Evaluation of Distant Education Programs with Regards to Various Shareholder Opinions

Abstract

The strong demand and rapid increase in the number of programs concerning distant education programs has put the quality problem of distant education services into the agenda. It is crucial to determine the strengths and weaknesses of distant education programs, the problems encountered by these programs and making the required improvements.  The purpose of this study is to evaluate the quality of the education given in distant education and of the assessment-evaluation approaches based on the opinions of various shareholders in the field of distant education and observation of synchronous courses. The phenomenological design was used in this qualitative study. The criterion sampling method, one of the purposeful sampling methods, was used in determining the universities whose distant education system would be examined. The study sample consisted of 5 universities, among universities with at least 3 years distant education experience, which offered at least one of the associate degree, bachelor’s degree or master’s degree programs online and which had various learning management systems. With this respect, coordinators who work in the distant education systems of these universities, instructors who gave distant education lectures in these universities and a service provider who offered a learning management system to one of these universities (a total of 11 people) were included in the study. The snowball sampling method, one of the purposeful sampling methods, was used in determining the participants. The data were collected through semi-structures interviews and observations and evaluated through the “content analysis” technique. It has been stated that distant education programs should be arranged according to especially the course content, teaching materials, learning-teaching process, the support provided, technology that is being used and evaluation-assessment methods; and the weaknesses of the components were detected with regards to the unique features of distant education. The importance of evaluating distant education programs regularly and carrying out necessary improvements based on evaluation results was also put forward.

Keywords: distant education, program evaluation, shareholder opinion, observation