Examination of the distance educational web sites in teaching turkish as a foreign language in terms of usability (Sample of 3 dakikada Türkçe)

Nowadays most of the educational activities are held via technology based materials such as web sites. Likewise, some web sites are also used for teaching Turkish as a foreign language. However, their contribution to language teaching depends on their usability. This study is conducted to determine the usability of 3 Dakikada Türkçe web site which is a web 2.0 tool used for teaching Turkish as a foreign language. Two models were used in the study in accordance with this purpose. First, a survey research was conducted to measure the usability perceptions of the students attending Sakarya University TÖMER at A1 level towards 3 Dakikada Türkçe web site. While the universe of this study involves foreign individuals learning Turkish at Turkish Language Teaching Application and Research Centers in Turkey at A1 level, the sample consists of 33 foreign students learning Turkish in Sakarya University TÖMER at A1 level. In the second section of the study a pretest-posttest matched control-group design, which is among the quasi-experimental designs, was used since a random assignment was preferred and two groups were used. Within this concept, the practices were held with an experiment group of 16 participants and a control group of 17 participants. The result of the survey research presented that 3 Dakikada Türkçe web site which was evaluated based on the perceptions of the users was 'highly' usable. The result of the quasi-experimental study conducted with an experimental and a control group displayed that 3 Dakikada Türkçe supported the academic success of the users. Besides, it was observed that the obtained knowledge of the users become permanent.