Using Educational Informatics Network (EBA) as an educational learning platform in EFL courses in Turkey

The FATIH Project, which was introduced by the Ministry of National Education in 2011, is one of the important educational technology projects in the world. Within the scope of the project, comprehensive activities were carried out for the establishment of interactive whiteboards in schools and the development of internet infrastructure. The Educational Informatics Network (EIN/EBA) is one of the components of the FATIH Project, and it is a social learning platform where e-contents and course materials are offered to support the lessons taught in schools. Thus, this study aims to investigate the EFL teachers' opinions about EIN, determine their EIN usage levels, and examine the suggestions for the improvement of the platform by various variables. The study was designed with the explanatory sequential research design, one of the mixed-method research designs. Based on this objective, 547 EFL teachers who were employed in the Hatay city of Turkey during the 2019-2020 academic year and selected by the convenience sampling participated in the questionnaire, which is the quantitative data collection stage of the research. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 EFL teachers selected by purposive sampling method in the qualitative data collection stage of the research. Since there are two data collection tools in the study, a two-stage data collection and analysis procedure was adopted. In this context, trial versions of SPSS and AMOS software are used in the analysis of quantitative data. On the other hand, the content analysis method is used for the analysis of qualitative data. According to the quantitative findings of the research, while the opinions of the EFL teachers about EIN differ significantly by their education level and being a registered user on EIN, the EIN usage levels of the participant teachers show difference by gender, educational status, being a registered user on EIN, and having information about the FATIH Project. Moreover, the teachers' suggestions about EIN show a significant difference by being a registered user on EIN. Finally, the qualitative results of the study determine that the EFL teachers often experience problems such as infrastructure difficulties, insufficient course e-contents, the lack of interactive materials, and uninteresting course contents when using EIN. These findings underline that the suggestions of the EFL teachers should be taken into consideration to increase the usage levels of EIN in English courses and to make their opinions more positive. Keywords: FATIH Project, EFL teachers, English e-content, EBA, EIN, Educational Informatics Network, Educational Learning Platform