A research through applicability of web based distance education in gastronomy and culinary arts education

Distance education has become a subject that has gained importance with the impact of global crises and has become a frequently researched topic with the opportunities offered by technological developments and advantages such as flexibility and accessibility. Gastronomy and culinary arts education is a multidisciplinary field that encompasses both theoretical knowledge and practical skills. The fact that applied education is of significant importance in this field makes the effectiveness and applicability of distance education controversial. This study aims to evaluate the applicability of web-based distance education in gastronomy and culinary arts education and examines whether distance education can offer an equivalent learning environment compared to face-to-face education in gastronomy and culinary arts. The study group of the research consists of twenty-one volunteer students who enrolled in Balikesir University Faculty of Tourism, Department of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts in the autumn semester of 2024-2025 academic year and who have not received any culinary education before. The study was conducted with a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design, which constitutes a mixed design, and interview technique from qualitative research methods. The Culinary Practices Achievement Test and Culinary Practices Analytical Rubric developed within the scope of the research were applied to the students as pre-test and post-test. In the study, web-based distance education method was applied to the experimental group. In the control group, the teaching was conducted with the traditional face-to-face method. At the end of the process, interviews were conducted with the experimental group students about their experiences. Quantitative data were analyzed and interpreted by Mann Whitney U test and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test. Qualitative data were analyzed by descriptive analysis method. The quantitative findings of the study revealed that there was no significant difference between the learning levels of the experimental and control groups. Although the students in the experimental group expressed some negative opinions about distance education, they stated that they were generally satisfied with the implementation process and that they improved both their theoretical and practical knowledge levels. In this study, where the results obtained from qualitative and quantitative data support each other, it was revealed that web-based distance education in the field of gastronomy and culinary arts can provide a learning experience equivalent to face-to-face education. As a result of the research, suggestions were developed for the effective use of distance education in gastronomy and culinary arts education.