Examining students’ attitudes towards online education during COVID-19: evidence from Turkey (Análisis de las actitudes de los estudiantes hacia la educación en línea durante la pandemia de COVID-19. Evidencia de un estudio realizado en Turquía)

Abstract The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has affected the education system at all levels around the world. Coping with the essentialities of online teaching and learning throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, this study aims to give insights into the interpretation of online teaching during the lockdown in Turkey. We applied an ‘opinions regarding online education’ survey (n = 1,007) to examine students’ attitudes towards online education. The participants were students having online classes due to COVID-19 lockdown at different universities in Turkey. Results showed that COVID-19 quarantine has influenced the academic performance of most participants to fluctuating degrees. Yet, most participants believed that online classes could not replace actual classes (n = 725; 72.0%), while only 10.1% of them believed online classes could replace face-to-face classes. Besides, students regularly attending the online classes have positive online education attitudes higher than those of the students who sometimes or never attend the lessons. Thus, this study presents a general illustration of ongoing online education activities during the lockdown and subsequently gives recommendations for future digital learning activities.