Turkish adaptation of a new scale for measuring transactional distance between students and the learning technology

Abstract

Transactional distance is a key construct for understanding the quality of interactions in distance education. This study aimed to adapt the New Scale for Measuring Transactional Distance Between Students and Technology to Turkish culture. The adaptation process followed the 18-step guideline by the International Test Commission (ITC). The scale was applied to two study groups: Study Group 1 (n = 46) for linguistic equivalence and preliminary analysis, and Study Group 2 (n = 2402) for validation. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the four-factor structure with acceptable fit indices (CFI = 0.964, TLI = 0.947, RMSEA = 0.079, SRMR = 0.049). The reliability coefficients (Cronbach’s α) ranged from 0.702 to 0.939 across dimensions. Discriminant validity was supported through HTMT2 values, all below 0.90. The results suggest that the adapted scale is a valid and reliable tool for measuring transactional distance in Turkish distance education contexts.