Attitudes and motivations of tourism students towards distance education and gamification

With the advancing technology, face-to-face education is no longer a necessity, and lessons have started to be taught in virtual classrooms via the internet. The rapid increase in mobile devices, internet and broadband connection has also caused great changes in higher education tourism programs around the world. However, some studies have shown that student attitudes and motivations towards distance education are low. In this context, the use of gamification method in educational environments seems to be a promising approach to increase students' motivation and attitude towards lesson. This thesis study was conducted to examine whether there is a difference between the demographic characteristics of tourism students actively studying at Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University in the 2020-2021 Spring semester and their attitudes towards distance education, attitudes towards gamification and motivation levels towards gamification. In the first part of the research, the introduction of the thesis and the definitions of the theories mentioned in the thesis are given. In the second part, the place of distance education in vocational tourism education is explained, detailed information about gamification is given and the concepts of motivation and attitude that affect the student's behavior are mentioned. In the third part, the method of the research and the findings obtained from the research are given. In the fourth chapter, the results of the research are given and suggestions for future research are made. The data obtained from the 200 participants who made up the research sample were analyzed through quantitative research. According to the research findings, significant differences were determined between the gender, class and department level of the participants and their attitudes towards distance education, attitudes towards gamification and motivation towards gamification. This study is important in that it will help educators in developing educational strategies in the future in order to understand the attitudes and motivations of tourism students towards distance education and gamification, which is seen as a method that can increase interaction in distance education.