A PRELIMINARY INSTRUMENT TO FOSTER DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE SKILLS IN ONLINE LEARNING

The capability approach has been operationalized in a wide range of fields such as economics, philosophy, technology and education. In the educational sector, there are many studies that have conceptualized the capability approach in traditional higher education scenarios to foster development of life skills. To our knowledge, there are no studies that have operationalized the capability approach in higher education programs offered online. Thus, the aim of this study is to conceptualize the capability approach for virtual learning scenarios. Specifically, this paper presents a tested and validated questionnaire based on Martha Nussbaum's central human capabilities (life; bodily health; bodily integrity; senses, imagination and thought; emotions; practical reason; affiliation; other species; play; and control over one's environment) to measure the development of life skills in virtual learning environments. The preliminary validation of the instrument involved a two-staged process. In first stage, an initial pool of items was created after doing qualitative discussions with eight experts, who were experienced researchers in the field. In second stage, the reliability and construct validity of the questionnaire items were assessed using a modified version of the Q-sort method. In the modified the Q-sort method, a judge was requested to sort the questionnaire items according to different constructs, based on which the inter-judge agreement was measured. The questionnaire items that were identified as being too ambiguous were reworded or deleted in an effort to improve the agreement between the judges. A satisfactory level of agreement was reached after a refinement process done by two judges who were experienced in the field of the capability approach. Future research will include a pilot study with a small sample of doctoral and postdoctoral fellows experienced in eLearning scenarios. Methodologically speaking, an analysis of variance approach to content validation will be used to double check the reliability and construct validity of the questionnaire items.