Conceptualization and Measurement of Perceived Risk of Online Education

Abstract

While there has been growing interest regarding online education (OE), there is no scale available to measure students’ perceived risk of OE. This study develops a reliable and valid scale to measure perceived risk of OE using both qualitative method (focus groups, to develop questionnaire items) and quantitative techniques (e.g. factor analysis, to test and refine questionnaire subscales). The study reveals that the construct of perceived risk of OE has five dimensions: performance risk, time-loss risk, social risk, psychological risk, and source risk. Findings indicate that four factors of the scale – performance, time-loss, psychological, and source risks are strongly predictive of OE enrollment intent.