Evaluation of effects of computer-aided environmental education on environmental literacy of computer technologies program students

Nested mixed design in which quantitative and qualitative methods are used together was employed in order to determine effects of computer-aided environmental education on environmental literacy of the students studying at the program of Computer Technologies. The sample of the research included 60 second grade students studying at the program of Computer Technologies at Mustafa Kemal University Antakya Vocational School in 2014-2015 academic term. Thirty students who were at the department of Computer Technologies were assigned to the control group, and the other thirty students who were at the department of Computer Programming were assigned to the experimental group. Firstly, environmental literacy scale was conducted for the experimental and control groups as pre-test before intervention, and it was found that both groups were equal in terms of certain criteria. Afterwards, environmental education was given to the control group via traditional method, and via computer-aided education method to the experimental group during six weeks. Environmental literacy scale was applied as post-test at the end of the study, and opinions of the students in the experimental group about computer-aided environmental education were asked. Environmental literacy scale consists of sub-components of personal information form, environmental knowledge, attitude, behavior and perception. Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficients of each sub-component were found .74, .80, .82, .81 respectively. Quantitative data obtained during the study were analyzed via dependent and independent samples t-tests, and qualitative data were analyzed via content analysis. According to the findings of the research, environmental education caused significant difference between pre-test and post-test mean scores of the experimental and the control group students in favor of the post-test in all sub-components (knowledge, behavior and perception) apart from attitude. However, in the sub-component of attitude; while there was significant difference between pre-test and post-test mean scores of the students in the experimental group, there was no significant difference in the control group. When post-test mean scores of the experimental and control groups were compared, it was found that there was no significant difference in sub-components except for attitude. Significant difference was ascertained in favor of the experimental group in the sub-component of attitude. Data obtained from student interview forms showed that the students were pleased of lessons taught according to computer-aided education. The students expressed advantages of computer-aided education as "being instructive", "being catchy" and "use of instructive videos", and disadvantages as "lack of activities encouraging practice", "need of long time for slides" and "not allowing active participation". Consequently, it was observed that there was an increase in the levels of environmental knowledge, attitude, behavior and perception of the students having received environmental education. Therefore, it is suggested that environmental education classes which are either elective or compulsory in some departments of higher education institutions should be included in the programs of much more departments, activities encouraging practice in environmental education should be focused, and students should be in touch with nature in some classes.