The views of Academic Staff on the Transition to Emergency Distance Education in the Pandemic Process

Abstract

Education and training are constantly renewed in line with the changing world and emerging new learning needs. During the pandemic process in the world, the transition to distance education became essential at all grades of education. Many academicians started to use this system for the first time. The main subjects of this study are the effect of increasing technology usage times in the transition to compulsory distance education transition and the problems that may be encountered in distance education. From this point of view, the study aims to reveal the views of academic staff on compulsory distance education. This study used a case study, and the opinions of 20 lecturers working at Erzurum Ataturk University were collected with a semi-structured interview form. The obtained data were analyzed by creating themes and sub-themes through content analysis. In the light of the negotiations, difficulties in the planning and implementation of education, the difficulties in technological infrastructure problems, the advantages of distance education, and the situations created by technology in the distance education process were revealed. In light of the findings, it can be advised that all academics receive training on university distant education techniques.