Development and validation of Digi-MEE Instrument measuring online learning environments in medical education

Noor-I-Kiran Naeem; Siti Nurma Hanim Hadie; Irwan Mahazir Ismail; Muhamad Saiful Bahri Yusoff

doi:10.12669/pjms.39.6.8430

Development and validation of Digi-MEE Instrument measuring online learning environments in medical education

Pak J Med Sci. 2023 Nov-Dec;39(6):1573-1583. doi: 10.12669/pjms.39.6.8430.

Authors

Noor-I-Kiran Naeem¹, Siti Nurma Hanim Hadie², Irwan Mahazir Ismail³, Muhamad Saiful Bahri Yusoff⁴

Affiliations

¹ Noor-i-Kiran Naeem, FCPS, MSc. MEd. Department of Medical Education, ABWA Medical College, Pakistan. Department of Medical Education, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia.
² Siti Nurma Hanim Hadie, Ph.D. Department of Anatomy, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia.
³ Irwan Mahazir Ismail, Ph.D. Centre for Instructional Technology & Multimedia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia.
⁴ Muhamad Saiful Bahri Yusoff, Ph.D. Department of Medical Education, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia.

Abstract

Objectives: To develop and validate Digital Medical Education Environment (Digi-MEE) Instrument for measuring online learning environment in medical education.

Methods: This series of studies involved 696 participants from May 2022 to December 2022. Following scoping review, invited modified e-Delphi experts developed consensus on the components and related items for measuring online learning environments. A panel of content experts and a group of medical students carried out content and response-process validation to determine Content Validity Index (CVI) and Face Validity Index (FVI) respectively. This was followed by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis to determine Digi-MEE's factorial structure and internal consistency using SPSS version 26.0 and AMOS 26.0.

Results: Delphi experts agreed upon nine components with 73 items of initial Digi-MEE version. CVI of Digi-MEE 2.0 was more than 0.90. with FVI of Digi-MEE 3.0 of 0.87. Exploratory factor analysis yielded 46 items with 57.18% variance. Confirmatory factor analysis led to the final Digi-MEE version containing 28 items within nine components with acceptable levels of goodness of fit indices. Overall Cronbach alpha of the final Digi-MEE was more than 0.90, and for the nine components ranged between 0.62 and 0.76.

Conclusion: Digi-MEE is a promising valid and reliable instrument to evaluate online education environment in medical education. Content, response-process, factorial structure, and internal consistency evidence support the validity of Digi-MEE. Medical schools can use Digi-MEE as an evaluation tool for the continuous quality improvement of online learning environments.

Keywords: Medical Education; Online Learning Environment; Program Evaluation; Psychometrics; Validation.