Student Perspectives on the Impact of Distance Learning on Audiology Education in Türkiye: A Descriptive Study

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to assess the experiences of audiology undergraduate students with online education during the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic, focusing on their perceptions of how online education influences learning, motivation, and success.Ma- terial and Methods: The study included 331 participants who received at least one semester of online and face-to-face education in audiology undergraduate programs. The data was collected using the demographic information form and the online education evaluation form developed by the authors. Results: In the first part of the questionnaire, which evaluated the advantages of online education, 63.13% of the partici- pants stated that being able to offline access course recordings enhanced their learning. In the second part, which assessed the disadvantages, 67.36% of the participants indicated that the lack of a conducive learn- ing environment in online education hindered their success, 63.16% felt a lack of active engagement, and 60.71% experienced difficulties in focusing on lessons due to hardware problems (audio, visual, and connectivity issues). Regarding the adequacy of online education in theoretical and practical courses, 36.54% of the participants mentioned that online education fulfilled their learning needs in theoretical courses, while 80.65% expressed limitations in the effectiveness of online edu- cation for applied courses. Conclusion: The findings of the study showed that audiology students found online education advantageous in terms of being able to watch the course recordings as offline, learn- ing at their own pace, and providing fast access to information, but dis- advantaged due to its inadequacy in presenting the applied course content, the restriction of active participation in the course and techni- cal problems.