the Internet can reduce the digital dividebetween cities and rural areas.

6 Access Everyone can afford software and hardware equipment forWeb-based learning.

7 Access Students Internet technology equipment can influence theirperformance in Web-based learning.

8 Access Opportunities for Web-based learning are open to everyone.9 Social The information literacy of aboriginal students is inferior.b

structure10 Social The higher parents educational degree is, the better their

structure childrens performance in Internet technology.b

11 Social The higher parents social economic status is, the better theirstructure childrens performance in Internet technology.b

13 Social The information literacy of male students is better than thatstructure of female students.b

15 Content Internet resources provide little help to students.b

17 Content The activities of Web-based learning focus on educational aimsand pedagogical needs.

20 Content The content of Web-based learning represents only themainstream culture.b

21 Content People with high socioeconomic status have the ability todetermine the development and structure of the contentof Web-based learning.b

23 Pedagogy All school subjects can be mediated by Internet technology tofacilitate students learning.

25 Pedagogy The method and degree of IT integration can influence themodel and content of Web-based learning.

26 Pedagogy The Web-based learning model is the best choice of contemporary learning models.

28 Pedagogy The proliferation of Web-based learning can reduce the useof other methods of teaching and learning.b

29 Community The virtual interaction on the Internet can promote arelationship superior teacherstudent relationship.

31 Community The virtual community on the Internet can provide studentsrelationship with more freedom for interactions.

32 Community Web-based interaction is more attractive than face-to-facerelationship interaction for me.

aThis item number indicates the item order in the initial version of the WLAS.bScored in a reverse way.

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results of this study did not reveal any significantdifferences between males and females on their per-ceptions regarding access. It suggested that theyhad similar attitudes toward the proliferation anddevelopment of Internet technology as a better toolto reduce the digital divide, and everyone could af-ford the software and hardware equipment re-quired for Web-based learning. The results also re-

vealed that male and female students scores on thepedagogy scale did not show statistical differences,proposing that both males and females believed inthe potential helpfulness and pedagogical values inWeb-based learning.

However, on the social structure and contentscales, female students expressed statistically morefavorable attitudes toward Web-based learning thanmales did. Table 4 reveals that the females meanscore of the social structure scale was significantlyhigher than that of males (p 0.001). Femalestended to show more agreement with the perspec-tive that ethnicity, parents socioeconomic status,and gender were not essential factors for determin-ing the development and success of students in-formation or Internet literacy. (Because the items inthis scale were all scored in a reverse manner, a

higher score indicates a certain extent of disagree-ment for the statements about the impacts of socialstructure variables on Web-based learning). In otherwords, females believed that the Internet may notcause negative impacts on social status or equity re-lated to education.

Student responses also indicated significantgender differences on the content scale. Female

students displayed more favorable attitudes to-ward the content on Web-based learning con-structed by teachers or developers than did males.When compared to males, they showed moreagreement with the perspective that the activitiesof Web-based learning could correspond to edu-cational aims and pedagogical needs; they alsorecognized the usefulness and variety of Web-

based learning content. Nevertheless, on the com-munity relationship scale, the mean score formales was higher than that for females. Malesshowed relatively more preferences toward thevirtual learning partners or interactions in Web-

based learning environments. In summary, femalestudents displayed better attitudes on the socialstructure and content scales, but males perceived

better on the community relationship scale.

CHEN AND TSAI650

TABLE 3. STUDENTS SCORES ON THE SCALES OF THE WLAS

Scale # of items Item mean SD

Access 4 3.96 0.82Social structure 4 3.61 0.99Content 4 3.66 0.81Pedagogy 4 3.63 0.65

Community relationship 3 2.79 0.70

TABLE 4. GENDER COMPARISONS ON THE SCALES OF THE WLAS

Scale Gender Mean SD t value

Access Male 3.94 0.79 1.14Female 3.98 0.85

Social structure Male 3.51 1.02

4.49**Female 3.71 0.94Content Male 3.62 0.80 2.17*

Female 3.70 0.82Pedagogy Male 3.61 0.64 0.84

Female 3.64 0.66Community relationship Male 2.87 0.73 4.98**

Female 2.71 0.66

*p 0.05; **p 0.001.

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Follow-up studyinterviews with selected students

In order to obtain more information for femalestudents attitudes toward Web-based learning, 12female students across different scores of WLASwere chosen to participate in individual in-depth in-terviews. The interviews allowed the students to de-velop their biographies on previous educational ex-

periences with computers and Internet. Then thequestions addressed the formal and informal expe-riences on their Web-based learning in higher edu-cation. Moreover, the interview questions exploredstudents views about the relationship between In-ternet technology and educational equity, investi-gating their views about the digital divide. The in-terviewees were encouraged to construct their ownstories and opinions about Web-based learning. Allof the interviews were recorded by a digitalrecorder.

It was found from examining the qualitative datathat some students shared a view that social struc-ture was an important factor for the successful out-comes of Web-based learning. For example, whenasked what they thought to be the most importantdeterminant of having access to Web-based learn-ing, they responded as follows:

ST2: In aboriginal areas, students had few oppor-tunities for Internet access because their par-ents could not afford the software and hard-ware equipment required for Web-basedlearning. If I lived in a rural area or aborigi-nal region, I would not have sufficient Inter-net equipment, because the infrastructure of

the Internet superhighway has not been wellconstructed.

ST3: I think socioeconomic status is the most impor-tant factor. . . . For instance, if I want to learnsomething about school subjects, I can look uprelevant information on the Internet. But stu-dents of parents with lower socioeconomic sta-tus may have fewer opportunities for Web-

based learning because they have no computersor have limited or no access to the Internet.

ST7: I think the information literacy of male stu-dents is better than that of females because

males have more ability and confidence inlearning and using computers. They expresspositive attitudes about their own personalability and competence to work with comput-ers. Female students frequently feel morehelpless about computers because of the so-cially constructed barriers of gender stereo-type and gendered discrimination of Chinesetraditional culture such as girls should notdevelop their talents in technology.

ST8: I know that many female students expressedhigh anxiety about the Internet and showednegative attitudes toward the computer orWeb-related learning. They do not like to usecomputers to solve problems in learning, be-cause they consider the Internet a masculine-dominated technology. They prefer learningin an authentic and friendly environment. But

I think these are traditional and out-of-dateviewpoints. In modern society, everyone hasher freedom and opportunities to develop herabilities and performance in schooling.

Based on the interview responses above, the fe-male students highlighted the importance of socialstructure factors for Web-based learning. Some stu-dents, for example, ST2 and ST3, indicated the im-portance of parents ability to afford software andhardware and parents socioeconomic status. Interms of gender, ST7 thought female students haddisadvantages in using computers. She expressed

negative attitudes toward females personal abilityand competence to work with computers. ST8 prob-ably perceived the Internet as a masculine-domi-nated technology, but she highlighted that gen-dered stereotyping is outdated and females shouldactively participate in Web-based learning.

Participants were directly asked for their percep-tions about the relationship between gender differ-ences and Web-based learning:

ST4: I dont think gender bias is prevalent in Web-based learning. There is much information onthe Internet, some good for males discus-

sions, some adapted to female styles, andsome appropriate for both males and femalesthinking together.

ST10: I dont think I experience gender discrimi-nation regarding the Internet technology orWeb learning. I consider that the perfor-mance of Web-based learning is based on thelevel of ones desire. There is no rule to limitwhat female students can or cannot do inWeb-based learning.

ST12: I think gender differences in Internet tech-nology or Web-based learning do not exist

now because many females know how to ad-vance their information literacy. Now theyhave more opportunities to learn by Internettechnology than in the past. Internet tech-nology can empower females and encouragethem to excel in traditional male-dominatedwork.

ST4, ST10, and ST12 held positive attitudes aboutfemales abilities in Web-based learning. They did


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not think that gender differences still existed in In-ternet technology or Web-based learning, and theydid not consider females failure in Web-basedlearning (if any) was due to the male-dominated na-ture of Internet technology. They considered theirsuccess or failure in Web-based learning to be theirpersonal responsibility. Although some students be-

lieved that gender or social structure still played arole in Web-based learning, many of them becamegradually aware that gender should not be an im-portant factor affecting performance in Web-basedlearning. Such awareness might help them attainhigher scores than males on some scales of WLAS.

The interview also explored females views aboutcommunity relationship in Web-based learning:

ST1: I dont like the online interaction with teach-ers or classmates. I dont want to interactthrough the cold screen. Face-to-face inter-action is better than Web-based interaction.

When I have questions, I can directly find myfriends to help me. I dont want to spend muchtime connecting to the Internet to find uselessinformation.

ST11: Maybe it [Web-based learning] contains at-tractive materials; maybe it is easy to partic-ipate; maybe it is fun . . . but I prefer face-to-face interaction. I can directly sense myteachers and classmates facial or emotionalexpression. I can directly ask my teacher toaddress my questions in the classroom.When I need help, my classmates can helpme immediately.

Female students did not show positive attitudestoward community relationship in Web-basedlearning. They preferred authentic learning envi-ronments where face-to-face interactions were al-lowed, concurring with their lower scores on theWLAS community relationship scale.

In general, most interviewed students did not ex-press clearly negative attitudes toward the dimen-sions of access and pedagogy involved in Web-

based learning. They focused on the social inequityabout the Internet and Web-based learning and con-sidered ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and genderas important factors for students performance gapin Web-based learning. However, many studentsalso felt that gender should not be an important fac-tor influencing performance in Web-based learning.Moreover, although they expressed positive atti-tudes toward the advantages of Web-based learn-ing, they did not demonstrate high preferences foronline interaction.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The WLAS was one of the pioneering question-naires to assess university students attitudes con-cerning Web-based learning. This questionnaire willalso assist teachers who highlight the pedagogicalpurposes and values in implementing technology-

integrated instruction. In this study, we could notfind significant gender differences on the WLASsaccess scale. This result was noteworthy because itcontradicted the findings of most studies regardingthe relationship between technology and genderfindings suggesting computing as a masculine-dominated technology, suggesting the gendering ofcomputer (Internet) technologies, and characteriz-ing females relationship to the computer as prob-lematic or disadvantaged.15,19,20,25 This study foundthat male and female students held statistically sim-ilar attitudes on the dimension of access to Internettechnology for learning.

Furthermore, this study showed significant gen-der differences in certain aspects of university stu-dents attitudes toward Web-based learning in Tai-wan. By and large, males tended to have morefavorable attitudes toward Web-based learning thanfemales did on the community relationship scale.Males showed relatively higher preferences for thevirtual learning partners or interactions in Web-

based learning environments. On the social struc-ture scale, however, females showed better attitudesthan males did. Female students, compared tomales, did not strongly agree that ethnicity, socio-economic status, and gender influenced their

achievement in Web-based learning. Althoughsome female students proposed during interviewsthat these factors are related to Web-based learning,many of them did not think contemporary femalesshould hold such a view. Moreover, based on theWLAS responses, female students showed more fa-vorable attitudes toward the content of Web-basedlearning than males; and they perceived the help-fulness, variety, and educational values provided

by the content of Web-based learning environments.In summary, the findings derived from this study

did not totally parallel what had been found in priorcomputer-related, Internet, and Web-based attitudestudies.15,19,26 Female students did not always showunfavorable attitudes toward Web-based learning.In some aspects, such as access and pedagogical val-ues of Web-based learning, female students ex-pressed attitudes statistically similar to those ofmales. More importantly, female students tended todisplay better attitudes toward the social structureand content involved in Web-based learning.

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Obviously, Web-based learning should help bothmales and females to perceive themselves as imag-inative and collaborative learners. Moreover, thereshould be many efforts to eliminate the barriers toparticipation and the stereotypes that may constrainthe opportunities and choices for females. Since theInternet is one of the main technologies supported

in schooling and learning environments, studentsattitudes would affect their technology utilizationfor education. Consequently, measuring Internet orWeb-based learning attitudes with adequate valid-ity and reliability is an important issue in Web-

based learning research. This study could be viewedas one of the beginning attempts to obtain such mea-sures. Future studies can use the WLAS developedin this study to assess views about Web-based learn-ing held by different cultural groups or students indifferent nations. In addition, by using WLAS, re-searchers and policymakers can explore the viewsof students of various ages, educational levels, and

backgrounds and then make more appropriate de-cisions regarding Web-based learning for differentgroups of learners. The views held by teachers mayalso be important for collection through the WLAS.Moreover, new scales or items can be added to theWLAS for a fuller exploration of students viewsabout Web-based learning. For example, perspec-tives from the sociology of education, instructionalpsychology, and motivational psychology can en-hance future version of the WLAS. In addition, thisstudy conducted interviews only with selected fe-male students; future studies should include malestudents for a more adequate comparison between

genders. With a better understanding of studentsviews toward Web-based learning, the implemen-tation of Web-based learning can reach its success.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Funding of this research work is supported by theNational Science Council (grant numbers NSC 93-2524-S-009-003 and NSC 94-2524-S-009-003), Taiwan.

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Address reprint requests to:Professor Chin-Chung Tsai

Graduate School of Technological andVocational Education

National Taiwan University ofScience and Technology

#43, Sec. 4, Keelung Road, Taipei, 106, Taiwan

E-mail: [email protected]

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