Evaluation of academicians' attitudes towards distance education: The case of Necmettin Erbakan University

Technological developments have ensured that access to information is fast and easy. People have also adapted to developing and changing information and have to improve themselves constantly. They have learned new information by updating their knowledge eternally, and replaced their existing ones with new ones in the face of the rapid change of information. Today, as technological developments and access to information have been experienced so rapidly, educators have to change their learning and teaching processes. As a result, technology has become an inseperable part of the educational process. In this process, distance education model has started to be preferred more. In this study, it is aimed to determine the attitudes of the academic staff of Necmettin Erbakan University for distance education. In addition, it was also examined whether the attitudes of the academicians working at Necmettin Erbakan University for distance education show a significant difference in terms of variables such as gender, age, seniority, their departments, educational attainment, branch etc. In the research, descriptive survey model was used as the method. The data in the study were collected through "Distance Learning Attitude Scale" developed by Ağır (2007). The research sample was consisted of 348 managers from different departments working at Necmettin Erbakan University. Frequency, percentage, average values, t-test and anova were used in the analysis of the data. As a result of the research, it has been determined that the attitudes towards distance education of the academicians working at Necmettin Erbakan University have a positive value above the average. As a result of the analysis of the difference tests, significant differences emerged only in terms of working time in the institution, among the demographic variables.