I have a story to tell you engaging learners and issues in distance learning of yasar university

Different types of interactions in online learning environment encourage learners to engage in the virtual society and help their virtual identity and the development of their online soc

In Europe’s top 10 Internet countries, with its 46.3 million users, Turkey is the 5th biggest Internet user country according to 30th of June 2014 (“Internet top”, 2014) As a result of an increased penetration of the Internet in Turkey as well as all around the world, Distance Learning (DL) programs have become popular and its importance is highly likely to grow (Gaspay & Legorreta, 2009)

“Before the term ‘globalization’ started to be used in the 1980s, ‘international’ was the preferred term” (Cheung & Chan, 2010, p 526) Internationalization means “relationships between and among countries, nations, and cultures” (Visser, L 2012, p 57) The internationalization of higher education

is a must in a modern society and it refers to “institutional arrangements by governments, universities, organizations, and other education agents that involve the delivery of higher education in more than one country” (Visser, L 2012, p 57) “Various terms have been used interchangeably with ‘global’, for example, international, interterritorial, multinational and worldwide, and globalization has frequently been referred to as internationalization However, the terms above still cannot fully explain the underlying meaning of globalization” (Cheung & Chan, 2010, p 526) Globalization is different than internation-

I Have a Story to Tell You:

Engaging Learners and Issues in

Distance Learning of Yasar University

Serra Inci Celebi

Yasar University, Turkey

alization and it can be defined as “a process of interaction and integration of people, or organizations, companies, and governments of different nations” (Visser, L 2012, p 57) One of the results of global-ization is a need for culturally diverse people to study and work with each other Although, they will use a common language (e.g., English) in their classes or working places, the behavioral, attitudinal, and communicative, in other words, cultural differences will appear based on their values and in turn in their day-to-day practices (Gaspay, Legorreta, & Dardan, 2009).

Cheung and Chan (2010, p 528) state the close relation between globalization and education in their following statement:

… the impact of how globalization affects the education field needs greater attention since the changes made in the current education sector are going to affect the competitiveness of the future recruits in the society, who are in fact the students studying in primary and secondary schools and universities at present, and eventually affect the overall competitiveness of the country When compared with primary and secondary education, academic programs offered by universities should be more responsive to glo- balization because university graduates will directly enter the workforce after the completion of their university programs.

Cultural differences play an important role in a globalized and interactive learning environments Students in one culture may appreciate the flexibility, convenience, and freedom that are given to them

in DL, while students in another culture may find learning activities anonymous and unpractical in DL programs (Gaspay, Legorreta, & Dardan, 2009) So, it is essential to use DL in universities powerfully; because, “DL can be an effective agent of knowledge globalization, and make educational and economic opportunities available to all, if practitioners fully leverage its flexibility” (Gaspay, Legorreta, & Dardan,

2009, p 47)

Turkey has the youngest population compared to all European countries The Turkish population was approximately 76.5 million in 2013 and 12.5 million of them representing people between 15-24 years old (“İstatistiklerle Gençlik”, 2014) These numbers show the importance and emergence of establish-ing the distance learning programs in universities in Turkey Because, even tough, remarkable number

of universities were established in the last decade, there is a growing number of applicants for entering universities which gives tension to the university managements for finding sufficient classrooms, and a necessity in replying those needs with new educational technologies Distance learning (DL) has been widely popular and accessible, but, faculty members participating in this method of teaching are in small numbers and students’ satisfaction level with those courses are low (Power & Gould-Morven, 2011) Students’ satisfaction with the courses in e-learning are important for examining their learning difficul-ties and obstacles It is also important to get their first impressions and experiences especially in newly established DL programs so that necessary changes can be employed

Wide use of emerging technologies gave birth to technology based distance learning Emerging technologies can be defined as “tools, concepts, innovations, and advancements utilized in diverse educational settings (including distance, face-to-face, and hybrid forms of education) to serve varied education-related purposes (e.g., instructional, social, and organizational goals)” (Veletsianos, 2010, p 12-13) Institutions face challenges for transforming traditional and face-to-face didactic teaching to the technology based distance learning (DL) (Banerjee, 2011) For example, DL is successful for educating

people who understand the importance of technological progress, and have critical thinking and problem solving skills (Kucuk & Sahin, 2013); but, how to reach with DL programs the other members who are not good at using educational technology, and don’t have critical thinking and problem solving skills.The purpose of this study is to:

1 Investigate the factors affecting students’ satisfaction in DL

2 Examine students’ perceptions of the barriers to their studies in DL

3 Find students’ attitude toward the DL course content (researching), the DL course (UFND020 Research Culture), and DL

In the first part of this chapter, background information about advantages and disadvantages of DL, and blended learning will be offered It is followed by the theoretical framework of the study which in-cludes social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence, in addition to uncertainty avoidance as one of Hofstede’s cultural dimension In the second part, distance learning program at Yaşar University

is described In the third part, methodology of the study is explained In the fourth part, findings are presented In the fifth part, conclusions and further suggestions are drawn

BACKGROUND

Advantages of Distance Learning

It has been debated that today’s young generations live in a globalized and individualized world and use social network sites to connect to each other, and therefore they see formal education inhibitive to accessing those activities and their developments (Goodfellow and Lamy, 2009)

DL has many advantages, such as delivering educational materials 24 hours a day & 7 days a week, personalization, interactivity, and immediate feedback (Hoic-Bozic, Mornar, & Boticki, 2009) The re-moval of the physical location for both learners and lecturers is the obvious characteristic of e-learning The traditional face-to-face education was replaced by the use of distance-based technologies (e.g., digital pdf documents, e-mails and blogs) and technology-based instructional approaches have been taken by the lecturers “Several products offer communication tools such as e-mail, digital drop box, electronic bulletin board (EBB), and virtual chat rooms for creating exciting, interactive, and user-friendly col-laborative learning activities” (Santhiveeran, 2005, p 44) It is also students’ responsibility to study and learn independently by examining the digital materials and learning how to use them (such as searching information online and employing, adapting, and modifying them for asynchronous discussion forums), while being separated from an instructor The locus of instruction was based on interaction between students and instructors in a physical educational environment called the classroom As a result of those changes, there is a shift in the locus of instruction from traditional classrooms to chat rooms and toward digitally disseminated contents (Amirault, 2012)

Studying three areas of online learning and improving for the betterment of them in universities is important Those areas are: 1 studying student readiness for e-learning, 2 studying teacher and tutor skills and readiness, and 3 finding instructional strategies which are most appropriate for the different levels

of learning capacities (LaPointe, & Linder-VanBerschot, 2012) Similarly, Develotte (2009, p 72) asks several important questions in a chapter of a book and two of the questions are relatively important for

the current research The first question asks that “How do we move from the situation of the traditional classroom learner to that of the online student?” and the second question queries that “Which learning practices need to be deconstructed, modified, and adapted to this new context?” Different types of interactions in online learning environment encourage learners to engage in the virtual society and help their virtual identity and the development of their online social presence So, it is important to find out which kind of learning tools and environment are likely to influence the way in which the socialization occur for virtual learning communities.

Disadvantages of Distance Learning

Wilson (2012) mentions ‘learning to learn flexibly’ as one of the characteristics of DL Learning to learn flexibly is not easy for the students whose main learning activities are classroom-centered There are several disadvantages of distance education: firstly, it is not an appropriate method of learning for all students Some students may want in-person interaction in place of online interaction and may need continuous guidance and leadership coming from a lecturer Secondly, lecturers may get the impression that they will no longer be seen as the provider of information but instead have become alienated from education and turned into equipment to be used for monitoring student educational activities and grad-ing them (Visser, L 2012) Thirdly, students want to get a sense of belonging to the larger university community and interact with its members face-to-face, instead of just being an enrollee Therefore,

“The ‘distance’ factor inherent in distance education has been identified as one of the major problems for students studying in this mode” (Lee, & Mcloughlin, 2010, p 63) Geographical isolation prevents students to have fece-to-face interaction Students in this program have a feeling of isolation, loneliness, and alienation Furthermore, Transactional Distance (TD) which doesn’t cover only a physical space but also a psychological and communication space that causes misunderstanding among learners and instructors (Horzum, 2011) Next, the majority of students have little or no experience of studying in this mode (lack of experience in tertiary study) Moreover, there is perceived lack of contact with and timely feedback coming from a lecturer, since, lecturer presence and rapport are important for students’ motivation Finally, students may feel insecure about learning and may need guidance to assure that they are on the right path (Lee, & Mcloughlin, 2010) Lack of face-to-face communication in DL and inhibiting the socialization process are also among major critics toward DL environments (Erdem & Kibar, 2014) As a result of those disadvantages, a high student dropout rate, withdrawing, or failing are seen as a major problem in the DL programs (Hoic-Bozic, Mornar, & Boticki, 2009)

“While education can be justified as a human right and has increasingly provided more access for more people, recent evidence suggests quality has taken a back seat to quantity” (LaPointe, & Linder-VanBerschot, 2012, p 6) The main goal of distance learning is sustaining quality in design Quality in a

DL program requires both lecturers and students to show enough abilities in their DL environments The students should show interaction with other students, the ability to search for information, complete their online tasks, write comments and leave constructive criticisms to their friends’ online droppings; and lecturers must provide an active learning environment with monitoring student progress and evaluating accomplishments timely (LaPointe, & Linder-VanBerschot, 2012) Effectiveness and efficiency of newly established web-based learning environments may depend on some important factors that should be investigated from student-centric perspective “Therefore, investigation of factors that affect the quality

of interaction in webbased learning would be very significant” (Jin, 2005, p 60)

Based on the literature review above, the following research questions were asked:

RQ1: What aspects of DL do students perceive to be barriers to their study?

RQ2: What are DL students’ attitudes toward the DL course content (scientific researching), the DL

course (UFND020 Research Culture), and DL?

Blended (Hybrid or Mixed) Learning

Blended learning has become the most eligible methods at university-level courses (Pellas, & Kazanidis, 2014), as independent learning and preparing the students for lifelong learning have been considered two important elements of successful participation in the information society (Hoic-Bozic, Mornar, & Boticki, 2009) The majority of American universities have adapted itself to blended learning which combines traditional instruction and e-learning and also a growing trend in the rest of the world (Ver-nadakis, Giannousi, Tsitskari, Antoniou, & Kioumourtzoglou, 2012) Incorporating educational learn-ing elements is called blended learning which combines different teaching and learning methods of online and traditional learning environments, such as interactions with synchronous and asynchronous discussions, group-based and individual learning activities, and technology and media for delivering course content (Hoic-Bozic, Mornar, & Boticki, 2009) “The concept of blended learning is rooted in the idea that learning is not just a one-time event; learning is a continuous process” (Acelajado, 2011,

p 343) Blended learning has many advantages over both traditional and e-learning and eliminates the disadvantages of both (Vernadakis, Giannousi, Tsitskari, Antoniou, & Kioumourtzoglou, 2012) The goal of blended learning is to choose a suitable mixture of teaching activities that will highly assist and motivate the students, and encourage them for mastering the course successfully (Hoic-Bozic, Mornar,

& Boticki, 2009) Blended learning extends learning beyond the walls of classroom by providing many tools and combinations of learning methods (Erdem & Kibar, 2014)

Different blending types are possible; for example problem-based learning game is one of them Blending “problem-based learning methods” to “game elements”, in other words, using game elements for engaging students in problem-centered tasks, is called “problem-based learning game” which may

be one of the leading advantages of blended learning programs (Warren, Dondlinger, McLeod, & genho, 2012) Web 2.0 is the socially based tools including blogs, wikis, RSS, and social bookmark-ing utilities which trigger changes in how we communicate and learn Wen 2.0 addresses the needs of distance students, empowers their learning experiences, by offering collaboration, interactivity, and personalization In order to reduce loneliness and isolation and sustain social presence in DL, Web 2.0 and social software tools may be employed to design and deliver DL courses (Lee & McLoughlin, 2010) Another blending method might be the use of Facebook and blending it with traditional learning which has been investigated by Yüksel and Olpak (2014) in a Turkish university and found that this blending was beneficial practice and most of students were satisfied with learning Different learning platforms are called Learning Management Systems (e.g., Sakai, Moodle) and those 2D platforms offer learning materials and help students’ learning; but if they are not combined with traditional class and turned into

Bi-a blended leBi-arning, their mBi-ain disBi-advBi-antBi-age is the Bi-absence of users’ (instructor Bi-and student) presence in the learning process Lately, Second Life (SL), which is a 3D, multi-user and interactive virtual environ-ment, has been initiated to be used in the learning process and educational applications in Second Life are developing at an exceptional rate (Pellas, & Kazanidis, 2014)

Some research results comparing traditional and blended learning in different countries showed that students tended to prefer blended learning over the traditional lecture format (Vernadakis, Giannousi, Tsitskari, Antoniou, & Kioumourtzoglou, 2012) In Kuwait in 2013, an experimental study revealed that the students enrolled in the blended learning class significantly outscored their counter peers enrolled

in the traditional learning class They produced better quality in their projects, had higher final grades, missed less courses with higher attendance rates, and took more tests (Safar, & Alkhezzi, 2013) Ma-salela (2009) examined blended learning in Botswana and found that when it was used, pedagogy and engagement in learning were improved, and there were flexibility in teaching and learning In addition

to those benefits of blended learning, there were some lack of readiness for the university such as slow network and breakdowns and lack of computers for students Acelajado (2011) examined students’ per-ceptions of blended learning in Philippines and found that it was very much welcomed by the students who found merits of having several alternatives in learning (e.g., confidence in the content learned, increased motivation, and enjoyment)

There is a trend toward blended learning in Turkey too and some scholars examine its usefulness Horzum, for example investigated the perceptions of blended learning students in Turkey and discov-ered that dialog, structure flexibility, control, and autonomy were the key values of blended learning (Horzum, 2011) Erdem and Kibar (2014) examined students’ opinions toward blended learning and use of Facebook in blended learning in a Turkish university They found students held positive opinions

on blended learning method as well as using Facebook as an appropriate tool for communication and interaction in blended learning environment

Human interaction is essential for a successfully engaged learning environment (Hoskins, 2012) The implementation of distance education is limited with getting the benefits of ‘being there’ and interact-ing with the class members and the lecturer face-to-face, thus, using blended learning, which facilitates numerous learning styles for increasing motivation and satisfaction, will likely increase in universities (Visser, L 2012) Furthermore, affiliation and identification are other important aspects which should be considered in DL programs One of the reasons why social network sites like Facebook and Twitter is said

to be popular is SNS sites offer affiliation and identification to their users (Lemke & van Helden, 2009)

RQ3: Is there any absence of DL affiliation and identification expressed among DL students?

Theoretical Frameworks

1 Online Presence

In a conventional wisdom of learning an image and impression are that for learning to occur, a lecturer must be physically present, deliver speeches about the course content, and manage the learning activi-ties in the class (Jones, 2011) The growth and popularity of social networking sites have proved that people can be spatially separated from each other and can still be actively engaged (Maddix, 2012) Hoskins (2012) states that online discussion forums provide social interaction and building knowledge collaboratively which is similar to face-to-face-interaction Discussion forums provide the opportunity for teacher-to-student (teaching presence), student-to-student (social presence), and student-to-content (cognitive presence) interactions Online presence is essential for a good and sufficient teaching and learning environment The lack of presence creates chaos and difficulty, and is one of the biggest ob-stacles in front of an effective virtual learning (Macfadyen, 2009)

There are 3 fundamental elements of presence, namely, cognitive presence, social presence, and ing presence and Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000, p 96) remark the importance of existence of social, cognitive, and teaching presence for an efficient and sustainable learning in distance education:

teach-Social presence marks a qualitative difference between a collaborative community of inquiry and a simple process of downloading information The difference is the quality of the message; in a true community

of inquiry, the tone of the messages is questioning but engaging, expressive but responsive, skeptical but respectful, and challenging but supportive In such a collaborative community of learners, social presence is enhanced When social presence is combined with appropriate teaching presence, the result can be a high level of cognitive presence leading to fruitful critical inquiry

Learner satisfaction highly depends on the existence of those three types of presence in addition to perceived usefulness and ease of use DL programs (Joo, Lim, & Kim, 2011)

2 Cognitive Presence

Cognitive presence is generated if there is a deep, critical, and meaningful thinking, in addition to laborative and shared understanding in learning which is typical of a constructivist learning environment (Nagel, & Kotzé, 2010) Cognitive presence is one of the important aspects of learning, and Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000) note that the creation of cognitive presence highly depends on how com-munication and interaction are restricted or encouraged by the medium, and in e-learning, it is computer mediated communication (CMC) itself Right blend of teaching technologies stimulate students which increase interaction between students and teachers, between students, and between students and the course materials

col-3 Social Presence

Social presence is another important aspect of online learning and Sung and Mayer (2012) claim that much thought is given to the instructional design and technology to improve the efficiency of e-learning, but the emphasis must be given to emotional feeling of connectedness instead Social presence refers to users’ feeling of personally connected one another in an online learning environment Social presence

in DL is an important element contributing to the improvement of interaction (Sung & Mayer, 2012).Social presence involves two important concepts which are immediacy and intimacy “Immediacy is defined as the psychological proximity of the persons in communication (Kucuk & Sahin, 2013, p 143)

“Learners want engaging learning environments that promote ‘direct interaction with professor(s) and students’, ‘spontaneity’, ‘immediate feedback’ and ‘relationships with faculty and students’ ” (Clayton, Blumberg, & Auld, 2010, p 362) Intimacy is the perceived familiarity caused by social behaviors, such

as body language, eye contact and smiling” (Kucuk & Sahin, 2013, p 143) Positive, neutral, or tive levels of intimacy and immediacy are conveyed and culturally-shared by the use of some cultural codes (e.g., the choice of language, tone of voice, body language including posture and eye contact, and physical proximity) in traditional learning (Kucuk & Sahin, 2013)

nega-In the condition of social presence, persons are perceived as real people in the virtual community (Sung & Mayer, 2012) Perry and Edwards (2010) state that if shared presence is repeatedly experienced

in a virtual class then it helps to constitute shared values, norms, and belief which in turn create a culture

of community in the online class Participants bring and reveal their personal characteristics in the munity where social presence exists Emotional expressions such as the use of emoticons, humor, and self-disclosure help students’ and instructor’s social presence in an online learning environment The main aim of social presence either in traditional or in DL is to improve cognitive presence and generate critical thinking (Kucuk & Sahin, 2013).

com-Sufficient interaction is resulted in experiencing social presence in the virtual class (Perry & Edwards, 2010) From another perspective, social presence largely effects interaction which in turn has effects on students’ learning performance (Wei, Chen, & Kinshuk, 2012) Especially learning satisfaction in large

DL classes depends on instructors’ efforts for augmenting student-student and student-instructor tion (Nagel, & Kotzé, 2010) Instructors’ messages that are timely, frequent, positive, and encouraging are very important for creating social presence (Plante & Asselin, 2014)

interac-The perception of social presence in face-to-face course and online version of the same course will

be different Face-to-face students perceive social presence significantly higher than online students and the effect of social presence on student learning achievement and satisfaction is higher in online learning environment than in face-to-face learning environment (Zhan & Mei, 2013) Therefore, creating a sense

of social presence especially in DL programs are very essential for students’ learning and satisfaction.There are some studies about how to increase social presence in virtual learning environments and

to learn this Borup, West, and Graham (2012) interviewed students in DL courses about their opinions for the video-based communication and whether or not video-based instructional strategies impact their feeling of social presence The result of interviews displayed that video communication impacted es-tablishing the instructors’ social presence, because students expressed that video-based communication made their instructors to be seen as more real and present which can be found in relationships identical

to face-to-face instruction

4 Teaching Presence

Teaching presence is perceiving the teacher as if sitting next to the students while having synchronous discussions in the virtual community Teaching presence is also giving a feeling of existence of the teacher in every step the students take in DL programs, thus it is the primary responsibility of a teacher

So, it includes influencing, encouraging, guiding, and acknowledging students (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000)

Teaching presence has three elements which are instructional design, facilitating discourse, and direct instruction or subject matter expert “Instructional design” consists of deciding about syllabus and cur-riculum, defining learning goals and objectives, selecting technology and teaching and learning methods carefully to reach to the defined learning goals and objectives, determining and selecting lecture sources, materials, and in-class activities to be used, and having a decision about evaluation methods (Kucuk & Sahin, 2013) In other words, “The instructor’s first role is to design the educational experience so that

it is personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile” (Jones, 2011, p 79)

By the use of “facilitating discourse”, student interest, engagement, and motivation can be sustained during the course hours Instructors, using facilitating discourse, can identify students’ understanding, agreement, and disagreement of knowledge, reinforce student contribution, create a positive climate for

an active, interactive, and participatory learning environment (Kucuk & Sahin, 2013) In the traditional learning environment, the instructor guide learners by using a combination of lectures, workshops, case studies, in-class exercises, small-group discussions, and other learning activities To provide similar

guidance in the online environment, instructors must use different technology tools, such as videotaped weekly lectures, responses to students’ asynchronous online discussions, feedback and written comments via e-mail or online announcements (Jones, 2011).

“Direct instruction/subject matter expert” refers providing intellectual and scholarly expert and ership during in-depth learning process by presenting the content and subject, injecting knowledge from diverse sources, facilitating questions and summarizing the debates for a better understanding, clearing misconceptions, and giving several useful examples (Kucuk & Sahin, 2013) “Because the instructor is the subject matter expert, the instructor can provide a learning environment that assists students’ mastery

lead-of the material” (Jones, 2011, p 80)

5 Uncertainty Avoidance

People in the same culture share the same values which are crucial components of culture An gation of cultural aspects and studying how members of a group (e.g., students) in a society (e.g., in a particular university) respond to their environment (e.g., DL environment) are important (Cheunga & Chan, 2008) Verbal context or non-verbal gesture in one culture can be viewed casual, but the same context or gesture can be seen as an insult in another culture Thus, cross-cultural awareness training in both universities and private or public companies are important for a global venture success (Irani, & Oswald, 2009)

investi-Uncertainty avoidance refers to the intolerance for unstructured, unorganized, unknown, spontaneous, and unusual conditions that the members of a society display (Nistor, Göğüş, & Lerche, 2013) There is a difference between risk and uncertainty in terms of the chance of their outcomes In risky environment, the possibility of outcomes are known and predictable; but in uncertainty environment, the possibility

of outcomes are unknown and unpredictable (Quintal, Lee, & Soutar, 2010) “Uncertainty is a basic fact of life We speak of uncertainty when ‘anything might happen’ ” (Wennekers, Thurik, van Stel, & Noorderhaven, 2007, p 136) Understanding the ‘certainty’ of a situation requires weighing risk of the condition against the uncertainty of the outcome (“Decision making”, n.d.)

a Uncertainty Avoidance in Culture

Uncertainty avoidance looks at how the members of a culture deal with and are affected by ambiguity, uncertainty and risk Understanding the attitudes toward risk and uncertainty factors of the members

of the society help decision makers to understand why they behave in a certain way (“Cross cultural”, 2010) That’s why Hofstede (1991) developed an index to measure uncertainty avoidance of the members

in different countries and compared to one another A low score on the index shows that people in this country are comfortable with vagueness, more tend to take risks, more entrepreneurial, and less seek for structural rules Contrary, a high score on the index displays that people in those countries require more structured rules and norms, less likely to take risks, and demand more stability (“Hofstede’s uncer-tainty”, n.d.) That is, if there is high uncertainty avoidance in a given culture, they have a low tolerance for vagueness in day to day circumstances People in high uncertainty avoidance conditions tend to be risk averse because of unknown or unstructured conditions and tend to favor rules, guidance and look for well-structured and well-designed environments The examples for high uncertainty avoidance cul-tures are Latin America, Japan, Germany, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Belgium, and Russia (“Cross cultural”, 2010) According to Hofstede’s (1991) classification, Turkey is one of those high uncertainty avoidance

countries In contrast to high uncertainty avoidance cultures, the US, the UK, India, China, Singapore, and Denmark are considered as countries where there is comparatively low uncertainty avoidance and people in those countries are open to new ideas and innovations, embrace the change, ready to take risks, have a more flexible attitudes and manners due to the perception of low risk and uncertainty (“Cross cultural”, 2010) Meanwhile, people’s uncertainty avoidance is in the eye of the beholder and doesn’t necessarily depend on the development level of a country.

b Uncertainty Avoidance in Distance Education

People in one country may have higher uncertainty avoidance compared to the people in another country, and Turkey is among those countries whose members have higher degrees of uncertainty according to Hofstede’s uncertainty index In addition to the cultural aspect, there are certain conditions in which there may be the perception of uncertainty, unknown, and risk; therefore, examining uncertainty dimension

in such circumstances are crucial

It is important to look at cultural differences to understand exactly how differences in culture affect the usage and adoption of technology within a society There are cross-cultural challenges for e-learning solutions and when designing Web-based instruction and blending different educational tools, prefer-ences and values of cultures should be understood and considered (Olaniran, Rodriguez, & Williams, 2010) “When instruction does not effectively address student needs, users can be distracted, or even discouraged, from completing instruction and quite possibly reject the technology through which the instruction is delivered” (Olaniran, Rodriguez, & Williams, 2010, p 448)

Learning is structured in education containing high uncertainty avoidance; while it is flexible and open-minded in education with low uncertainty avoidance In one study, for instance, German and Chinese students were compared with each other about formality of their communication, and German students’ communication was more formal with the faculty members than Chinese students’ communication (Liu, Patrick Rau, & Schulz, 2014)

The locus of control is different between traditional education (which is centric or directed) and distance learning (which is student-centric) The control is in the hand of the teacher in traditional education where the teacher sets the agenda, uses educational materials simultaneously, and talks more than students The control is in the hand of students in distance learning where students know that their responsibilities are researching, creating qualified discussions and comments, in other words, students set the agenda In high uncertainty avoidance conditions, teacher-centric education is seen valued and important by students They want their teachers to provide information and set the structure

teacher-of learning for them However, in distance learning, students’ performances and efforts for reading e-books, viewing videos, searching, initiating and producing discussions are valued and important In low certainty avoidance conditions, this flexible way of learning are welcomed and accepted (Gallini & Barron, 2001-2002) So, there will be uncertainty, when students are not sure about time schedule and operation of completing assignments, have feeling of isolation from other students and feeling of being dismissed from class discussion, and lack of effective time management especially for asynchronous learning environment (Olaniran, Rodriguez, & Williams, 2010)

Kumar and Kelly (2005) investigated issues in online programs in Mexico where there is high certainty avoidance and found disengagement in the learning process Even tough, there were weekly deliverables and educational materials, discussions board topics, and a monitoring system for student assessment, and so on, they failed for engaging students in the online learning process in the Mexican

un-context They also discovered that the frequency of face-to-face meetings was not enough to direct the students to the course and encourage them to be involved in the learning process The students in Mexi-can culture required more often direct and face-to-face contact with their instructors to promote them in active participation Thus, the online program needed to be re-designed by allowing more open-ended interaction.

Downey, Wentling, Wentling and Wadsworth (2005) examined the relation between the dimensions

of national culture and the suitability of an e-Learning in a university in the US and they found that among the members of high uncertainty avoidance cultures e-learning was found to be more frustrating

to be adapted

Based on uncertainty avoidance theoretical framework, the last research question is as below:

RQ4: Is there any uncertainty avoidance observed among students who registered to DL at Yaşar

Uni-versity?

DISTANCE LEARNING AT YAŞAR UNIVERSITY

The fundamentals of the distance learning program at Yaşar University initiated in 2010-2011 academic year and some instructors were willing to write e-books for the distance learning program The code of UFND refers to University Foundation Courses which are compulsory courses and students take those courses in their first, second, third, or fourth year Being competitive in today’s global world requires well-equipped youngsters and it was the starting point of UFND courses In other words, to be a com-petitive entrepreneur, the students should know researching, be an ethical person, and so on

Between 2010 and 2012, the management of Yaşar University, candidate lecturers, coordinators, department of Information Technologies, department of Media Center as well as the coordinators and lecturers from Anadolu University had many meetings about the production of online course materials The system and its infrastructure have been gradually established so that the university students can be able to use the appropriate facilities of this new online program

The registration period for the distance learning program started in September 2012 and it was for the first time started up for the academic year of 2012-2013 The course interaction was decided as a

‘written chat’ between the students and lecturer The name of the online program used for the basis of distance education was Sakai

Learning contents present each module (a module is the combination of 2-3 units) that opened on

the first day of the learning week (Monday) in the fall semester Learning contents page–öğrenme içerikleri–can be seen on Figure 1.

The Comparison of the Fall and Spring Semester

of 2012-13 for Distance Education

Basic problems, concerns, and complaints about this newly established program appeared in the first semester, and the department of Science Culture rapidly revitalized and modified e-learning program to make it more convenient and student friendly by designing it according to the students’ conditions, needs and wants Therefore, there are many differences between the fall and the spring semester of 2012-13 and those differences were explained in the following paragraphs

In both first and second semester, some videos mistakenly didn’t show the graphics and pictures while the lecturer of the course was supposed to show them in the film of the course unit (See Figure 2).There were problems with the course units uploaded as pdf documents each week While the contents

of those documents were being transferred from word document to modules in pdf documents, some visuals mistakenly didn’t appear, some of them lost their original space and appeared earlier or later than they are mentioned In addition to the technical problems, author-based writing problems happened (e.g., grammar) and they remained the same throughout the academic year

Figure 1

Figure 2

1 More Online Courses and Covering Late Registrations: In the fall semester, six UFND courses

were online, in the spring semester, 10 UFND courses were adapted as online courses In both fall and spring semesters it was decided that, late registered students (some of whom started 1-4 weeks late), were given extra marks depending on their lateness in registration for covering their late registration period and preventing them from losing some marks

2 Signing an Online Course Contract: At the beginning of the spring semester, the students signed

an online contract showing that s/he understood the operation of distance learning system Although, signing doesn’t verify that the student read and understood everything, but, it prevented the system from unfair complains

3 Technical Enhancements: There were some connection problems about the accessibility of the

course Website during synchronous chatting with the students in the fall semester In the spring semester, the IT Department of Yaşar University improved the system Firstly, the number of servers was increased from one server to two servers Secondly, rot-balancing was done, and finally, they changed the parameters for the betterment of Sakai As a result of those controls and regulations, there were a lot less connection problems during the online course hours Moreover, the unit videos were viewed only on computers and laptops in the fall, and they were also accessible on tablet PC

or mobile phones in the spring semester

4 Students’ Tendency to Keep Continuing the Traditional Way of Learning: The management

and the lecturers wanted the students to understand that the online lectures shouldn’t be considered

as formal training, and therefore, they shouldn’t expect from the lecturers the similar traditional training in an online platform The students’ learning method was so classroom-centric and they were not used to actively searching and involving in conversations that they demanded the same way

of learning It is the learning method that the lecturer comes to the class and explains the subject matter and the students’ only responsibility is to learn the subject passively

Figure 3