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Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) has become a key multivariate statistical modeling technique that educational researchers frequently use. This paper reviews the uses of PLS-SEM in 16 major e-learning journals, and provides guidelines for improving the use of PLS-SEM as well as recommendations for future applications in e-learning research. A total of 53 articles using PLS-SEM published in January 2009?August 2019 are reviewed. We assess these published applications in terms of the following key criteria: reasons for using PLS-SEM, model characteristics, sample characteristics, model evaluations and reporting. Our results reveal that small sample size and nonnormal data are the first two major reasons for using PLS-SEM. Moreover, we have identified how to extend the applications of PLS-SEM in the e-learning research field.

Classroom assessment is a critical aspect of teaching and learning. In this paper, Taiwanese high school students’ conceptions of science assessment and the relationship between their conceptions of science assessment and of science learning were investigated. The study used both qualitative and quantitative methods. First, 60 students were interviewed regarding their conceptions of science assessment. From these interviews, a survey was developed, validated, and used with 914 students to quantitatively examine the same question. Third, 224 students were surveyed to determine the relationship between their conceptions of both science assessment and science learning. Using the phenomenographic method, the first study revealed six categories of conceptions of science assessment: reproducing knowledge, rehearsing, accountability to learning, improving learning, problem solving, and critical judgment, which seem to reveal the surface, summative, and formative purposes of assessment, respectively. The second study, based on what the high school students reported about science assessment, resulted in the use of the Conceptions of Science Assessment questionnaire, which confirmed the second-order analysis (surface, summative, and formative) of the purposes of science assessment. In the third study, the relationships between high school students’ conceptions of science assessment and of learning science were revealed. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 97:244–270, 2013

Previous research has established a close link between students' conceptions of learning and approaches to learning. Until recently, only a few quantitative studies have investigated the relationship between high school students' conceptions of learning science and the approaches they adopt to learning science. This study sought to address this gap in the literature by assessing these possible relationships empirically through the development of two questionnaires: The Conceptions of Learning Science (COLS) questionnaire and the Approaches to Learning Science (ALS) questionnaire. Four hundred and seventy-four Taiwanese high school students were administered the COLS questionnaire and the ALS questionnaire. Results were entered into a structural equation model to elicit structural relations between students' conceptions of and their approaches to learning science. Overall, findings revealed that students holding constructivist conceptions of learning science tended to employ deep approaches to learning science. Conceptions of learning science such as “testing” and “calculate and practice” were also found to have effects on the surface approaches to learning science; the conceptions of learning science as “applying” and “understanding and seeing in a new way” had noticeable effects on deep approaches to learning science. This study employed quantitative methods to confirm further the structural relations existing between conceptions of learning science and the motives and strategies employed in learning science. Implications for implementing the study's findings into the context of the real-world classroom are discussed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed, 92:191–220, 2008.