Ali Ekrem Ozkul, Zehra Kamisli OzturkAnadolu University, Open Education Faculty, Turkeyaeozkul@anadolu.edu.tr, zkamisli@anadolu.edu.tr

Nuray GirginerEskisehir Osmangazi University,

Business Administration Department, Turkeygirginer@ogu.edu.tr

Evaluation of distance education delivery

modes in implementation model by using

a multi criteria decision making tool,

Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for the

English Language Teacher Training (ELTT)

Program at Anadolu University Open

Education Faculty.

ELTT is 4-year English Language Teacher undergraduate education

Program aims to meet demand English language teacher in primary and secondary education in Turkey.

Program in ELTT is a blended learning model. Courses in ELTT program offered in the first two years are face to face while in the remaining two years are through Distance Education

Determination of the share of different

delivery models in the implementation

model.

• To realize group decision making like this multi criteria decision problem in distance education

• To suggest a hierarchical hierarchical approachapproach with four levels including tangibletangible and intangibleintangible criteria to evaluate different delivery modes

• To indicate applicability AHP for this

decision problem

AHP has a systematic approach to set priorities and trade-off among criteria

AHP can measure all tangible and intangible criteria in the decision process

AHP is a simple, intuitive approach that can be accepted by decision makers

AHP can easily be used to solve multi-criteria decision problems involving multi-actors or group decision making with multi-actors

1. Define the decision problem and determine its objective.

2. Define the decision criteria in the form of a hierarchy of criteria.

3. To make the pair-wise comparisons, structure the comparison matrices of criteria and decision alternatives.

4. Obtain the importance of the criteria and sub-criteria by the comparisons.

5. Determine the weight of each criterion. By hierarchical synthesis, determine the priorities of each alternative.

There are three basic approaches that a group can use to assess weights:

(i) consensus (ii) vote or compromise (iii) geometric mean of the individual

judgments.

Geometric mean is the most common approach used in AHP with group decision

making

It is important to determine the weight and priorities of each delivery modes (face-to face, online etc) to execute the program succesfully

In the selection of delivery modes for implementation phase should be taken into account besides the tangible criteria like cost, number of personnel and students etc and also intangible criteria like interaction, benefit etc.

These criteria must be considered together and so this complex decision problem obligate to use one of the multi criteria decision making techniques as AHP.

GOAL: Determination of the share of different delivery models in the implementation model in ELTT

MAIN CRITERIA AND THEIRS SUB-CRITERIA: Cost (investment, developing course, operating,

assessment costs) Access (number of enrolled students, status of

students) Staff (number of personnel, status of the personnel) Interaction (student-student, student-learning

materials, student-teacher) Media of Instruction (design, production, edition,

control) Benefit (experience, number of graduates, pioner in

ELTT) ALTERNATIVES

Traditional Delivery Model (T-ELTT) Videoconferencing based Delivery Model (V-ELTT) Web based Delivery Model (W-ELTT)

Cost

-Investment

-Developing course

- Operating cost

-Examination

/ Assessment

Access

- Number of enrolled students

- Status of the students

Staff

- Number of personnel

-Status of the personnel

Interaction

- Student-student

- Student-learning material

- Student-teacher

Media of Instruction

- Design

-Production

-Edition

-Control

Benefit

- Experience

-Number of graduates

-Being a leader in English language teacher program.

T-ELTT V-ELTT W-ELTT

Determination of the share of different delivery models in the implementation model of ELTT

For the pair-wise comparisons, a questionnaire was prepared.

While taking the judgment for each expert (There are three experts), interviews were made separately each other, by using questionnaire technique.

The scale that takes integer values between 1 and 9 were used in the technique recommended by Saaty. The valuation scales in the pair-wise comparisons are those, where 1 is equal importance, 3 is moderate importance, 5 is strong importance, 7 is very strong or demonstrated importance, and 9 is extreme importance. Even numbered values will fall in between importance levels. Pair-wise comparisons were based on upper level control criteria

First of all, weights of main criteria must be determined first. For this reason, the experts made their pair-wise comparisons about main criteria and notified their judgments according to overall goal. The paired comparison matrix attempts to capture

the relative dominance of one element over another with respect to an attribute that they have in common. The questions to ask when comparing two criteria are of the following kind: Of the two criteria being compared, which is considered more important according to the goal and how much important? And the same question type is also used when comparing alternatives according to the criteria.

Three pair-wise comparison matrices belong to each expert have been obtained for pair-wise comparisons of main criteria. Each expert gives his judgments in 25 pair-wise comparison matrices.

The experts’ data based on pair-wise comparison matrices designed by Expert Choice were input. The software then calculated relative weights for the alternatives with respect to the main criteria and their sub-criteria. In the result of these, 75 pair-wise comparison matrices were obtained from judgments of experts for the whole model.

Relative Weights of Main Criteria Due to Experts

MAIN Expert 1 Expert 2 Expert 3

CRITERIA

Weight Rank Weight Rank Weight Rank

Cost 0.033 6 0.031 6 0.035 6

Access 0.123 4 0.368 1 0.117 4

Staff 0.053 5 0.142 4 0.107 5

Interaction

0.145 3 0.191 3 0.161 2

Media of Instruction

0.156 2 0.204 2 0.428 1

Benefit 0.489 1 0.064 5 0.152 3

Final Relative Weights

Determine to delivery model’s the most appropriate share in implementation model of ELTT

Cost (0. 035)

Investment (0.013)

Developing course (0.008)

Operating costs (0.006 )

Examination-assessment (0.008)

Numbers of enrolled student (0.065)

Status of the students (0.118)

Numbers of staff (0.062)

Status of the staff (0.039)

Student-student (0.051)

Student-learning material (0.065

Student-teacher (0. 065)

Production (0.027)

Edition (0.016 )

Control (0.015)

Experience (0.187)

Number of graduates (0.128)

Being a leader in English language teacher program (0.061)

Access(0.183 )

Staff(0. 101 )

Interaction (0.182)

Media of Instruction

(0.123)

Design (0.065)

Benefit(0. 375)

Alternatives

Expert

1

[0.08]

Expert

2

[0.07]

Expert

3

[0.06]

Geometric Mean

[0.03 ]

T-ELTT 0.414

(1)

0.382

(1)

0.455

(1)

0.414

(1)

V-ELTT 0.281

(3)

0.274

(3)

0.269

(3)

0.278

(3)

W-ELTT 0,305

(2)

0.344

(2)

0.275

(2)

0.309

(2)

A blended distance education ELTT program can be based on %41.4 face-to face (traditional), %30.9

web and %27.8 videoconferencing technologies It’s an expected result that face-to-face education

takes the biggest ratio according to a foreign language teacher training program. Especially the assessment of the teacher applicants needs a synchronous delivery model.

Based on the program’s curriculum, the lessons can be given based on the ratios either yearly or per terms

Based on the developments of information technology, determination of the weight of delivery modes that includes basic elements of distance education is an important decision. So We propose a decision model for the institutions that will

develop or implement a distance education program.

The AHP is a powerful multi-criteria method that considers both tangible and intangible criteria. We integrate different opinions of different experts

by applying group decision making

This methodology in our study can be used different decision problems in distance education management.