INTRODUCTION
Developments which grow very fast in science and technology in the world in the last
century, fast increasing population of the world, increase of the needs of the societies in education, but despite these, insufficiency of educational institutions, course materials
and teachers, settlement far from the educational institutions, high prices in traditional
educations, education requests of the adults who have to go to work, requests for
changing department by having a certificate or a diploma or by developing themselves,
requests for promotion in the institution, but their obligation to continue courses in
educational institutions; such these factors pushed the societies to find new searches in
education area.
These searches which are mostly made by developed countries provided the developing
of the “distance learning” method (ALKAN 1996).
In line with recently developing technology, distant education systems based on
information technologies are started to be commonly used within higher education.
Lately, almost all of the universities in our country founded distant education units and
started to provide education services by this means. It is possible to evaluate distant
education programs and applications based on various parameters. Of these parameters,
students’ satisfaction is considered among the most important ones. In the broadest
terms, students’ satisfaction can be defined as the satisfaction and content of students
regarding the education services they receive. Factors regarding students’ satisfaction
are influenced by individual characteristics. Factors affecting students’ satisfaction in a
distant education/e-learning environment can be divided into six categories which are
student, instructor, course, technology, system design and environmental aspects
(OZYURT, H. 2014)
Distance learning gives students the opportunity to regulate important study factors
such as place, time and pace, depending on their professional, social and personal
obligations. It is especially beneficial for adult students to participate in distance
learning educational programs (Bebetsos, E. & GOULIMARIS, D. 2014).
Distance education is used in a variety of settings and for a broad range of purposes.
Universities use it to increase the number of students who have access to higher
education; companies use it to upgrade their workers' skills and keep them abreast of
rapidly advancing technologies; individuals use it for their own professional development
and to enhance their career opportunities; governments use it to provide on-the-job
training to teachers or other workers, to enhance the quality of traditional primary and
secondary schooling, and to deliver instruction to remote rural areas that might not
otherwise be served. Various technologies have been used for distance education, but
print-based correspondence courses have been, and will continue to be, the dominant
delivery mechanism in both the developed and the developing worlds. Print is still the
cheapest technology, and, even if the costs of using high-tech dissemination tools fall
below those of print, it will be some time before many countries have adequate
infrastructures. Higher education; within the university setting, some institutions
offer only distance education, while others provide both distance and conventional
education.
Those that offer only distance learning is referred to as "open universities," and most are
modeled after the United Kingdom's Open University. Mega-universities are large open
universities, each of which enrolls more than 100,000 students per year; combined
enrollment is some 2.8 million. (http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/fdmarchnws.htm) 2008-2009 education-teaching period, distance education became more common in
undergraduate education with the new programmes which universities started. At the
present day, universities continue their studies on distance education with two-year
degree education, undergraduate education and graduate education programmer. (Arar,
1999)