The Help-Seeking Scale for Online Learning Environment (HSOLE): Validity and Reliability

Abstract Help seeking is a critical psycho-educational structure that facilitates learning and ensures the potential and sustainability of online learning environments (OLE). This research aims to develop a scale for measuring help seeking behaviour in two contexts: (1) learning process help seeking and (2) assessment process help seeking. The motivation behind this research is to understand help seeking behaviours in OLE, which can potentially enhance these environments’ effectiveness and learning outcomes. Help seeking involves learners recognizing difficulties and actively seeking assistance to overcome them, making their learning processes more efficient. The study group consists of 843 undergraduate students. The data collection tool was developed through three key processes: design, application, and validation. The design process begins with creating an item pool. The scale validity is tested through factorial validity, and its construct validity is measured based on convergent and discriminant validity. Reliability is tested using construct reliability and Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficients. In conclusion, a valid and reliable measurement tool was developed with 58 items in total. This scale is an important tool for identifying help seeking tendencies in OLE. It contributes to the design of appropriate help systems to enhance the potential and sustainability of these environments. This research offers significant contributions to the literature on online learning and provides insights into strategies for making learning environments more effective.