Psychometric evidence for an adaptation of the Online Student Connectedness Survey (OSCS) into the Japanese language and population

Research Project

Project/Area Number	22K00715
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Review Section	Basic Section 02100:Foreign language education-related
Research Institution	Kumamoto University
Principal Investigator	Isemonger Ian 熊本大学, 大学院人文社会科学研究部(文), 教授 (40350384)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	平野順也熊本大学, 大学院人文社会科学研究部(文), 教授 (40432992) 西川里織熊本大学, 大学院人文社会科学研究部(文), 准教授 (40599213) LINGLEY DARREN 高知大学, 教育研究部人文社会科学系人文社会科学部門, 教授 (50335915)
Project Period (FY)	2022-04-01 – 2025-03-31
Project Status	Granted (Fiscal Year 2022)
Budget Amount *help	¥2,080,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥480,000) Fiscal Year 2024: ¥260,000 (Direct Cost: ¥200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥60,000) Fiscal Year 2023: ¥390,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥90,000) Fiscal Year 2022: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
Keywords	Psychometrics / OSCS / validity / CFA / structural validity
Outline of Research at the Start	The research aims to provide an instrument adapted for the Japanese population (the OSCS) with evidence for good psychometric properties of the scores which it generates. This will service the needs of future researchers in this area as well as practitioners.
Outline of Annual Research Achievements	The purpose of this research is to translate and adapt the Online Student Connectedness Survey (OSCS; Bolliger & Inan, 2012, The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning) into the Japanese population, and then provide psychometric evidence for the validity of the scores which the translation generates. This research, therefore, supports evidence-based measurement with respect to this instrument in the Japan context, and thereby assists future researchers and practitioners in the field of online learning who need to rely on psychometrically valid data from Japanese participants. By the end of the first year of the award, and in terms of the above-stated purpose, the following has been achieved: 1) the instrument has been forward- and back- translated following the guidelines of the International Test Commission (2000, 2001); 2) data has been collected using the translation (N = 239); and preliminary results have been co-presented (by the lead researcher for this grant award and one other researcher/member of our group) at the 2nd International TEFL Praxis Conference held in Tosashimzu (Japan) on March 9, 2023.
Current Status of Research Progress	Current Status of Research Progress 1: Research has progressed more than it was originally planned. Reason The current status of the project is regarded as having proceeded more smoothly than expected because key milestones (for this type of study) have now been achieved. The instrument is translated and the primary data has been gathered. Preliminary analysis of this data has also already been undertaken (but further analysis will, of course, follow).
Strategy for Future Research Activity	For the year to come (second year), there are two primary goals. One is to author a paper for publication in a refereed journal based on this data, and the other is to present the research at another conference in Japan to make practitioners and researchers more aware of what we are doing. Further fine-grained analysis of the data will also be undertaken in the process of achieving these two goals.