Evaluation of distance education programs in terms of students and teaching staff wievs

Disappearance of borders over the world as a result of developing technologies and globalization has also led to a change in educational policies. Countries' understanding of education shows parallelism with the technology. In order to adapt themselves to developing technology and respond to increasing demand for education, distance learning as an outstanding option is considered as a solution. Distance learning, spreading rapidly in recent years, has been adopted as understanding of education in the future.The purpose of this study is to evaluate distance learning programs in Turkey in terms of purpose, process, content, evaluation, and assessment and opinions of students. This research has been carried out by using a survey method with questionnaire which was prepared by researcher. Data obtained from survey has been analyzed with SPSS 15.0 program (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). Frequency tables, pie and bar charts, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test, factor analysis, reliability and validity analysis (Reliability Analysis), an independent sample t-test (Independent Samples test) has been used in analyzing.In conclusion, it has been seen that the faculty members has no positive thought regarding evaluation and content parts, but they have shown more positive thoughts regarding purpose and process parts. However, students hold a positive view about evaluation part of program. The reason why students choose distance learning is largely that distance learning provides an independence from time and place.Key Words: Educational programs, distance education, program evaluation, instructional technology.