Reaction level evaluation of distance education programs in branch schools of Turkish Army

Abstract

Advancements in information and computer technology have radically transformed the education and training. The use of technology in education is increasing rapidly. Technology-assisted education have changed the distance education or e-learning methods in such a way that beyond the limits of imagination, ten years ago. However, usefulness of these technologies should be questioned. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the effectiveness of distance education (especially e-learning) programs in Turkish Army according to the reactions of the coursiers and to determine the answer of the question: Is the distance education system implemented successfully in the army? As the method, we used the reaction level of the Kirkpatrick’s evaluation model that is the most commonly known method to evaluate training. The first question that we should ask trainees is “How do you feel about the distance education?” We measure iv the trainees' feelings and satisfaction with the distance education program by conducting a questionnaire to the coursiers of two courses, which were partially offered via distance education. After making the quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis of data we conclude that the implementation of distance education programs have some problems. To overcome these problems we put forth some suggestions about motivation of trainees, study time, content, etc.