Abstract:

INTRODUCTION
This study analyzes differences in the psychosocial learning environments of two university education modalities (hybrid and distance) on the various scales that make up the Spanish version (Ferrer-Cascales, et al., 2011) of the Distance Education Learning Environment Survey (DELES) (Walker, 2005). The Spanish DELES is designed to assess perceptions of students on teaching-learning in virtual environments using six psychosocial scales (Instructor Support, Student Interaction, Personal Relevance, Authentic Learning, Active Learning, and Student Autonomy) and an additional scale of Satisfaction.

METHOD
Our study a sample consisted of 265 students at the University of Alicante enrolled in courses taught by faculty of the Department of Health Psychology, of which 43.8% were hybrid education students and 56.2% were distance education students. Of the study population, 60.4% were women and 39.6% male. Data analysis focused primarily on the quantitative description of the responses: frequency distributions and measures of central tendency and dispersion, depending on the nature of the variables. Hypothesis testing using χ² was used to compare the results according to the education method in which the participants were enrolled.

RESULTS
Analysis of the Spanish DELES results demonstrate no statistically significant difference in terms of education modality used on the scales of Instructor Support (χ² = 21.67, p=0.35), Personal Relevance (χ² = 25.26, p=0.28), Authentic Learning (χ² = 10.89, p=0.86), Active Learning (χ² = 14.79, p=0.19), Autonomy (χ² = 9.20, p=0.81), and Satisfaction (χ² = 38.81 p=0.08), with the exception of the scale of Student Interaction (χ² = 115.65, p=0.00), which can be attributed to more collaboration being inherent in the face-to-face portion of hybrid education.

CONCLUSIONS
The Spanish DELES is a good tool for evaluating the psychosocial learning environments in hybrid and distance education in universities. Both hybrid and distance education learning environments are similar, with the exception of Student Interaction. The differences on this scale indicate a weakness in distance education that can be attributed to student individualism and student isolation, thus indicating the importance of promoting instructional methods that facilitate interaction among students in virtual learning environments.

This research project was carried out with financial aid received from the Pro-Vice-Chancellorship of Technology and Educational Innovation and Institute of Education Sciences of the University of Alicante.

Keywords:

Evaluation, teaching-learning methods, hybrid and distance education.