Examining the past of distance education and the views of faculty members on the present and future

After examining the historical development of distance education through the relevant literature, the purpose of this study is to examine faculty members' views on the current situation and future expectations. The phenomenology method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used for the study. 11 lecturers who taught via distance education at a university during the Covid 19 pandemic participated in the research. Semi-structured interview questions were used as an instrument for data collection. Distance or face-to-face interviews were conducted with the participants for the research purpose. The interviews were analyzed using the content analysis technique. As a result of the analysis, opinions were grouped under six headings: Applications in Distance Education, Advantages of Distance Education, Useful Aspects of Distance Education, Problems in Distance Education, Requirements in Distance Education, and Its Future in Distance Education. The prominent results of the research are discussed in the discussion section. When these prominent results are considered, for learning management system developers; problems experienced in the system, and features that should be added, for researchers; It can be stated that it is a guide for future experimental studies. It is recommended to support the advantages and useful aspects, meet the requirements, conduct research to solve the problems experienced, and conduct studies to meet the expectations for the future.