Aralık 2019'da Çin'in bildirdiği yeni tip Koronavirüs enfeksiyonu (Covid-19) birkaç haftada bütün dünyayı etkileyen bir pandemi boyutunu aldı. Pandemi, ülkelerin başta eğitim kurumları olmak üzere birçok alanda hızlı karar almalarını gerektirdi. Bu kapsamda 16 Mart 2020 tarihinden itibaren Türkiye'de üniversitelerin 2020-2021 bahar dönemini uzaktan eğitimle sürdürmeleri kararı alındı. Bu çalışmada, Türkiye'deki üniversitelerin Covid-19 sürecindeki uzaktan eğitim uygulamalarına ilişkin lisans öğrencilerinin memnuniyetleri incelendi. Çalışmayla bu süreçte karşılaşılan sorunların saptanması ve uzaktan eğitimin geleceğine yönelik farkındalığın artırılması amaçlandı. Survey deseninde tasarlanan çalışma, çevrimiçi (online) örnekleme yöntemlerinde e-posta listesi örnekleme kullanılarak 163 üniversitede (111 devlet ve 52 vakıf) öğrenim gören 17.939 öğrenci üzerinde yürütüldü. Veriler, çalışma kapsamında geliştirilen 5'li Likert, 22 madde ve (i) Yükseköğretim Kurulu Memnuniyeti, (ii) Üniversite ve Fakülte Yönetimi Memnuniyeti, (iii) Dijital İçerik/Öğretim Materyali Memnuniyeti, (iv) Senkron/Canlı Ders/Video Destekli Dersler Memnuniyeti ve (v) Teknik Alt Yapı Memnuniyeti faktörlerinden oluşan 'Uzaktan Eğitim Memnuniyeti Ölçeği' kullanılarak elde edildi. Çalışma verileri; betimsel testler, t-testi ve ANOVA testleri ile analiz edildi. Çalışma sonuçlarına göre öğrencilerin memnuniyetlerini ifade eden faktör puanlarının ortalamaları 3.73 ila 2.63 arasında değişiklik gösterdi. En yüksek memnuniyetin yaşandığı alan 'Yükseköğretim Kurulu Memnuniyeti'; en düşük memnuniyetin yaşandığı iki alan ise 'Üniversite ve Fakülte Yönetimi Memnuniyeti' ve 'Dijital İçerik/Öğretim Materyali Memnuniyeti' olarak saptandı.

This study analyzes the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on grade inflation in higher education. Data were collected from five universities in Turkey, including grades of 152,352 students who attended 2,841 courses conducted by 903 instructors before the COVID-19 pandemic and grades of 149,936 students who attended 2,841 courses conducted by 847 instructors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of this study demonstrate that the COVID-19 pandemic causes a marginal increase in grades in higher education when the other factors that might explain the differences are controlled. Grade inflation of 9.21% is the highest ever reported in literature. Compared with a year ago, DD and DC grades decreased 55%; FD and FF grades decreased 31%; and the highest-grade AA increased 41% for courses taken during the pandemic. Additionally, classroom population, academic history of the instructor, class level, field, university entrance scores, and course execution and evaluation (grading) forms of course notes are important determinants. This increase can be explained by the effort of instructors who are accustomed to face-to-face settings. When they suddenly switch to distant education, they might try to grade higher to compensate for the unforeseen negative circumstances.

COVID-19 pandemic triggered distance education in higher education. Decisions such as isolation, social distancing and quarantine made by countries unexpectedly and suddenly forced face-to-face education to change to distance education within days. All academics around the world had to move online overnight. All the educational and academic activities in higher education (courses, exams, meetings, etc.) had to be conducted online in a few days. Based on these changes, this study aimed to analyze the relationships among student, faculty (adaptations of faculty members to distance education) and institutional (distance learning capacities of the universities) variables that affected satisfaction of the students related to distance education in higher education institutions in Turkey during COVID-19 pandemic using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). The study group included 14,962 students and 3631 academics from 30 universities. The results showed that universities with higher distance education capacities got higher satisfaction scores. HLM analysis showed that 43% of the variation in satisfaction scores resulted from universities. The second HLM analysis showed that 44% of the overall satisfaction score variance of the students could be explained by the factors of university features (Level 2: distance education capacity and acceptance and use of distance education systems of faculty members). Thus, it was determined that 44% of the university factor calculated as 43% in Model 1 (which is calculated within students’ general satisfaction scores) resulted from the distance education capacity and the acceptance and use of distance education systems of faculty members. The findings of this study provide insights to improve distance education by stakeholders of higher education institutions.