Investigation of e-learning readiness of academic staff

The permanent development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) necessitates individuals to keep up with this development in every field of life and the importance of lifelong learning becomes apparent. At this point, the inadequate traditional education and training conduce to new understandings. E-learning is one of these understandings and provides information to be transmitted in a cheap and fast way. It is very important that the academic staff working at the universities create learning environments according to the requirements of the current age and the needs of the learners, know the e-learning process, technical structure, content and be able to use it competently, that is, their readiness for e-learning is sufficient. The aim of this study is to investigate the e-learning readiness structures of the instructors working at Bartın University within the scope of different variables. The working group of this research which is carried out with the screening model is the academic staff working in Bartın University in the 2019-2020 academic years. The data of the research were obtained from the "Personal Information Form" and the "E-learning Readiness Scale of Academic Staff". SPSS 23.0 package program was used in the analysis of the data. In the evaluation of the data in the study, frequency distribution for categorical variables and descriptive statistics for numerical data are given. Whether there is a difference between the two groups and independent sample t test and whether there is a difference between more than two groups was examined with One Way ANOVA. As a result of comparisons, Levene test was performed for variance homogeneity and Bonferroni was used to determine the source of the difference in the groups providing variance homogeneity, and Tamhane's T2 for groups that did not. According to the findings, it was determined that the level of readiness of the academic staff for e-learning is at a medium level. Within the context of the gender variable, male lecturers have higher self-efficacy in ICT usage and self-confidence in e-learning. It was determined that the education needs of 24-31 year olds for e-learning were higher than those of 48 years old and above. Academic staffs at the Faculty of Education are more ready to e-learn than those at the Faculty of Literature. It is concluded that academic title and education level do not make any difference in e-learning readiness. In accessing the internet, the self-efficacy in ICT usage of the academic staffs that use laptop computers is higher than those who use desktop computers. In the cases of developing computer and internet use skills, those who develop with the help of others have higher education needs for e-learning than those who develop with university courses. It may be recommended to arrange trainings on e-learning processes and to provide the necessary equipment, technical and infrastructure support to the academic staffs in order to be used the knowledge and skills that are available or to be gained through these trainings at a high level. Thus, it may be possible for the academic staff to be ready for e-learning. Keywords: Lifelong learning, Academic staff, E-learning, E-learning readiness