Distance Education System Research Articles

The Qualifications and Views of Instructors in the Distance Education System

A new process has been brought about due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has affected the world. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, since the spring semester of the 2019–2020 academic year, all education and courses are provided through distance education. Therefore, since distance education is a new process for many, faculty members may encounter various problems. For this reason, deter-mining the views of lecturers about the distance education process is important for the improvement and development of the distance education system. The aim of this study is to examine the views of the lecturers who teach through the dis-tance education system and to make suggestions for the improvement of the sys-tem. The situation was determined using the qualitative research method. The re-search questions were prepared by the researchers. Their validity was ensured by taking experts’ opinions. For this purpose, interviews with semi-structured ques-tions were conducted with 28 instructors at Cyprus and Russian universities and the data obtained were evaluated by content analysis. The findings obtained as a result of the research are given in detail in the findings and results section.

The Effect of 'Pediatric Tracheostomy Care' Online Course on Nursing Students' Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Caregiver Roles

Aim: It is important for nurses to learn sufficient knowledge and skills about tracheostomy care during their undergraduate education. The study was conducted to determine the effect of pediatric tracheostomy care online course on nursing students' knowledge levels and attitudes regarding their role as caregivers. 
 Material and Method: The study was conducted between February and June 2020 at the faculty of health sciences at a state university in Turkey. A total of 76 third-year nursing students registered in the course of Child Health and Diseases Nursing were included in the study. The data were collected with a descriptive features form, a tracheostomy care knowledge test, an attitude scale regarding nurses' caregiver roles. Students were sent online pretest. After pretesting, students were assigned to experimental group (n=37) and control group (n=39) by randomization. The students in the experimental group were given pediatric tracheostomy online course on certain days using the distance education system of the university. After the course, all students in the groups were sent online post-test. The data were analyzed using t test and Chi-square test. Significance was assessed at the level of p

Artificial Intelligence Techniques for Distance Education: A Systematic Literature Review

In the current era, education, like other fields, relies heavily on big data. Moreover, artificial intelligence, including affective computing, is one of the most essential and popular technologies adopted by educational institutions to process and analyze big data. In this systematic review, many previous research types related to improving educational systems using artificial intelligence techniques were studied, such as: deep learning, machine learning, and affective computing. This systematic review aims to identify the gaps in students' emotional understanding in distance education systems. The world has recently witnessed the spread of educational processes for distance learning, especially in the university and the enormous open online courses (MOOCs). Besides, the COVID-19 pandemic has been involved in changing all educational processes to a distance learning system. The results indicated that these systems recorded a high success rate. However, the teacher does not fully understand the student’s emotional state during the educational session. It also lacks monitoring or monitoring during the electronic exams, which are electronic exams. So, it is a widespread problem in distance learning.

Graphic Design Students’ Perspectives and Job Anxiety About Distance Education in the Pandemic Period

The coronavirus emerging in China has rapidly become a global epidemic. Many sanctions come to the fore to prevent the spread of the epidemic. One of them is that people stay at home and do not leave the house unless it is necessary. This necessity has affected the education system as in all areas of life. Universities have switched to the distance education system. Unfortunately, many universities do not have sufficient infrastructure or resources to facilitate instantly effective online teaching. In this study, it was aimed to determine the problems faced by the graphic design department students during the distance education process conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic period, their opinions on distance education and their job anxiety levels. This study is important in terms of determining the level of job anxiety faced by graphic designer candidates during their education, taking necessary precautions, supporting them in eliminating these concerns, raising their awareness on the subject and making determinations to reduce job anxiety. It is important to know the thoughts of students towards distance education especially during the pandemic period in order to increase the quality of education. The sample of the research consists of students studying in the field of graphic design in the 2020-2021 academic year in Turkey. The stratified sampling method was used in sample selection. Distance Education Attitude Scale and Job Anxiety Scale were used in the study. The sampling was carried out with the voluntary participation. Research data were collected from Google Forms through a questionnaire consists of personal information and the scales. SPSS 21 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) statistical software was used for data analysis. The relationship between job anxiety level and distance education satisfaction level is seen that there is almost zero and statistically insignificant. The anxiety score for this group of students is above the average and reasons should be analyze in great detail. On the other hand, distance education attitude score is below the average. The reasons would be related to being unprepared to this period. The most important factor in the occurrence of this situation is being caught unprepared for this process. While job anxiety differed in the level of satisfaction with the program, the distance education attitude differed in the education level of the mother, the education level of the father, grades and the level of satisfaction with the program. Although the relationship between the two scales was not significant in the study, it was observed that the distance education limitation factor was in a negative but weak and significant relationship between all factors of the job anxiety scale.

Distance learning: current state and development prospects

This article is devoted to the issue of organizing and conducting distance learning in educational institutions. The attention is focused on the advantages of distance learning. Comparison of distance and traditional forms of education is carried out. The article highlights the relevance of distance learning. The problems that hinder the development of distance learning are analyzed. It has been established that distance learning allows the applicant to fully provide the necessary educational and methodological complex of the academic discipline, the problem of lack or absence of educational materials disappears.
 The article determines that the introduction of modern information and communication technologies into the distance learning system allows people with special needs to fully satisfy their educational needs. The distance education system increases the efficiency and quality of education, expands the information environment, increases communication opportunities for participants in the educational process, and provides access to world information resources.

Humanitarian Projects Development from Universidad del Zulia SIGHT Affinity Group

This work aims to divulge the volunteering experiences within humanitarian projects development from Universidad del Zulia SIGHT affinity group in Venezuela. At first, “Una mano por tu Facultad” project carried out in 2019 is described, which had the active participation of volunteers from the RE-IEEE-LUZ student branch and the SIGHT-LUZ affinity group and resulted in the recovery of twenty-six (26) classrooms and four (4) laboratories of the Faculty of Engineering. Furthermore, a new project is underway in response to COVID-19, which is focused on a distance education system using funds approved by the Humanitarian Activities Committee (HAC) and the Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technology (SIGHT) of the Institute of Engineers Electrical and Electronic (IEEE). This group has the objective of bringing technologies-based solutions to problems existing in local communities in the Zulia State, Venezuela.

Faculty Member Employment of Online Platforms

COVID-19 prompted to transform the traditional education system into a distance education system and using technological tools, including educational platforms. online learning platforms play an important role in modern education. The objective of the research is to explore the degree of using platforms by the faculty members at Al-Aqsa University, and to highlight the difficulties they face when using platforms .To achieve the research objective, ​followed the qualitative and quantitative method. The instruments of the research were a semi-structured interview included the important difficulties the faculty members faced inusing platforms , and a questionnaire included the most important skills to use platforms. The results revealed that participants agreed on the most important obstacle of using educational platforms, the difficulty of access to the internet. The results of the survey indicated that the use of e-platform skills is high. The results of this study help decision-makers to plan, evaluate and implement online learning platforms in their institutions

Research Productivity of Faculty Members of Taharabad College: A Scientometric Study

The Twenty-first century shaped a new atmosphere for education. Due to computer technology, internet, smart phones and other such devices, education reached to each and every corner of the world. Even people living in remote areas are able to reap the benefits of open education system and distance education system This paper presents a scientomentric study of Arts and Commerce College i.e. research productivity of faculty members during 2019-2021. This research paper covers gender wise, age group wise, writing/publication statues of teachers, language wise research productivity, use of communication channel for research, purpose of research productivity, and authorship pattern.

The effectiveness of distance education in light of the spread of the Coronavirus, From the teachers' point of view in the northeastern Badia schools: فاعلية التعليم عن بعد في ظل انتشار فيروس كورونا من وجهة نظر المعلمين والمعلمات في مدارس البادية الشمالية الشرقية

This study aimed to reveal the effectiveness of distance education in light of the spread of the Corona virus From the teachers' point of view in the northeastern Badia schools, and to achieve the objectives of the study, the descriptive analytical approach was adopted, and the study sample consisted of (150) teachers' in the northeastern Badia schools; who taught during the spread of Coronavirus through the distance education system, and the necessary data were collected using a questionnaire whose reliability factor was (0.825) and was applied to the study sample. The results of the study revealed that the study sample's evaluation of the effectiveness of distance education in light of the spread of the Coronavirus from their point of view was average, and their evaluation was of the field of continuity of distance education, the field of obstacles to the use of distance education, the field of interaction of faculty members with distance education, and the field of interaction of students in using Distance education is medium, and the researcher recommended holding training courses for students, teachers and administrators for programs and applications related to distance education, in addition to workshops to train them on distance education tools and strategies, and the need to combine face education and distance education in educational institutions in the future, and provide self- learning materials. For students who are not benefiting from the educational platforms due to the unavailability of the Internet or because of the power outage.

Research on Distance Teaching System of English Course Based on Wireless Network Technology

The development in technology is taking place with an accelerating pace across the globe. The increasing expansion and advancement in the field of information technology and the modern teaching system provide a technical support for the development of a distance teaching system to learn English courses. Multimedia teaching system of English course based on B/S framework (system 1) and English teaching system based on MVC architecture (system 2) were the two most prominent and widely used approaches for the distance teaching system of English learning courses. These systems comprehensively consider the current English teaching needs, develop the existing architectures, discuss the system architecture and functions, and establish the corresponding development environment. However, the mentioned systems have the problem of high proportion of memory resource consumption and high failure rate of the communicating nodes. In order to reduce the proportion of memory resource consumption and node failure rate of distance teaching system and effectively improve the teaching effect, this study designed a distance teaching system of English course based on wireless network technology. In order to analyze the functionality and stability of the wireless network technology in distance teaching of English course, the server-side and client-side modules of the system are designed. The server side is mainly used to maintain and control the overall functions of the system, while the client side is used to access/request the contents from the server. On this basis, the system software module is designed. The memory consumption results are accounted for under 30%, which is significantly lower than the earlier-mentioned systems, and the node failure rate of the system proposed in this paper does not increase significantly and remains below 4% all the time which indeed is a very low amount of failure rate. The experimental results show that the memory resource consumption ratio and node failure rate of the proposed system are very low, and the application feedback effect is significantly better than the other systems.

Multi-level analyses of distance education capacity, faculty members\u2019 adaptation, and indicators of student satisfaction in higher education during COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic triggered distance education in higher education. Decisions such as isolation, social distancing and quarantine made by countries unexpectedly and suddenly forced face-to-face education to change to distance education within days. All academics around the world had to move online overnight. All the educational and academic activities in higher education (courses, exams, meetings, etc.) had to be conducted online in a few days. Based on these changes, this study aimed to analyze the relationships among student, faculty (adaptations of faculty members to distance education) and institutional (distance learning capacities of the universities) variables that affected satisfaction of the students related to distance education in higher education institutions in Turkey during COVID-19 pandemic using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). The study group included 14,962 students and 3631 academics from 30 universities. The results showed that universities with higher distance education capacities got higher satisfaction scores. HLM analysis showed that 43% of the variation in satisfaction scores resulted from universities. The second HLM analysis showed that 44% of the overall satisfaction score variance of the students could be explained by the factors of university features (Level 2: distance education capacity and acceptance and use of distance education systems of faculty members). Thus, it was determined that 44% of the university factor calculated as 43% in Model 1 (which is calculated within students’ general satisfaction scores) resulted from the distance education capacity and the acceptance and use of distance education systems of faculty members. The findings of this study provide insights to improve distance education by stakeholders of higher education institutions.

IMPROVING STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES IN STATISTICS FOR RESEARCH EDUCATION COURSES USING MOODLE PLATFORM DURING PANDEMIC

Currently, the education system is experiencing a situation that requires teachers to be able to master distance learning media, especially during this Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. The distance education system is one of the solutions to overcome difficulties in face-to-face learning with the existence of social distancing rules considering the problems of time, location, distance, and cost which are major obstacles at this time. Moodle is a platform that can be used for distance learning. This study aims to see whether there is an increase in student learning outcomes in studying educational research statistics using the Moodle platform. The type of research is classroom action research with the Pelton model. This research sample is 42 students who take education research statistics courses. The sample data was processed using descriptive statistics taken from student learning outcomes. The results showed that student learning outcomes in studying educational research statistics have increased. The Moodle platform can help students get more learning outcomes, and it is effectively used as a solution in distance lectures. Suggestions for further research are the need for improvisation in using the Moodle platform to maximize its use

The Experiences of Nursing Students towards Distance Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic

With the emergency crisis management due to the COVID-19, in many countries around the world, the education system structured according to formal education has been tailored to the distance education system This study was carried out to comprehensively investigate and understand the experiences of nursing students towards web-based education in Turkey, which is applying distance education today due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was conducted as a qualitative study with a Hermeneutic phenomenological framework. Data collection was terminated when data saturation was reached. The sample of the study consisted of 14 student nurses. The data were evaluated using Van Manen's thematic analysis method. The analysis of the data revealed three themes: "COVID-19 and the distance education that comes with it", "barriers to distance education", and "dilemmas regarding distance education in terms of nursing education". In the study, nursing students perceived personal, infrastructural, technical equipment, and pedagogical barriers to distance education. Although students were aware of some of the opportunities offered by distance education, they defined the lack of clinical practice as an important deficiency and inadequacy in terms of nursing education and stated that they were worried about this issue. In terms of the successful applicability of distance education in nursing education, it is important to be aware of the barriers and to try to reduce them, and to increase strategies that will strengthen clinical learning as an alternative to clinical education, which is an integral part of nursing education.

Distance education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America: A comparative study: التعليم عن بعد في المملكة العربية السعودية والولايات المتحدة الأمريكية: دراسة مقارنة

This paper aims to shed light on distance education in the United States of America and compares it to distance education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in order to benefit from it in improving the processes of education and distance learning and how to overcome the problems facing distance education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study used the comparative method. Among the most important findings of the study: Distance education centers contribute to literacy and educating the elderly, providing individual and varied educational resources, ensuring freedom to choose, saving time and money, the distance education system allows choosing the most appropriate time for students, self- discipline, and developing students ’intellectual skills. Among the most important recommendations of the study: Paying attention to increasing distance education centers to work on raising the cultural, scientific and social level among members of society, the necessity of using different types of distance education (simultaneous and asynchronous education), working to provide a safe environment and better communication among all students, working to provide a new world of opportunities for distance education students, and working to provide educational outcomes for those who missed learning opportunities from members of the community.

TEACHERS’ SELF-EFFICACY BELIEFS AND OPINIONS ABOUT DISTANCE EDUCATION DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

This study investigated teaching self-efficacy beliefs and opinions about distance education of teachers in Turkey who switched to distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic. 758 teachers from Turkey completed an online questionnaire comprising demographic information questions, likert type scale items on self-efficacy for distance education, closed-ended questions addressing teachers’ opinions about distance education, and an open-ended question enabling teachers express their experiences with distance education. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests, and content analysis. The analysis showed that teachers’ beliefs in their own abilities in fulfilling the requirements of distance education, such as organizing effective learning environments and preparing different evaluation activities were not at a high level. The education they received, the active use of technology before the pandemic period and the type of school they work in have effects on teachers’ self-efficacy towards distance education. The low number of students attending the live classes negatively affected their motivation. Furthermore, teachers thought that current instructional materials on the platform were not sufficient for students to be successful. However, teachers believed that their experiences in distance education during the pandemic increased their efficiency in education. Most participants received sufficient support from the school administration, but not from parents during this period. Students’ lack of computers and/or internet and systemic errors were among the main problems encountered by the teachers regarding the distance education system. In the study, suggestions were made to make distance education more effective.

Immersive Virtual-Reality-Based Streaming Distance Education System for Solar Dynamics Observatory: A Case Study

The combination of immersive virtual reality (VR) environments and distance education has led to a new educational paradigm. In this study, an immersive VR-based distance education system is proposed to enable multiple remote users to send, share, and experience images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) via streaming. In contrast to the conventional system in which only experts use SDO data, the proposed system provides a head-mounted-display-based visualization platform that can be easily used by experts and non-experts. Real-time SDO image streaming must be possible to realistically observe changes in the Sun and increase involvement. Thus, multichannel-based SDO image transmission was applied to increase the network bandwidth utilization. To improve the social presence of participants, realistic avatar models controlled by the motions synchronized with the user are provided. In addition, free communication is possible through verbal interactions. This allows multiple remote users to participate simultaneously without having to be physically present. A user study with 20 subjects showed that the participants could observe SDO images in a more immersive manner by using the proposed system. In addition, they experienced social presence because of the user avatar models and an enriched educational experience by conversing with and listening to experts.

Change Life to Online: Pedagogical Relationship in Pandemic Time

Suddenly, the distance education system, which had been created to reach audiences traditionally without access to on-site teaching offers, became the norm. Teachers and Schools had to face this important question from day to night: how to continue to educate, share knowledge, help students and motivate them in the construction of knowledge? The purpose of this communication is to reflect on the effects of the schools closure, due to pandemic, on the pedagogical practices of teachers, namely on the pedagogical relationship. 59 Portuguese teachers of basic and secondary education were questioned, in a casual sample, but diversified in terms of the subjects they teach.The data obtained allow to conclude that despite all the constraints, the pedagogical relationship was maintained and even came out reinforced from the confinement experience.

Analysing lecturers' perceptions on traditional vs. distance learning: A conceptual study of emergency transferring to distance learning during COVID-19 pandemic.

In recent years, and also due to the COVID-19 pandemic, education institutions worldwide have changed their education paradigm from a traditional to an online system. These institutions have rapidly accomplished their educational programs and activities by supporting various web applications, allowing the completion of the education process remotely. This motivated us to investigate the general perceptions of the faculty members who are teaching different courses for undergraduate students using the distance education system. The proposed technique is based on the use of advanced analysis methods to test the hypothesis of instructors’ perceptions of online teaching effectiveness, compared with traditional teaching, will not be affected by the following eight factors, including gender, academic major, age, academic degree, country of teaching, teaching experience in traditional classes, teaching experience in virtual classes (VCs), and whether or not the department/faculty provided e-learning courses before the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 187 lecturers from 71 departments in 24 educational institutions located in 11 countries participated in this research. Results indicate that the perceptions of instructors regarding the online teaching system generally do not change based on the studied factors. Furthermore, the quantitative analyses illustrate that no significant differences exist in all dimension scales in terms of gender, major specification, age, country of teaching, and virtual experience. Significant differences are found in the dimension scale of distance education effectiveness in terms of academic degree and the educator status in terms of supporting VCs and traditional experience dimension scales. Additionally, the study provides various recommendations, including that the departments should encourage instructors to positively adapt with online teaching by developing the required skills and knowledge. Moreover, departments and institutions should support the teaching staff with specialized education tools. In addition, instructors should strive to decrease the communication and interaction gap between distance education and traditional in-class teaching.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS DURING THE PANDEMIC PROCESS AND THE WAYS TO COPE WITH STRESS

In the ongoing pandemic process, there are many changes, uncertainties and differences at every stage of education, as is the case all over the world. While it is an important situation for teachers and students to move forward by accepting this fact, every person in the world has their own responsibilities regarding the current situation. Education and training processes have a very important place in the current pandemic conditions. It is known that doing things that can be done from home during the pandemic is a good method to save lives. At this point, it was seen as inevitable that education should continue from home. All positive and negative situations experienced in this process are important on the psychology of teachers and students in education life. By using technology, getting out of the usual situation and giving education as a teacher and trainer from home and getting education as a student are among the most important factors that create stress. It is best to minimize this stress level and to use the most appropriate methods of coping with stress and to turn this situation into a positive one with the cooperation of teachers and students. In the process, the psychological effects of distance education system on teacher and student have shown differences and similarities according to each level. Active participation of students in their lessons, providing a good learning environment and motivating teachers to their students will reduce the level of negative stress in the process in a psychological sense. At this level of stress, personal responsibility is more important in the distance education system. This study examines the teacher and student psychology related to the pandemic process and the scientific literature on coping with stress, and it is considered important in terms of contributing to the field and guiding the researchers who will work in the field.
 
 
 Key Words: Distance Education, Teacher, Student, Psychology, Stress.

M-Learning Management System use during Covid-19

The current study examined factors affecting higher education students’ use of a mobile-based Learning Management System (m-LMS) for distance education during the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (Covid-19). A survey instrument based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was established and validated. The primary data were gathered from 1032 responses. The data were computed in SmartPLS 3.2. Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) procedures were conducted to assess the measurement and structural models. The proposed model is valid and reliable. Findings of the study show that relationships emerge in seven out of ten hypotheses. The strongest relationship is between Perceived Usefulness and Attitude while the weakest exists between Perceived Ease of Use and Attitude. This study emphasizes awareness about the use of m-LMS in education, especially during distance education due to pandemics like Covid-19. The model is expected to provide a useful base for future academicians interested in conducting similar topics of research.