Significant Changes Were Made by The Turkish Higher Education Board About The Distance Education Methods and Principles
In the statement made by Turkish Higher Education Council President Prof. Dr. Yekta Saraç, it is stated that they are making some new and innovative arrangements in order to put higher education system into international competition.
In this context, it was stated that the regulations regarding the Turkish students studying abroad in the global epidemic process and the foreign students coming to Turkey were announced and now some decisions regarding the structural change related to distance education were announced. The regulation made includes the following principles.
As it is known, due to the global epidemic, in Turkey, as in the whole world, face-to-face education has been interrupted and courses have been started to be carried out via digital education with digital means. The process has also revealed that our higher education institutions are able to carry out the necessary preparations for conducting courses with distance education very quickly, despite everything.
In formal education, the rate of lessons that can be given by distance education has been increased to “forty percent”.
As it is known, although legislation allows up to 30% of the courses in the formal programs of the universities, we do not have a university approaching this rate.
Within this framework, important decisions have been taken in order to provide courses through distance education in higher education institutions in order to prepare our higher education institutions for the upcoming processes and to support their studies and preparations for teaching through distance education through digital means.
Thus, our universities will be able to switch to the blended education model applied in many countries of the world if they wish.
These new regulations will not only increase the competencies of our universities regarding distance education, but also create a suitable environment for the new normalization process determined by our state in the campuses of our universities, education and training places such as lecture halls and classrooms, and social spaces.
In the coming period, the system of redefining and monitoring the standards of distance education will be established. New mechanisms will be established to set the quality standards for the opening of the programs and conduct the courses and to evaluate the applications.
Measurement and evaluation methods in programs and courses conducted by distance education are not only with exams; it will be constructed in a way that spans the process.
Standards on online measurement and evaluation will be determined and universities will be encouraged to establish online examination centers.
