Determining the success factors of distance education systems in architectural education

As in the rest of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected many sectors in our country, from production to construction sites, from construction to education. In order to minimise the impact of the pandemic, many measures have been taken in each sector throughout the country. In this context, one of the most important measures taken in the education sector has been the implementation of the distance learning model in the education system. Distance learning has been rapidly implemented from primary to higher education and has become an important alternative to the current education system. However, it is known that the departments in which applied courses are predominantly included in the educational programmes in universities have difficulties in adapting to the distance learning system and are reluctant to provide education with the aforementioned system. The hypothesis of the study is based on a research carried out using these experimental methods. For this reason, the research focuses on how to make the distance learning system, which has begun to be implemented in architecture schools where, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, theoretical and applied courses are intensively included in their programs, suitable for architectural education. The main research objective of the study is to identify the problems experienced by students in relation to the distance learning system in architectural education and to propose solutions to the problems encountered. In this context, the qualities of the environment created for the users by the distance education systems used in different architectural schools in Turkey were examined, and the success factors required for an effective and efficient learning environment in the distance education system in architectural education were identified. For this purpose, a questionnaire form was created by collecting data through a systematic literature review. The systematic literature review identified 69 possible criteria that influence the success of distance learning systems in architectural education. The data for the study were collected by sending the prepared questionnaire forms by email to the architecture departments of universities all over the country. Data collection was carried out between April 30 and June 28, 2022, and the data for the study were obtained with the information from a total of 232 completed questionnaires. Statistical analyses of the collected data were carried out using the "Office 365 Excel 2020" and "SPSS 22.0 for Windows" package programs.