Making students gain practice proficiency in distance photography education

This thesis which aims to create online course for students to gain practice proficiency, focuses on preparing and developing e-learning system in the context of design criteria and communities of practice approaches. The system which has been developed through three main axes, namely the process of communities of practice, technological infrastructure components and user roles, has the assumptions of empowering students' photography practice with interactive community, and supporting theoretical knowledge with practice. To test these assumptions and to analyze the applicability and disseminability of the developed course, a research using focus group interview and survey techniques within the framework of qualitative and quantitative research methods with the participants consisting of experts, graduates and students from Anadolu University Open Education Faculty, Photography and Camera Operation Associate Degree Program was conducted. To analyze the satisfaction of the students and to what extent the developed course has improved photography practice proficiencies, The Perceived Learning Scale and The Satisfaction Scale were used. According to the quantitative findings, The Perceived Learning Scale and The Satisfaction mean scale scores of the graduates who participated to pilot study were high. Qualitative findings revealed that online practical course in distance photography education met an important need and the participants demanded that such practice courses be extended throughout the program. The opinions of the experts who participated in the focus group interview, the graduates who participated in the pilot study, and the students in the role of observers who examined the course and the process after the pilot study, were discussed in the context of photography education, distance education, learning management systems and the use of online tools, and both theoretical and practical suggestions were developed.