The effects of social network supported distance education applications on students' academic achievement and views

The general aim of the present study is to determine the effects of social network supported distance education applications on student academic achievement and their views on it. With this purpose in mind, research was conducted with third year students of the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology, in the Fırat University Faculty of Education. Within the scope of the research, distance education and social network applications were utilized in the teaching units, "Project Based Learning", "Case Method" and "Programmed Instruction", in the Special Teaching Methods II lesson. For distance education applications, the platform of CourseSites developed by Blackboard as a teaching management system, and the Ning platform for social network applications were employed.There were three groups, The achievement test developed by the researcher includes 40 questions. Through item analysis conducted after the pilot scheme, .53 for average difficulty and .78 for reliability coefficient were determined for the achievement test. The statistical program SPSS for Windows 16.0 was used in the analysis of quantitative data, while QSR Nvivo 8 was used in the analysis of qualitative data.As a result of the research, it was seen that social network supported distance education applications created a more positive effect on the academic achievement of the students than did distance education applications Also, it was determined that social network supported distance education applications were more effective in the acquisition of behaviors at the knowledge level of cognition than the applications in other groups; but, the groups were not different from each other in relation to the acquisition of behaviors which are at the comprehension level of cognition. In the qualitative dimension of the research, it was revealed that the students expressed positive opinions on the use of social network and distance education applications in terms of the lesson and these applications had positive effects on their communication with the lecturers and other students. It was also determined that most of them had no difficulty in the process of application and in feeling as a part of the system during the participation in application. They said that the applications of the research should be included in other lessons and they will use such a process in their professional life. Moreover, it was seen that they had various views both on the differences between the distance education environment and face to face learning environment and on the interesting sides of the applications. The data obtained from interviews showed that the results of both dimensions of the research supported each other. In this context, it is concluded that learning management systems used for performing distance education activities in higher education should be supported by social networks and they should be used more. Using social networks and distance education platforms together in education enables the positive effects of both these technologies to be seen more, and they can be used to greater advantage.Keywords: Distance education, social networking sites, learning management systems, Blackboard, CourseSites, Ning.