Examining the Effect of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Graduate Education

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of emergency distance education on postgraduate education during the Covid-19 pandemic process. The research was carried out in a convergent design in a mixed model. The study group consisted of a total of 154 volunteer students (108 females, 46 males; mean age 27.66±5.04 years) studying at the institutes of xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Data were collected from all 154 students in the quantitative part of the study, and from 67 students (49 females, 18 males) who answered open-ended questions in the qualitative part. The Effect of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Postgraduate Education Questionnaire and descriptive information form prepared by the researchers were used as data collection tools. Data analysis was carried out with descriptive and content analysis methods. Quantitative findings have shown that emergency distance education has positive and negative effects on postgraduate education. The positive effects are that online courses are considered efficient, recorded courses can be watched again, and there is no time-space restriction. The negative effects are that the professional practice skills do not contribute as much as face-to-face education, the delay of the studies due to the problems in the permission and application stages in the data collection process, and the prevention of exchange programs. It was determined that emergency distance education did not adversely affect the supervisor-student communication. Qualitative findings also support quantitative findings. While the categories are obtained as positive and negative, the codes were determined as online education, research process, emotional and technical problems. The results of the study revealed that the Covid-19 pandemic did not affect the theoretical courses in postgraduate education, the courses could be taught but the students could lose their motivation. It is recommended that various precautions be taken by both institutes and supervisor to be better prepared for similar processes that may be experienced in the future