Volume 9 Issue 3 (2020)

Views and Evaluations of University Students about Distance Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic

pp. 185-198  |  Published Online: September 2020  |  DOI: 10.22521/edupij.2020.93.5

Ahmet Sahbaz

Abstract

In recent years, technological devices and the Internet have become an integral part of our lives, changing many of our habits and daily routines. This change became more rapid and intense during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic when countries compulsorily locked down their populations in an attempt to impede or halt the spread of the novel coronavirus. In order to continue their education, students stayed at home and were required instead to study online using a computer or a mobile device such as a smartphone. According to UNESCO (n.d.), “more than 1.5 billion students are or have been affected by school and university closures during this period.” As a result, distance education has become the “new normal” of the educational system. Prior to the pandemic, many studies had been conducted regarding the opinions and attitudes of university students toward distance education; however, publications on this subject since the beginning of the pandemic are still very new. Indeed, the current study aimed to reveal the views and evaluations of university students towards distance education since the beginning of the pandemic. This qualitative study was carried out at the Turcology Department of Tuzla University in the Bosnia Herzegovina Federation. A questionnaire comprised of 12 open-ended questions was used to collect the data, which was then analyzed using the conventional content analysis approach. From the results of the study, it can be concluded that almost 90% of the participants were against distance education, but firm supporters of face-to-face education.

Keywords: COVID-19, distance education, online education, face-to-face education, Turcology

References

Adnan, M., & Anwar, K. (2020). Online learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic: Students’ perspectives. Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology, 2(1), 45-51. http://www.doi.org/10.33902/JPSP.%202020261309

Akimova, O., Bobyreva, N., Palutina, O., & Pomortseva, N. (2015). Distance Language Education. Procedia- Social and Behavioral Sciences, 199, 348-356. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.07.558

Bozkurt, A., & Sharma., R. C. (2020). Emergency remote teaching in a time of global crisis due to CoronaVirus. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 15(1), 1-5. http://asianjde.org/ojs/index.php/AsianJDE/article/view/447

Chick, R. C., Clifton, G. T., Peace, K. M., Propper, B. W., Hale, D. F., Alseidi, A. A., & Vreeland, T. J. (2020). Using Technology to Maintain the Education of Residents During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Surgical Education, 77(4), 729-732. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsurg.2020.03.018

Durak, G., & Ataizi, M. (2016). Learner Views about a Distance Education Course. Contemporary Educational Technology, 7(1), 85-105. https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/6164

Ekmekçi, E. (2015). Distance-Education in Foreign Language Teaching: Evaluations from the Perspectives of Freshman Students. Procedia- Social and Behavioral Science, 176, 390-397. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.487

Flores, M. A., & Gago, M. (2020). Teacher education in times of COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal: national, institutional and pedagogical responses. Journal of Education for Teaching (advanced online publication). https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2020.1799709

Glover, L., & Lewis, V. E. (2012). Student Preference Online Versus Traditional Courses. The Global e-Learning Journal, 1(3), 1-28. https://globalelearningjournal.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/glover-and-lewis-student-preference-online-versus-traditional-courses-1.pdf

Gündüz, A. Y. (2013). Öğretmen Adaylarının Uzaktan Eğitim Algısı [Preservice teachers' perception of distance education] [Unpublished Master's thesis]. Sakarya University, Turkey.

Gündüz, A. Y., & İşman, A. (2018). Pre-Service Teachers’ Perception of Distance Education. TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 17(1), 125-129. http://www.tojet.net/articles/v17i1/17112.pdf

Hayward, J. M. (2010). The Effects of Homework on Student Achievement. [Master's thesis, Brockport State University of New York]. https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/ehd_theses/120/

Khalil, R., Mansour, A. E., Fadda, W. A., Almisnid, K., Aldamegh, M., Al-Nafeesah, A., Alkhalifah, A., & Al-Wutayd, O. (2020). The sudden transition to synchronized online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia: a qualitative study exploring medical students’ perspectives. BMC Medical Education, 20, Article 285, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-020-02208-z

La Piana, N. (2014). Comparing Students’ Perceptions of Online Language Learning to Traditional Learning [Doctoral dissertation, Liberty University]. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/886

Lytle, R. (2011, November 11). Study: Online Education Continues Growth. US News & World Report. https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2011/11/11/study-online-education-continues-growth

Nachimuthu, K. (2020). Student Teacher’s Attitude Towards Online Learning During COVID-19. International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology, 29(6), 8745-8749. http://sersc.org/journals/index.php/IJAST/article/view/26057

Oliver, K., Kellogg, S., & Patel, R. (2012). An Investigation into Reported Differences Between Online Foreign Language Instruction and Other Subject Areas in a Virtual School. CALICO Journal, 29(2), 269-296. http://dx.doi.org/10.11139/cj.29.2.269-296

Paechter, M., Maier, B., & Macher, D. (2010). Students’ expectations of, and experiences in e-learning: Their relation to learning achievements and course satisfaction. Computers and Education, 54(1), 222-229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2009.08.005

Reeves, T. C. (2008). The satisfaction of Community Language Students Regarding Distance Education Versus Traditional Education [Doctoral dissertation, Texas Southern University]. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/122334/

Sampson, N. (2003). Meeting the needs of distance learners. Language, Learning and Technology, 7(3), 103-118. http://dx.doi.org/10125/25216

Tuncer, M., & Bahadır, M. (2017). Uzaktan Eğitim Programlarının Bu Programlarda Öğrenim Gören Öğrenci Görüşlerine Göre Değerlendirilmesi [Evaluation of the Distance Education Programs according to Student Views that Learned in These Programs]. The Journal of Educational Reflections, 1(2), 29-38. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/eduref/issue/34201/378134

UNESCO. (n.d.). COVID-19 education response. https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse/globalcoalition

Ziyadah, S. M. (2012). Saudi female attitudes toward distance learning in higher education (Publication No. 3507517) [Doctoral dissertation, Indiana State University]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.

Announcement

EDUPIJ News!

► Journal Metrics

  • 9% acceptance rate
  • 1.8 (2022) CiteScore (Scopus)
  • Q3 (2022) CiteScore Best Quartile
  • 0.294 (2022) Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR)
  • 0.612 (2022) Source-Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) 

EDUPIJ Statistics from Scopus

CiteScore: 1.8, view Scopus page

SCImago Journal & Country Rank

► Educational Process: International Journal is member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). 

► New issue coming soon! (Volume 13 Issue 2, 2024)