Theology programme students' opinions about distance education and distance in-service training during pandemic period

Technological developments, which have affected all areas of life in recent years, have also affected the field of education. While the usage of technological course materials in the field of education is increasing in the world, Turkey has also started to pay great attention to this subject as well. Distance education programmes are at the forefront of the technological course materials used lately in in-service training. In order to make the distance education activities, which are widely used in in-service trainings, reach the desired goals, it is important to examine the distance education methods, evaluate the opinions of the participants, and examine the course efficiency. With this research, it was aimed to examine the views of theology students on distance education and distance in-service training and to examine the effectiveness of the in-service training given to those who work as religious officials. The questionnaire which is prepared by literature review is used in this research. The data collection questionnaire consists of three parts. In the first part, there is a personal information form that aims to determine the personal information of the theology program students. In the second part, there are questions which aim to determine the views of the theology program students towards distance education. According to the answers given by the participants to the questions after the second part, if they have participated in the distance in service training before, they can move on to the third part. 0In the third part, there are 28 items that aim to determine the views of the theology program students who participate in distance on-the-job training. SPSS 22.0 program was used in the analysis of the data obtained in the research. Frequency analysis was used to determine the percentage distribution of the participants' demographic information and their answers to the questions about distance education and distance in-service training. While Mann Whitney U analysis was used to compare the responses to the statements about distance education and distance in-service training according to marital status, Kruskal Wallis H analysis was used to compare according to age groups, educational status, occupation, type of residence and professional seniority.