College Students’ Views on the Pandemic Distance Education: A Focus Group Discussion

Abstract

The COVID-19 is a deadly pandemic that has affected every aspect of life including education. The schools have been closed to prevent the spread of the virus, and they have converted their system into distance education. Completing the semester there is a need to address the problematic issues in the new system to develop it for future implementations. Thus the current research aimed to examine the perceptions of Turkish university students on the pandemic distance education period.  In particular, this research addressed the following research questions: (1) How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your life in general? (2) What do you think about web-based pandemic education that you have? (3) What are your suggestions on future distance education implementations? It was conducted by focus group discussion. The researcher carried out the discussion via Skype one of the best ways in pandemic period. The 12 undergraduates were determined randomly and voluntarily from each grade. A number of issues that were obtained from the discussion were identified through qualitative content analysis. The findings have revealed that most of the participants were affected by the pandemic period negatively feeling anxiety, despair, and boredom. It is apparent from the findings of the second research question that pandemic education process has had its weaknesses rather than its advantages such as lack of interaction, and communication which lead the students to isolation, problems about exams, traditional educational habits, the load of assignments, and time management. The advantages on the other hand have been flexibility of time and place, students’ having more responsibilities in learning and comfort in exams. The suggestions of the participants are also worth to note like instructors’ changing their way of lecturing, their perspectives as educators, and the way of assessment. It is hoped to contribute to the current distance education literature with its worthwhile results.