EDUC 815

ARTICLE CRITIQUE TEMPLATE

Place your name here

Instructions: After reviewing the website article for the assigned module, answer each question

below in no more than 3 sentences.

Questions:

1. Correctly reference the article using current APA format.

Rovai, A. P. (2002). Sense of community, perceived cognitive learning, and

persistence in asynchronous learning networks. The Internet and Higher

Education, 5(4), 319–332. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1096-7516(02)00130-6

2. What is the purpose of the study?

Rovai (2002) states the purpose of the study was “to determine if a relationship exists

between sense of community and cognitive learning in an online educational

environment” (p. 319). According to Ravai (2002), the research sought to identify

whether there is a substantial association between cognitive learning in a distance

learning setting of education and sense of community (p. 321).

3. List the hypotheses; then, underline and label the corresponding

independent/dependent variables or predictor/criterion variables. Are there any

covariates? If so, name them.

H0: Cognitive learning for students learning in a distance learning environment have no

substantial relationship with community sense.

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H1: Cognitive learning (independent variable) for learners learning in a distance learning

environment have a substantial relationship with sense of community (independent

variable) (Rovai, 2002).

4. What research design is used and why?

The researcher applied the research design of correlation research to size the direction

and strength of associations that exist between the variables. This was the appropriate

research design because the research did not involve the manipulation of variables.

Instead, Rovai (2002) aimed at analyzing whether the variables had a relationship.

5. What type of sampling method is used?

Rovai, (2002), used the convenience sampling method (p. 323). The research’s

participants were primarily volunteers, who constituted 65.69% from leadership and

education courses. Total participants were 314 students registered in 26 online courses

(Rovai, 2002, 322).

6. What are the names of the instruments (provide a list)? Are the instruments

valid and reliable? Why or why not?

Classroom Community Scale (CCS) and Perceived Learning Questionnaire (PLQ) were

used in the research (Rovai, 2002, p. 324 -35). The instruments are valid and reliable-

CCS was approved by Rovai (2002), and PLQ was approved by Richmond et al. (1987).

CCS helped measure the sense of community, while, according to Rovai (2002), “student

self-reports” concerning their learning measured the Perceived cognitive learning (p. 324)

7. Do the author(s) give enough detail regarding the procedure so that the study

could be replicated? How or how not?

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The study could be repeated, courtesy of enough details provided by Rovai (2002). The

author provided details regarding the instrumentation and participants. He also provided

details on procedures, and setting, such that interested researcher might generate their

result after replicating his research.

8. What type of statistical analysis is used and why?

For the purpose of analyzing the union of students and scores of cognitive learning, the

author used an independent t-test. connect

9. What are the major conclusions of the study? How do they relate to the

hypothesis?

According to Rovai (2002), the study's main conclusion was “ a significant relationship

between exists between classroom community and perceived cognitive learning" (p. 319).

However, Rovai (2002) states that, “the strength of the relationship is not large” (p.

329). That implies that there is a possibility that there were other variables that influenced

the two independent variables’ findings.

10. Do the author(s) suggest any future studies to resolve ambiguities in the

present study or to answer questions raised by the present study?

The author proposed various ideas for future research and filtering the findings of the

research in his study. Rovai (2002, p. 330) suggests important variables in future studies-

variables classes sizes, the pedagogy, various samples, areas of course subject, and other

online delivery systems. Additionally, according to Rovai (2002), "future research might

examine the relationship of these variables to classroom community and identify course

designs and pedagogy that promote classroom community in various distant learning

environments” (p. 330).

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