Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach with Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process Sets for The Structure on Transactional Distance

Abstract

Abstract The Transactional Distance Theory is a global theory that defines the items that should be found in distance education environments. Structure, which is one of the items of this theory, refers to the degree of flexibility that defines the ability of a course or program to meet individual student needs. In today's distance education approach, the subjective ideas of the designers are effective in the planning of the structural dimension. However, the question of how each item of the structure size affects the online environment and each other has still not been answered. In addition, the difficulties experienced in planning the structural dimension (structuring of online teaching) raise the question of how much each infrastructure item affects online teaching. This study arose from the need to understand how items of a critical dimension, such as structure, in distance education should be constructed objectively. With this study, the weight vector carried by each item related to the structural dimension in distance education was calculated. The Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process, one of the multi-criteria decision-making approaches, was used in the calculation. The linguistic scale used in this method was effective in the preference of the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process. The linguistic scale enabled decision-makers to make correct binary decisions free from uncertainty and prejudices. At the end of the study, the weight vectors of 77 sub-items were calculated under 5 main items related to structure in online learning.