Investigating Gender and Racial/Ethnic Invariance in Use of a Course Management System in Higher Education

Education Sciences

Yi Li²  Qiu Wang³  John Campbell¹ 

[1]Information Technology Department, West Virginia University, PO Box 6500, Morgantown, WV 26506-6500, USA

[2] E-Mail:

[3]Faculty of Education Southwest University, No.2 Tiansheng Road, BeiBei District, Chongqing 400715, China

[4]School of Education, 350 Huntington Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA

[5] E-Mail:

关键词: CMS;    gender/ethnicity inequity;    higher education;    technology;   

DOI  :  10.3390/educsci5020179

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

This study focused on learning equity in colleges and universities where teaching and learning depends heavily on computer technologies. The study used the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to investigate gender and racial/ethnic heterogeneity in the use of a computer based course management system (CMS). Two latent variables (CMS usage and scholastic aptitudes)—with two moderation covariates (gender and ethnicity)—were used to explore their associational relationships with students’ final grades. More than 990 students’ CMS data were collected from courses at a Midwest public university in the United States. The final model indicated that there was gender and racial/ethnic invariance in the use of the CMS. Additionally, CMS use was significantly positively associated with students’ academic achievement. These findings have policy and practical implications for understanding the correlation between technology use and academic achievement in colleges and universities. This study also pointed out future research directions for technology use in higher education.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.