University Students' Perceptions of their Distance Education Experience during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The aim of this study is to reveal university students' views of distance education delivered during the Covid-19 pandemic. This quantitative study designed as an online survey research collected data from 3861 university students from different universities in each geographical region of Turkey between April 26, 2020 and May 6, 2020. Student views of distance education are presented with descriptive analyses. Next, cross tables containing chi-square tests of the variables that affect the difficulty of focusing on distance education along with the regression analysis of the factors influencing the evaluation of the effectiveness of distance education are presented. It was found that the majority of the students have difficulty focusing on distance education, which is related to gender, frequency of physical activity at home, university type, and their majors. The factors that affect students' perceptions of the effectiveness of distance education include age, socio-economic status of their family, staying with the family during the pandemic, difficulties in focusing, frequency of physical activity, and negative psychological effects of Covid-19.