Evaluation of distance education in the context of labor education in the industry 4.0 period

The period, shortly called Industry 4.0, which is defined as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, is a combination of Cyber-Physical Production Systems, information-processing elements, physical elements, software and people. In this new era, production is now based on more "brain" work than "handiwork". Therefore, it is expected that people who will take part in production in the future will have analysis, abstraction and innovation skills. The increasing need for a competent workforce means that the need for lifelong learning also increases. Moreover, traditional, face-to-face, practice-based learning situations face various obstacles due to current conditions. Increasing digitalization inevitably changes how we communicate and learn. In traditional practice-based social learning systems in production, people work and learn together in teams or on the basis of a master-apprentice relationship. Because of the 'more specialized jobs' that emerged with Industry 4.0 and fewer employees doing the same type of work, this type of learning is now much more difficult than in the past. Therefore, with Industry 4.0, a new learning paradigm for the current and future workforce; It is clear that a new synchronous and/or asynchronous learning system is needed. In this study, within the framework of Network Society and Industrialization Theories of Education, an answer was sought to the question of how distance education should be in the context of workforce education in the Industry 4.0 period, and a case study, which is one of the qualitative research approaches, was used. Eight national and international experts were interviewed, and the data collected after interviews with them through semi-structured forms were analyzed with the MAXQDA package program, and thirteen categories and eighty-one codes were revealed under three main themes. Accordingly, it was understood that the categories and codes that emerged in the context of the main themes determined after the data obtained were in the nature of answers to the sub-questions stated in the aim of the study, and necessary suggestions were made in the conclusion section accordingly.