Evaluation of online teaching processes in the context of lecturers' online teaching skills and strategies: A vocational college case

In recent years, there has been a rapid transition to online education at the higher education level in Turkey, as in several countries. In this process, lecturers must have effective online teaching skills and strategies in order for online teaching to be performed successfully. The online teaching skills and strategies of lecturers have also effects on the attitudes and motivations of the students towards online teaching and become a determining factor in terms of students' success. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to determine how the lecturers' online teaching skills and strategies shape the functioning of the online teaching processes, in other words, their contributions to the online teaching processes. Assuming that lecturers' online teaching skills and strategies can be affected by their own practices and performances, as well as the technical and qualitative characteristics of the online teaching processes, the expectations of the students from online teaching and lecturers, lecturers' performances and the difficulties encountered in online teaching were also examined within the scope of the research. Finally, what can be done to improve lecturers' online teaching skills with the aim of improving the quality of online teaching processes was examined. The research was conducted in a vocational college at Çukurova University in 2017-2018 scholar year. Vocational College, where the research was conducted, was determined through criterion sampling method in line with the criteria of online education in different programs and the participation of mostly non-traditional students (over 24 years old) in online education programs. The study group of the research consists of 10 students enrolled in the online education programs within the Vocational College and 5 lecturers working in the Vocational College. College staff and students participated in the research on a voluntary basis. The number of participants in the study group was determined as a result of the saturation of the data collected throughout the research. Research data were collected through semi-structured interviews with lecturers and students. "Lecturer interview form" and "student interview form" were prepared by the researcher to be utilized in semi-structured interviews. Before starting the interviews, lecturers and students were informed in detail about online teaching skills and strategies. For this purpose, online teaching skills and strategies lists, which are gathered in three dimensions as "technical, facilitating and management skills and strategies", were prepared by the researcher in line with the relevant literature. Prior to the semi-structured interviews, the lecturers and students were informed about the online teaching skills and strategies in the lists prepared in the context of the skill and strategy area to which they are related. The interviews with the lecturers were conducted after the lecturers determined on the skills and strategies they considered important in online teaching. The interviews with the students were also conducted after the students determined on the beneficial strategies used by the lecturers in online teaching. The qualitative data obtained as a result of the interviews were analyzed by content analysis conducted through the MaxQda18 qualitative software program. As a result of the research, lecturers' and students' views on the contribution of online teaching skills and strategies and the difficulties encountered in the online teaching process revealed the skills and strategies that are considered the most important in terms of the quality of online teaching. According to the results of the research, facilitating skills are considered as a more important skill aspect compared to technical skills in online teaching. In the context of management skills, lecturers are expected to be more directive in teaching processes. Frequent and detailed feedback in online teaching processes is one of the most effective online teaching strategies. Giving feedback within the scope of facilitating strategies plays an active role in increasing students' interest during the lesson. Project and assignment-based assessment practices of lecturers are considered by students as the practices that contribute the most to their learning processes. Students encounter more problems in online teaching processes compared to lecturers. The problems encountered by the lecturers are mostly in the direction of not ensuring student engagement in the lessons. As a result of the research, it was concluded that providing the lecturers with organizationally designed training on online teaching skills and strategies and operating incentive mechanisms as a result of the performance evaluations of the strategies used by the lecturers can increase the effectiveness of online teaching. Based on the results of the research, recommendations were made to solve the problems encountered in online teaching and to improve lecturers' performance in the context of online teaching skills and strategies. Keywords: Online teaching, online teaching skills, online teaching strategies, problems encountered in online teaching, higher education.