Dünyada ve Türkiye’de Uzaktan Eğitim

Distance Education in the World and Turkey 

Definition of Distance Education 

The term distance education was first mentioned in the 1892 catalog of the University of Wisconsin, and this term was first used in an article written by William Lighty in 1906. Later, this term ( Fernunterricht ) was introduced by the German educator Otto Peters in the 1960s and 1970s in Germany and the distance education institutions in France were named Télé Enseignement. According to İçten (2006) the definition of Distance Education; “It has emerged as an alternative to traditional education problems , planning educational activities and learning with practitioners . It is a teaching method in which communication and interaction between students is provided from a specific center through specially prepared teaching units and various environments. " 

The Development Process of Distance Education in the World After the industrialization process.

With the transformation into an information society, almost every society in the world has had to adapt to a rapid change. According to changing social and economic needs, the search for new educational models has also begun . We can say that the distance education approach emerged as a result of these searches. Historically , distance education has been used to engage adult learners living in places where traditional education systems cannot reach. Distance education, which dates back to the 1700s as a concept and started with letter teaching practices , has continued its development in parallel with the developments in technology and has gained its present meaning and importance with information technologies.

When we look at the chronology of distance education, education through newspapers and letters stands out in the 1870s. Then, education with printed materials in the 1930-1950s, education with radio, television and video in the 1950-1980s. When we come to the years of 1980-1995, we see that computer-aided education and after 1995, web-based education was used more widely. Three basic trends and breakpoints that make a change in the perception of distance education around the world draw attention. These are letter education in the 1700s, the development of electronic technology in the 1920s, the beginning of education with electronic course materials and the establishment of distance education universities in the 1960s. We can easily say that another breaking point is experienced today with the development of internet technologies. Before the Corona virus (Covid-19) spread to the world in 2019 and turned into a pandemic in the recent past, various universities in many countries of the world offer distance education opportunities at many levels of education. Due to the pandemic, almost all countries decided to suspend face-to-face education and close schools at all levels in order to limit the spread of the virus. 

Distance Education in Turkey 

In order to teach literacy to illiterate public sector, distance education has come into question for the first time in 1927 at a meeting to discuss the problems in education in Turkey. However, this application could not be started. It was concluded that this practice, which was envisaged to be made in the form of education by letter, would be ineffective due to the high population of illiterates in the society. 

In other words, learning without a teacher was not found realistic through letters. 

We see that distance education remained only a thought in our country until 1956's.

After 1956, the foundations were laid for distance education applications, and in 1960 a board named "Education by Letter" was established within the Directorate of Statistics and Publishing. In 1962, education by letter was provided to children who could not continue their education due to various reasons, adults and those who want to increase their professional knowledge and skills. With the development of technology, educational programs started to be broadcast by TRT in 1968. In 1973, the Film Radio Television Education Center started to broadcast educational programs for primary, secondary and high schools. In addition, the Public Higher Education Institution, established in 1975, planned to broadcast educational programs on television in many areas that may be needed. In 1978, it was proposed to establish an "Open University" by the Ministry of National Education for the development of distance education applications in higher education. This proposal made by the Ministry of National Education in 1978 was only implemented in 1981 and the first Open Education Faculty at university level was established within Anadolu University.

After 1990, other universities started to adopt distance education applications. In 1992, an open education high school was opened under the Ministry of National Education, and in 1998, an open primary school providing education for the 6-7th and 8th grade. Today, distance education applications are used by many universities, public institutions and private sector. Nearly 80% of the existing higher education institutions provide certificate, associate degree, undergraduate and graduate education with distance education practices, and they carry out their education by using printed materials, radio-television programs, computer-aided and face-to-face training. Students have access to mock exams, recorded course videos and digital textbooks on the internet. In addition, Education Informatics Network (EBA) was created by the Ministry of National Education and a distance education center (UZEM) was established using the infrastructure of EBA. In this direction, UZEM was designed by the Ministry of National Education to offer e-learning opportunities to all teachers throughout their lives in order to meet different expectations. If several undergraduate university distance education applications by many institutions of higher education in Turkey will be examined undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs are given. 

In the first cases seen in Turkey in 2019 after the school was closed a short time and was passed fairly quickly in distance education. Although the first week of distance education started, due to some controversial content, how the distance education works attracted the attention of the public, the discussions about the quality of distance education, how successful it works, its deficiencies and the aspects that need to be improved did not reflect on the agenda. When Turkey's pandemic Looking at the educational experience in the process, they come across three basic components: broadcasting, Education Information Network (EBA) content and teachers of students with various applications training they continue in sync with the way in. Looking at the individual work of the teachers, it is seen that they continue their educational activities by sending homework through synchronous lesson processing or applications such as Whatsapp.