Development of a Standardized Likert Scale to Gauge Extension Personnel Attitude Towards ICT

Abstract

Information and communication technology (ICT) is readily assisting extension workers towards addressing various obstacles of agricultural extension system. Major responsibility of extension is to disseminate information, skills, and attitudes that are not readily acquired through formal education. In light of this, a standardized scale was developed based on the technique of scale construction devised by Rensis Likert also known as summated rating scale. The procedure began with dimension identification, item collection, relevancy and item analysis, reliability and validity checks to ensure accuracy and consistency of the results. A list of tentative 80 items which intends to measure attitude towards ICT was collected for the relevancy test. One hundred judges were approached online using Google forms for relevancy of statements. In order to find out the discriminating index for each item, ‘t’ score value was calculated using the formula and procedure given by Edwards. Finally, 19 statements made up the final scale based on the relevancy test and ‘t’ score values more than 1.75 resulting from item analysis. Cronbach's alpha value was found to be 0.70 and Spearman-Brown coefficient was found to be 0.55 which depicted high reliability. Furthermore, the Spearman-Brown Prophecy formula was used to calculate the overall test reliability, which was found to be 0.55. Expert opinion on 19 items for content validity and coefficient of correlation the validity and reliability measures of the scales indicated the precision and consistency. Policymakers would find it easier to make the proper decisions by using the standardized scale to practically assess the attitude level of extension personnel towards ICT use in extension services.