University Students’ Perceptions about Teaching Ataturk’s Principles and Turkish Revolution History with Distance Education

This study aimed to reveal students’ views regarding the teaching of the Atatürk’s Principles and History of Revolution (APHR) course by distance education. The survey model was employed in the study. The study group consisted of 645 students attending Karadeniz Technical University and Karabük University. The research results showed that although the participants receiving the APHR course by distance education had a high level interest in history of revolution subjects, they had a low level participation in the APHR course. Most of the participants wanted the APHR course to continue to be taught at higher education level without any change in its content and name. The participants thought that the teaching of the Atatürk’s Principles and History of Revolution accomplished its goals at medium and high levels. Among the problems encountered by the students in the APHR teaching by distance education, the most prominent ones were the inadequacy of the teaching methods employed, exam-oriented instruction, and the insufficiency of the teaching materials used. Traditional lecture and adhesion to textbook continued in distance education, too. It was seen that most of the participants receiving the APHR course by distance education did not attend the lessons regularly and thought that teaching the APHR course by distance education was not beneficial.