Students' Opinions on Distance Education: Pandemic and Before

Abstract

In this study, it was aimed to examine the opinions of university students regarding distance education before and during the pandemic. This research was designed as a qualitative case study. The participants in the research included 64 students, 37 of whom were enrolled before the pandemic, and 27 during the pandemic period. They were all students at the Faculty of Education of a state university in Turkey and were enrolled in the "Open and Distance Learning" course during the fall and spring semesters of the 2019-2020 academic year. To collect data for this study, researchers used a form consisting of open-ended questions. The study found that university students experienced a greater lack of a social environment during the pandemic period. They also encountered more technical problems and faced shortages of digital tools compared to the pre-pandemic period. Furthermore, unlike the previous period, university students reported that they had less personal time, experienced issues with measurement and evaluation, had prolonged screen time, experienced unplanned distance education, lacked active participation, did not receive immediate feedback, and had difficulty managing their studies. As a result of the research, it was determined that there were more positive opinions about distance education before the pandemic and more negative opinions during the pandemic period. Additionally, this study highlights the differences between distance education and emergency remote teaching

Keywords

• Pandemic
• pre-pandemic
• distance education
• emergency remote teaching
• covid 19

Students' Opinions on Distance Education: Pandemic and Before

Abstract

In this study, it was aimed to examine the opinions of university students on distance education before and during the pandemic. This research was designed as a qualitative case study. The participants of the research are 64 students, 37 of whom are attending the pre-pandemic and 27 of them during the pandemic period, who study at the Faculty of Education of a state university in Turkey and attend the "Open and Distance Learning" course in the fall and spring semesters of the 2019-2020 academic year. To collect data for the study, researchers used a questionnaire form consisting of open-ended questions. In the study, it was determined that university students experienced more lack of social environment during the pandemic period and they experienced more technical problems and lack of digital tools compared to the pre-pandemic period. Apart from these, unlike the previous period, university students stated that they could not spare time for themselves, had measurement/evaluation problems, long screen time, unplanned distance education, no active participation, no immediate feedback, and difficult student management. As a result of the research, it was determined that there were more positive opinions about distance education in the pre-pandemic period and more negative opinions in the pandemic period compared to the pre-pandemic period. In addition, it can be stated that the results of this study reveal the difference between distance education and emergency remote teaching.

Keywords

• Pandemic
• pre-pandemic
• distance education
• emergency remote teaching
• covid 19

References

1. Bozkurt, A. (2020). Koronavirüs (Covid-19) pandemi süreci ve pandemi sonrası dünyada eğitime yönelik değerlendirmeler: Yeni normal ve yeni eğitim paradigması [Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic process and evaluations regarding education in the post-pandemic world: New normal and new education paradigm]. Açıköğretim Uygulamaları ve Araştırmaları Dergisi, 6(3), 112-142. Retrieved from https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/auad/issue/56247/773769