Analysis of online student connectedness levels of inonu University distance education students in terms of some variables

The aim of this research is to provide an in-depth analysis of Inonu University Distance Education Students' Level of Online Student Connectedness in terms of Some Variables. Formal education and distance education students' online student connectedness levels are defined and analyzed in terms of way of education, gender, marital status, employment, faculty, grade, distance education degree program, and way of instruction choice. It is attempted to define the correlation between the participants' level of online student connectedness, students' success at distance education courses and programs, and students' online participation records. This study employs a relational screening model and its study groups consist of students at Inonu University and they are called as formal education and distance education students in the study. 646 formal education students who take only the courses (Ataturk's Principles and History of Turkish Revolution, Turkish Language and Foreign Language) which are required with the regulation 2547's i clause in the first paraghraph of the fifth article in distance education, and 14 students of associate degree program, 190 students of bachelor's degree programs and 103 students of bachelor's degree completion programs at distance education forms the study group (CoHE, 1981). In order to collect data "Personal Information Form"is used and to evaluate online student connectedness levels of the students "Online Student Connectedness Survey" (Bolliger ve İnan, 2012) is utilised. SPSS 21.0 packaged software is used to analyze the data. The data were analyzed using percentage (%) and mean (x̄), significance tests such as t-test, variance analysis (ANOVA), Mann Whitney U, Kruskall Wallis H according to the homogeneity of the variance, as well as Bivariate Correlation technique. As a result of the research, distance education students were found to feel comfortable in online learning environments in general; however, it has emerged that students' interaction levels with other students and instructors are above the desired level and student-to-student interaction and collaboration is not adequately promoted by the instructors, and they lack sense of community. The results show that, formal education students who takes only required courses in distance education have lower online student connectedness levels and they do not feel comfortable in the distance learning environment. Sense of community is merely observed among the participant students in the study. It is observed that gender and employment variables in the survey have no significant effect on online student connectedness levels. Whereas there is no significant difference on the levels of formal education students' online student connectedness in terms of faculty, significant difference is observed among distance education students. It has been found that marital status, grade, distance education degree program type and way of instruction choice have an effect on online student connectedness levels. According to the results of the research, the academic success of distance education students and the level of online student connectedness are positively correlated at low levels at all factors, while a low correlation is observed only between 'Comfort' factor and formal students' success at Turkish Language and English courses. A considerable number of formal education students did not register to Learning Management System and most of the registered students did not record any online attendancy. Analysis show that there is no correlation between online student connectedness and students' online attendancy frequencies. It is seen that the only correlation is between the frequencies of synchronous online attendancy to English courses and success at a low degree.