The purpose of this research is to investigate the universities' distance education activities in the Covid-19 pandemic in Turkey. Survey model was used. All universities in Turkey were the population of this research.In each university a person who was a stuff or a director of distance education process was tried to be reached. 33 people were participated the research. Data was collected with an online questionnaire form. According to the results, Moodle and ALMS were the mostly used learning management systems. Big blue button and Perculus were found to be the mostly used as a virtual classroom software in universities. It was found that in only six universities all of courses was given synchronously with a virtual classroom software, in spite of the recommendations of Council of Higher Education. Most of the universities stuck with their existing learning management systems (f=29) and virtual classroom software (f=24) in order to manage new situation. Half of the universities tracked their students absence rate. Participants expressed that the education of lecturers about distance education systems was the most difficult job that they did during this process.

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors motivating pre-service teachers for online learning within the context of ARCS motivation model. The study, in which the phenomenology model was used, was carried out with 52 pre-service teachers attending the department of Computer Education and Instructional Technologies at the Education Faculty of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University in Turkey. The participants were experienced in online learning. In the study, the data were collected with an open-ended questionnaire within the framework of the ARCS motivation model. The research data were analyzed with descriptive analysis and examined fewer than four themes (attention, relevance, confidence and satisfaction). Also, for each theme, sub-themes were obtained. The most frequent factor motivating for online learning was "relevance to individual differences" found under the theme of "confidence". As for the least frequent motivating one, it was "flexibility" found under the theme of "relevance".

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The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of instruction given with different multimedia modalities (written text + animation or narration + animation) on the academic achievement, cognitive load, and positive affect in different paces (learner-paced or system-paced); 97 freshmen university students divided into four groups taught in different modalities and paces. These groups are written text + animation and learner-paced (WA + L), written text + animation and systempaced (WA + S), narration + animation and learner-paced (NA + L), and narration + animation and system-paced (NA + S). The findings did not reveal any significant difference between the achievements of the groups. Within the context of cognitive load, modality principle in learner-paced groups was confirmed. Instruction conducted with different multimedia modalities in different paces did not cause any difference between the positive affects of the groups. However, in contrast with the other three groups, the positive affects of the students studying with the NA + L software increased in the posttest when compared with those in the pretest.

In this study, synchronous virtual classroom software used in online learning environments was examined. In this literature review study, first, virtual classroom software was described and its features were stated. Then, areas of virtual classroom software use were mentioned. After that, advantages and disadvantages of virtual classroom software were expressed and commonly used virtual classroom software such as Adobe Connect, Perculus, Blackboard, WizIQ, GoToTraining, Electa, OpenMeetings and Big Blue Button was introduced. Finally, virtual classroom software was compared with regards to some features like licensing, sharing, video playing, remote control and supporting Turkish language packet. After the comparison, it was found that software has some advantages and disadvantages relative to each other. However, it was seen that all of them have basic features. It is expected that this study will contribute to institutions and users delivering online distance education about what a virtual classroom is and selecting virtual classroom software in line with their needs.

In this research, the potential of Facebook groups used in an online course in order to establish social presence was examined. Qualitative research methodology was used in this study. The participants of the study were 12 senior undergraduate students taking the School Experience course online over a period of 12 weeks. A Facebook group where announcements and deep discussions were made and files were shared was used. Facebook group posts as document data; and student interviews as interview data were collected. According to the results, it was found that Facebook groups established social presence. Social presence involves three categories; affective expression, open communication and group cohesion. Paralanguage, emotion, humor and self-disclosure emerged as indicators in the affective expression category. Acknowledgement, agreement, invitation and continuing a thread were found as indicators in the open communication category. Greetings and salutations, vocatives, group reference, social sharing and collaboration were found as indicators in the group cohesion category. A similar study can be conducted by collecting quantitative data from a large number of participants using the social presence scale. Other social networks' potentials to establish social presence can be examined. Since Facebook groups establish social presence, they can be used to support online or face-to-face courses.

The purpose of this study was to develop a scale which could be used to evaluate instructional website designs from the perspective of visual perception theories. For this purpose, a scale of 50 items was developed based on the literature and expert opinions. Visual perception theories such as Gestalt Theory, Brunswick's Probabilistic Functionalism, Neuropsychological Theory, Theory of Direct Perception and Ecological Optics, Constructivist Visual Perception Theory and Computational Approach to Visual Perception provided a basis for the development of scale items; also a focus group discussion was employed. 196 students from the Computer Education and Instructional Technologies (CEIT) Department filled the scale. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was applied along with the principal component method on data. Following the factor analysis, a single factor scale was developed. The loading of each item in the scale was found to be over .30. The internal consistency coefficient of the overall scale was high (α=.961). The corrected item-total correlation coefficient of the items was .301 and over. Through factor analysis, it was revealed that the scale had a single-factor structure with an explained variance of 35%. At the end of the study, several recommendations were presented for future studies.