Effects of distance education process on students

The Covid-19 epidemic, which started to be seen in our country in 2020, has shown its effect in many areas. As in the whole world, face-to-face education had to be suspended in our country as well. In order to prevent millions of students from being deprived of education, open and distance education systems were urgently adopted. The aim of the research is to evaluate the effect of the distance education process applied during the Covid -19 epidemic on primary school students (academic achievements, technological knowledge and skills, psychomotor skills, socialization styles, self-discipline skills, health and peer bullying behaviors). In the research, the opinions of students, teachers and parents were consulted in line with this main purpose. The universe of the study consists of all primary school students who receive compulsory distance education in Turkey in the 2020/2021 academic year. The sample of the study consisted of 1500 primary school students, 1500 parents and 1500 primary school teachers selected by purposeful sampling from all over Turkey. The data were collected through student, teacher and parent questionnaires prepared by the researcher and whose content validity was ensured by taking expert opinion. Frequency and percentage calculations were made with the SPSS-22 program on the data obtained from the questionnaires. The research showed that the technological knowledge/skills and self-discipline skills of primary school students increased, their socialization styles differed, their mental and physical health deteriorated, their psychomotor skills decreased, their academic achievements did not change and they were exposed to cyber bullying behaviors in distance education. It is hoped that the research will lead to a better understanding of the impact of the distance education process on primary school students.