University Student's Opinions on Distance Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Technological advances and the COVID-19 pandemic have led to a significant paradigm shift in the field of education, especially in the field of distance education. In this period, although distance education offers a number of advantages to its users, it has also brought some difficulties. This sudden transition has had a profound impact on students, teachers, and institutions, leading to changes in teaching methods, assessment practices, and student engagement strategies. This study aims to investigate the problems that arise in the distance education process and to examine the effects of these problems on students in detail. A qualitative approach is considered ideal since it enables deeper understanding of experiences of university students during distance education. Convenience sampling was chosen because it provided easy access for the researchers and allowed the inclusion of participants who met the required criteria. The participants consisted of 37 people, 28 girls and 9 boys, who had experienced the distance education and were studying in the Psychological Counselling and Guidance programme in the second year of a state university located in the Aegean region of Türkiye. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed using content analysis and thematic analysis methods. According to the findings of the study, the problems encountered by the students in the distance education process were listed under the following main themes: technological problems, problems related to the monitoring and evaluation of the course, motivation problems, emotional and physical problems, communication problems, problems related to domestic and environmental factors, feeling of professional inadequacy. In addition, students' suggestions for solutions to these problems and their opinions about whether they prefer face-to-face or online education were also discussed. As a result, the study offers suggestions for educational institutions and educators to overcome the difficulties encountered in distance education and to make the experience a positive one.