Academics’ perception and practices of online education during the Covid-19 pandemic: The case of Turkey

Abstract

COVID-19 affected higher educational institutions around the world. This study focused on academics' perceptions and practices of online education based on their academic discipline and previous online education experience. The survey research design used and an e-survey was conducted in May 2020, during which the lockdown restrictions were rather tight in Turkey. The analyzes were carried out on the responses of 8,242 academics' using the omnibus chi-square test and t-tests. The results point out that academics' time allocation to preparation for courses, student counselling, and lectures are varying due to their academic disciplines. Generally, academics have a negative perception of online education though there is a difference between the experienced ones and others. In particular, academics with online education experience exhibited lower negative perceptions of online education than those lacking such experience. Maybe one of the most problematic parts of this transition process for academics is how to ensure the reliability of exams. Our results showed that even the academics with online education experience have a higher level of distrust towards educational measurement and evaluation methods.

Transition to Distance Education during Covid-19 Pandemic: Opinions of Faculty Members and Pre-service Teachers in an English Language Teaching Department in Turkey

“…Online classes were also found burdensome by the faculty members because teacher talk time was too much and online classes required good preparation for the lessons. In a similar vein, Bakan-Kalaycıoğlu et al, (2022) found that preparing for online classes was more burdensome for faculty members as they had to redesign their lessons in accordance with online education.…”

“…However, they suggested that face-to-face instruction should be supported with online instruction as the technology had its own blessings and was a necessity in the current era. In their study, Aksoğan and Çalış-Duman (2020) and Bakan-Kalaycıoğlu et al, (2022) concluded that blended learning was a better alternative to online instruction. The participants were also asked which problems they encountered during online instruction and the reasons of them.…”

The Potential of TikTok’s Key Features as a Pedagogical Strategy for ESL Classrooms

“…This is also related to the collaborative learning strategy that is a key strategy through the TikTok duet challenge feature. This is because pupils learn and support each other's learning through this feature [40]. As such, this leads to a warm, non-hostile, and positive environment for the purposes of better development toward learning English, despite English being their second language.…”

Digital transformation and online learning within the context of the future of higher education

“…The global Covid-19 pandemic has produced profound changes in our world, including the world of higher education. Academic institutions globally were forced by circumstances beyond their control to dramatically alter the learning environment for their students and to accommodate significant changes in the work environment for their workforce (Hamad, 2022;Bakan Kalaycioǧlu, et al, 2022). Already there are signs that as the pandemic starts to subside in some nations, that a return to the world that was prepandemic will not happen.…”