The views of teachers on distance education during Covid-19 process

Abstract

The aim of this study is to reveal the views of teachers on distance education, which is carried out using various platforms due to the pandemic in Turkey. The case study design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the research. Convenience sampling method was used in the selection of the participants. The participants were selected on the criteria that they conducted live lessons through distance education platforms and worked at a public school during the pandemic. The data of the study were collected through an interview form prepared by the researchers. The data collection instrument consists of two parts. The first part consisted of questions related to demographic information of the participants. The second part of the form included questions to determine teachers' views on distance education. The data of the study were analyzed with a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis program. The participants stated that distance education has the advantages in terms of communication, flexibility in time and place, high number of participants, and economy. On the other hand, they stated that distance education has limitations in terms of technological reasons, limited active learning, socio-economic reasons, receiving instant feedback, supervision and control, and disadvantaged groups' inability to benefit. Although it was concluded that the participants considered themselves sufficient to manage the distance education process effectively, it was determined that the teachers did not receive any in-service training in order to plan, implement and evaluate the distance education processes. In this context, the participants stated that they want to receive in-service training on the use of Web 2.0 tools, live lesson management, distance education planning training, infrastructure training, presentation techniques. The participants offered suggestions to teachers, students, parents, and other stakeholders about the solutions of the problems they experienced.