Distance Education Students' Opinions on Distance Education

Abstract

This research aimed to determine the opinions of undergraduate and graduate level distance education students about the education they received. Phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research designs, was used in this study. Semi-structured interview form was used as data collection method. In this research, focus group interviews were conducted in three sessions with a total of 27 distance education students (14 master and 13 undergraduate). Distance education students prefer distance education because they work in a job; they consider distance education as a great opportunity for those who cannot receive formal education. The students stated that the distance education infrastructure of the university is technically very good; they have almost no technical problems, but they have problems when connected via mobile applications. They stated that the course contents related to informatics are old because they have received education especially in the field of informatics and emphasized the importance of renewal.