Investigating social anxiety levels of university students in online student-instructor interaction

In this study, social anxiety in student-instructor interaction in online learning environments was examined. This interaction was investigated within the framework of Moore's Interactional Distance Theory. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between demographic characteristics, self-regulation, computer self-efficacy and online communication self-efficacy in student-instructor interaction with social anxiety and to explain within the framework of transactional distance. In this study, a quantitative researvh design, survey model, was used. In the study, a Social Anxiety Scale for E-Learning Environments, Online Learning Readiness Scale, Online Self-Regulation in Three Interaction Types Questionnaire and a questionnaire consisting of demographic characteristics were prepared and this questionnaire was delivered online via an Online form to the participant students, who could not be in the face-to-face education environments due to the Covid-19 outbreak. A total of 1013 students from the fields of health, technical and social sciences, at associate, undergraduate and graduate levels, participated in this study. The research study was carried out in 2020-2021 academic year. In order to find answers to the research questions of this study, descriptive statistics, Independent samples t-test, Pearson correlation, One-way anova and Multiple linear regression analyses were performed. These analyses were conducted using SPSS 18 package program. According to the results of the analysis, it was found that the social anxiety mean scores of the female students were higher and significantly different than male students. It has been determined that the social anxiety of the higher education students aged 35 and over is significantly higher than those of the higher education students in the younger age group. Social anxiety of graduate students was found to be significantly lower than undergraduate and associate degree students. It has been observed that students studying in the field of health sciences have more social anxiety than the students studying in social sciences and technical fields, and the difference is statistically significant. It was found that there was a negative significant relationship between the ages of the students and their social anxiety. Self-regulation, online communication-self-efficacy, and computer self-efficacy were found to predict social anxiety negative evaluation sub-dimension and somatic symptoms sub-dimension negatively. Self-regulation and online communication self-efficacy predicted social anxiety's social situations sub-dimension negatively, but; It was found that computer self-efficacy did not significantly predict social anxiety's social situations sub-dimension. The findings of this analysis were discussed according to the findings of the relevant literature, and suggestions were proposed to contribute to future studies.