The Importance Of Distance Education

Having appeared in 1700s, distance education is the type of education which has continued until today by changing and developing on the basis of technological development. Distance education is the type of education in which information and communication technologies are used pre-eminently, which provides materials as well as learning means specific to the person, and in which the sources provided can be accessed independent of time and place is becoming interesting and popular all around the world.

In several countries, distance education is preferred, particularly to provide convenience or flexibility to learners and to make it easy to access into educational services. In Turkey, the educational requirements of individuals are tried to be

(2005) investigated the attitudes towards distance education and readiness levels of those in all the educational units of Gazi University in terms of human power resources and tried to determine what type of distance education courses were needed and in what field they were required, as well. Ağır et al. (2008) investigated the attitudes of primary school teachers working in private schools and state schools towards distance education, and it was seen that the attitude levels of teachers towards distance education proved to be positive and close to a moderate value. In another study (Inman et al., 1999), the attitudes of students and teachers towards distance education were examined, and as a result, the attitudes of the teachers were observed to have been contradictory. The teachers stated that they would like to provide distance education courses once again but added that the quality of these courses was lower than that of classical education or was sometimes equal to it. The students, however, said that they were quite satisfied with this type of education. In another study conducted for the purpose of examining the motivations and satisfactions of the academic staff as regards distance education, it was seen that the motivations and satisfactions of the instructors proved to be at higher levels; yet, this situation depended on providing a good support for this type of education (Lee,

In a research carried out, it was ascertained that the perceptions regarding the challenges that showed up in the course of this practice and the factors in relation to the conformability of distance education had affected the participants’ attitudes towards distance education. Separately, the ages and the roles of the participants also became prominent as the attitude-affecting factors (Ross and Klug, 1999). In a research carried out by Ayyıldız et al. (2006), the participants stated that the distance education on accountancy had caused excitement in them. Moreover, they pointed out the fact that they enjoyed taking part in the activities regarding the distance education on accountancy as well as reading the research articles and publications on this subject. Although they emphasized that it was necessary to assign more resources on this subject, which had to be supported by all, they stated that this method was not as effective as the conventional one and that they did not find it reputable to receive their accountancy diplomas through this type of education. In another study where the attitudes of the instructors towards e-learning were examined, it was concluded that the attitudes of the instructors towards e-learning proved to be positive. Separately, it was determined that self-efficacy, self-learning, instructional leadership and the use of multimedia were the attitude-affecting factors (Liaw