Student attitude to distance education: Pros and cons

Abstract

This article is aimed at identifying the peculiarities of students' attitude to distance education. As a leading method, the questionnaire method was used, which made it possible to identify the students’ positive and negative attitudes regarding distance learning more effectively. The article considers students' ideas about distance learning, identifies the positive and negative aspects of the distance learning process. The authors of the article in the process of research revealed that many students of various fields of study are interested in participating in distance courses, but within the framework of mastering a second education. Some students note the usefulness of distance courses, the use of their materials at any time, and the convenience of going back to the materials they have completed at any time to fill in gaps or recall a topic. Some students reported a violation of the educational process in the distance format due to the repeated lack of Internet or its poor quality. Most of the students expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of contact communication in the distance learning process. It is proved that the majority of students believe that distance education will never replace traditional education. Mainly students of technical areas of study gave a negative assessment of the distance education system. It was revealed that students of various fields of study took distance courses that were held in other cities or countries. From the point of view of many students, educational websites have an inconvenient interface.
 
 Keywords: distance education, distance courses, students, learning process, pros and cons.

EFL Students’ Views about Distance Education at Higher Education in Turkey

“…Studies on the negative aspects of distance education have generally show similar results. Although their order of importance varies, similar disadvantages of compulsory distance education have been reported in almost all countries, which are technological problems, teacher-student and student-student communication gaps, and the home environment not being conducive to distance education (Yavuz & Kaplan, 2024;Okyar, 2023;Illarionova L. P. et al, 2021;Karadag et al, 2021;Al-Nofaie, 2020;Octaberlina and Muslimin, 2020;Sevy-Biloon, 2021;Evisen, Akyilmaz, and Torun, 2020). Besides other disadvantages, very few studies (Okyar, 2023;Octaberlina & Muslimin, 2020) have discussed the finding that distance learning has a negative impact on student's health, which is another finding of this study.…”

“…In her study with EFL students, Sevy-Biloon (2021) found that 74.5% preferred faceto-face instruction while only 24.5% preferred online instruction. Additionally, in a study done by Illarionova L. P. et al (2021), while 76% of the participants stated that they were not satisfied with distance education, the number of those who were completely satisfied with distance education was only 13%. In an investigation of the views of EFL Turkish students on distance learning, Okyar (2023) came to the conclusion-without providing a percentage-that the majority of students preferred face-to-face instruction in a classroom over distance learning.…”

Foreign Language Teachers' Attitudes and Motivation Towards Distance Learning

“…According to Büssing et al (2019), attitude towards teaching increases the desire to teach. Similarly, it is thought that positive attitude towards distance learning will increase teachers' desire to teach and thus their success (Illarionova et al, 2021). However, teachers with a negative attitude tend to prefer the education environments they are accustomed to and know, that is, face-to-face education.…”

Sharing LiSQuP’s Leap: Lessons and Experiences within an Online Advancement Program in the Philippines

“…Students in ODE encounter technical difficulties (Bączek et al, 2021;Yurdal et al, 2021), communication struggles (Duman, 2023;Tanhan et al, 2023), motivational problems (Hebebci et al, 2020), and mental health issues (Lee et al, 2023;Li & Che, 2022) among others. As a result, students often develop a negative attitude towards ODE, as evidenced by studies conducted in various countries, including Indonesia (Wijaya et al, 2021), Russia (Illarionova et al, 2021), the United States (Unger & Meiran, 2020), Pakistan (Adnan & Anwar, 2020), and Turkey (Yazgan, 2022).…”