The effects of lifelong learning on readiness for online learning

Technological developments that started with the industrial revolution accelerated after the end of the 20th century. Developments in industry and technology have caused radical changes not only in production processes and working life, but also in our social and cultural life. In order to keep up with all these changes it has been necessary to attend various trainings, vocational courses, in-service trainings. This gave rise to the concept of lifelong learning. While some people are more successful in lifelong learning and keeping up with changes, some people are incompetent in this regard. In this context, various scientific studies have taken place in the literature on what the concept of lifelong learning depends on and the determination of people's competencies in this regard. On the other hand, the concept of distance education, which emerged due to the fact that the teacher and the student could not come together for various reasons, has been in our lives in various ways for many years. Especially after the 2000s, with the rapid development in computer and internet technologies, internet-based distance education has started to become widespread. The use of online education, which has been gradually increasing in recent years, has spread rapidly after the Covid 19 epidemic, which affected the whole world in 2020. Various studies aimed at determining the factors affecting the efficiency of online learning and increasing the efficiency of online learning have also taken their place in the literature over the years. Readiness for online learning has also been noted in the literature as one of the important factors affecting the efficiency of online learning. In this context, in this thesis, the relationship between lifelong learning and readiness for online learning, which are two important concepts of education today, has been examined. For this purpose, researches and scale studies related to these concepts were examined. Lifelong Learning and Online Learning Readiness scales, which are widely accepted in the literature, were applied to university students at the same time. By analyzing the obtained data, it has been tried to determine whether lifelong learning has decisive effects on the sub-dimensions of readiness for online learning. The findings showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between the online learning readiness sub-dimensions of lifelong learning, computer/internet self-efficacy, self-directed learning, student control, motivation for learning, and online communication self-efficacy.