Quick transition of academicians to emergency remote online learning in the COVID-19 outbreak

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected the whole world in 2019, face-to-face education was suspended in higher education and the distance education system was started. Faculty members are at the forefront of the stakeholders affected by these changes in the education system. This study was carried out with the aim of examining the difficulties experienced by faculty members working in distance education processes in the rapid transition to distance education. In the research design, a case study from qualitative patterns was adopted. The research data were obtained as a result of semi-structured interviews with a total of 26 faculty members with different titles working at Amasya University. The data obtained as a result of the interviews were evaluated with content analysis. As a result of the research, it is evident that the academicians who had previous experience of teaching with the distance education methods did not experience any difficulties in the distance education process during the pandemic period. However, it has been understood that the instructors who have no previous experience in online education but have good technology use skills did not have similar difficulties. Another important issue that emerged as a result of the research is about the problems experienced in the practice courses. As a result of the research, it was determined that the academicians who had previous experience of teaching with the distance education method did not experience any difficulties in the distance education process during the pandemic period. However, it has been understood that the instructors who have no previous experience in online education but have good technology use skills do not have similar difficulties. Another important issue that emerged as a result of the research is about the problems experienced in the practice courses. In this context, it has been observed that the instructors have problems in preparing course materials for the learning goals and outputs in applied courses and in uploading the prepared materials to the distance education module. In addition, it was seen that they encountered difficulties in lecture techniques to achieve the gains.