Opinions of postgraduate students in Northern Cyprus towards distant education during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

In this research, the "case study" model was used to determine the views of university students in Northern Cyprus on distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic process. The population of this research consists of students studying in the districts of Nicosia, Famagusta, Girne and Lefke in Northern Cyprus. The study group was used as an easily accessible case sample and 20 students were studied in the study group. As a data collection tool in this study, a semi-structured interview form consisting of 6 open-ended questions was used, developed by the researchers regarding the views of higher education students in Northern Cyprus on distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic process. In the study, "content analysis" was used in the evaluation of the data. The collected data were organized within the framework of themes and concepts and presented in the findings. According to the results of the research, it has been determined that the online teaching of the courses during the pandemic process has various advantages and disadvantages that the students have some difficulties while using the online education system and some suggestions have been developed to make the system more useful by eliminating the disadvantages and difficulties.

Keywords: Online education, blended education, synchronous education, asynchronous education