44 Chapter I Have a Story to Tell You: Engaging Learners and Issues in Distance Learning of Yasar University Serra Inci Celebi Yasar University, Turkey ABSTRACT The current study was conducted to learn the factors affecting students’ satisfaction in distance learning (DL) and to understand students’ perceptions of the barriers to their studies The study consists of two parts: qualitative and quantitative In the quantitative part, survey was used, and in the qualitative part, case study was used The research covers the academic year of 2012-13 The results reveals students’ perspectives, expectations, experiences, and satisfaction about the newly established distance learning program and based on these give important notes and suggest to redesign and rethink teaching methodologies in distance education especially in high uncertainty avoidance cultures like Turkey INTRODUCTION 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 internationDOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-9455-2.ch003 Copyright © 2016, IGI Global Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited I Have a Story to Tell You 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 globalization 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 globalization 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 (statistiklerle Genỗlik, 2014) These numbers show the importance and emergence of establishing 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 difficulties 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 45 I Have a Story to Tell You 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: Investigate the factors affecting students’ satisfaction in DL Examine students’ perceptions of the barriers to their studies in DL 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 includes 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 & days a week, personalization, interactivity, and immediate feedback (Hoic-Bozic, Mornar, & Boticki, 2009) The removal 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 collaborative 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: studying student readiness for e-learning, studying teacher and tutor skills and readiness, and 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 46 I Have a Story to Tell You the current research The first question asks that “How 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 grading 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, & LinderVanBerschot, 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) 47 I Have a Story to Tell You Based on the literature review above, the following research questions were asked: RQ1: What aspects of DL 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 (Vernadakis, Giannousi, Tsitskari, Antoniou, & Kioumourtzoglou, 2012) Incorporating educational learning 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, & Bigenho, 2012) Web 2.0 is the socially based tools including blogs, wikis, RSS, and social bookmarking 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 a blended learning, their main disadvantage is the absence of users’ (instructor and student) presence in the learning process Lately, Second Life (SL), which is a 3D, multi-user and interactive virtual environment, 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) 48 I Have a Story to Tell You 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) Masalela (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’ perceptions 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 discovered 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 interacting 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 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 activities 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 obstacles in front of an effective virtual learning (Macfadyen, 2009) 49 I Have a Story to Tell You There are fundamental elements of presence, namely, cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching 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: 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) Cognitive Presence Cognitive presence is generated if there is a deep, critical, and meaningful thinking, in addition to collaborative 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 communication 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 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 negative 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) 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 50 I Have a Story to Tell You of community in the online class Participants bring and reveal their personal characteristics in the community 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) 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 interaction (Nagel, & Kotzé, 2010) Instructors’ messages that are timely, frequent, positive, and encouraging are very important for creating social presence (Plante & Asselin, 2014) 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 establishing 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 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 curriculum, 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 51 I Have a Story to Tell You 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 leadership 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 of the material” (Jones, 2011, p 80) Uncertainty Avoidance People in the same culture share the same values which are crucial components of culture An investigation 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) 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 uncertainty”, 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 cultures 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 52 I Have a Story to Tell You 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, preferences 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 teacher-centric or teacherdirected) 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 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 uncertainty 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 53 I Have a Story to Tell You Figure 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 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 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 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 56 I Have a Story to Tell You Rearranging the Course Days and Hours: In the fall semester, lecturers had 3-5 courses in a week, each class had 100-150 students and each course had 60 minutes meeting session There were online courses in days a week In the spring semester, lecture hours were extended from 60 minutes to 90 minutes, and more students registered to each class (approx 200 students in an online class) There were no courses on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, because, the students didn’t find having online courses convenient on these days and online courses were gathered around days in a week In the fall, some students complained about inconvenience of the times of the courses ranging from 19.00 to 23.00, and due to their other activities and trainings (e.g., gym, dancing course) or working after the school, they demanded more flexible online course lecturing times In the spring, course hours were changed according to the students’ oral and written feedbacks to the coordinator On four of these days and for each course, students found two periods Period one: 20.00-21.30 and period two: 21.30-23.00 A New Structure Time for Opening the PDF Units and More Duration for Forum Answers: ‘Structure time’ for opening the pdf units is related to students’ log into their accounts as part of a structured routine such as weekends, weekdays, or in the mornings The book units in pdf were accessible at the beginning of each Monday of the week in the fall semester In the spring semester, the units were combined as a module and each module had generally pdf units A module was accessible once in a fortnight on Fridays By this new structure time arrangement, it was thought that a new module can be examined at the weekends (no active online course on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays) and the students can find more free time to answer asynchronous forum questions Announcing Students’ Performances: In order to prevent student complains and rejections of the fall, in the spring semester, students’ marks (e.g., forums, online chatting performance, mid-term exam results, and so on) were announced them after their mid-term examinations The FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) on the Web Page and the Use of Facebook: In the fall semester, when the majority of online students were not aware of how the system worked and were bombarding their online lecturers and advisors with so many system related questions, in the middle of the fall semester, the SSS (Frequently Asked Questions- Skỗa Sorulan Sorular) section was included to the Web page of Distance Learning Portal (See Figure 4) Additionally, there was the absence of affiliation and identification among the online students; because, it was the mid of the fall semester and the students kept asking about distance learning affiliated with Yaşar University Distance Learning was initiated by the Department of Science Culture -Bilim Kültürü- that belongs to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences; and this was clarified by linking the Web page of the Department of Science Culture to the Web page of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in the spring semester Most of the announcements for the online courses on Yaşar University Web page was linked to Facebook in the spring semester Assigning a Person for Student Complains: In the fall semester, one of the lecturers was also in charge of coordinating online courses and responsible for handling student related complains and questions (e.g., online exam obstacles caused by the online system) Especially, after the final examination, the students who failed started to complain; and as a result, it was reported by this instructor that there were 350 student complaints in one month’s time In the spring semester, a 57 I Have a Story to Tell You Figure 10 11 12 13 14 58 coordinator was employed for handling those issues Thus, online lecturers were informed that during the student complain or queries students would be directed to either to the Web page of http:// online.yasar.edu.tr or to the responsible coordinator herself Seminars and Ongoing Information Transmission: At the beginning of the spring semester, a group of online instructors, coordinators, and the chair of the Science Culture Department delivered a speech and introduced the new system and its requirements to the students Furthermore, 1-2 weeks before the registration period start for the spring semester, 45 minutes’ long different seminars were designed and given to student advisors in seven faculties and one vocational high school A New Assessment System for Viewing Videos: Instead of evaluation per click, evaluation of duration was accepted as a better way of assessment for viewing videos Different Percentage for Evaluation in Each Semester: The grading percentages were different for the fall and the spring semester The percentage was decreased from 30% to 20% for viewing videos and the percentage was increased from 30% to 40% for writing, discussing, and leaving comments in asynchronous discussion forums The percentages of grading for the fall and the spring semesters can be found in Appendix Some Requirements and Standards for Answering Asynchronous Forum Questions: It was decided to improve the quality of the students’ answers for asynchronous forum questions in the fall semester and announced them that the grading was given based on a sufficient and qualified discussion between 150-300 words and citing at least two related citations A New Online Assessment System for Asynchronous Discussion Forum: In the fall semester, each lecturer created their Excel tables for grading the students’ forum answers In the spring semester, a new assessment system was included and in that way the lectures easily graded the students’ answers (See Figure 6) I Have a Story to Tell You Figure Figure 59 I Have a Story to Tell You 15 Less Engagement with the Academic Consultancy Hours: It was both in online class hours and in educational seminars publicly announced, but the majority of the students weren’t aware about the existence of academic consultancy hours arranged for online UFND students The Comparison of the Fall and Spring Semester of 201213 for UFND020 Research Culture Course Speed Problem in Written Chats: In the first weeks of the course in the fall semester, the majority of the students demanded timely and speedy answers to their questions from their lecturer Because they were not accustomed to this type of learning, it was explained to them that they were 20-30 students and if each was answered, then this lecture hour would turn into just chatting hours and giving nothing useful to the students Lazy and Hardworking Students’ Strategies: In the fall semester, some of the students waited until efficient answers written by some hard working students to asynchronous discussion questions and then they either copied and pasted their texts or re-wrote them with a little bit modification Others searched information online and copied and pasted the text as it was In either case, they couldn’t show sufficient efforts for a qualified discussion In the spring semester, however, the successful students didn’t give their answers and opinions immediately after the discussion questions appeared on the Web, but, waited until the majority of the students posted their forum answers, and then preferred to post their answers in order to avoid their answers being copied Students’ Behaviors in Synchronous Discussion Hours: In the fall semester, the majority said “hello” at the beginning of the lecture hour and said “good evening” at the end so that the online system would record their words and they wouldn’t lose any marks In the spring semester, however, the students tended to write so many short answers (e.g., 50 times hello or 40 time yes appears one after another in synchronous discussion hours) This made it very difficult to follow the logical responses and explanations of some students who were answering some questions and similarly, difficult for the lecturer’s text to be seen by the students during online chatting hours The students wrote so many words like that because they had the impression that the system recorded their writings and counted the words and gave the marks based on how many words were written Motivative, Encouraging, and Timely Feedbacks: In the fall semester, the lecturer of Research Culture course couldn’t read online forum answers weekly and failed to give timely and motivative feedbacks to the students Motivative feedbacks were timely in the spring semester (See Figure 7) The Announcement of Out-Class Activities: Some motivative out-class activities (e.g., anger management seminars) were announced periodically in the spring semester Those announcements motivated some students and gave the impression of social presence and the unity around some social activities (See Figure 8) Ice-Breaking Activities in Course Hours: In the spring semester, 15 minutes before starting to discuss the course subject, some ice-breaking activities were initiated by the lecturer Ice-breaking activities of the week helped to attract the attention of the students, to get rid of the interruptions of the late comers, and to make the transition to the course content easier Ice breaking activities used in online classes were gathered from the book entitled Engaging the online learner: Activities and resources for creative instruction 60 I Have a Story to Tell You Figure Figure Asynchronous Forum Questions Triggering Discussions: In the spring semester, different than the fall semester, asynchronous forum questions were modified in a way that students can generate more sufficient and qualified discussions Flexibility in Synchronous Course Attendance: In the spring semester, it was between 20.0021.30 on Mondays and 21.30-23.00 on Wednesdays If a student was registered for Monday’s class but missed it, s/he had an opportunity to connect during Wednesday’s class or vice versa 61 I Have a Story to Tell You Methodology In order to collect information about students’ attitudes toward distance learning programs and e-learning courses both qualitative and quantitative approaches have been conducted That is, the methodology of this study consists of two parts; qualitative research and quantitative research Data Collection Procedure: For the quantitative part of this study, a survey was conducted A questionnaire was considered to be the method of choice so that all students had the opportunity to participate in the survey It was stressed that students’ identities were not revealed by the questionnaire and all personal data would be handled confidentially The total number of the sample is 239 For the qualitative approach, throughout the 2012-13 academic year meetings and seminars for the distance learning program were recorded, and students’ behaviors and attitudes both in and out of the classes were observed in addition to recording their conversations and complaints during consultancy hours, which have been specifically scheduled for distance learners Variables and Instruments: Demographic information was treated as independent variables of this study Dependent variables were their attitudes Students’ demographic information was gathered by asking closed-ended questions, and their attitudes toward the course content, course, and DE program of Yaşar University were asked to provide a response on a point Likert scale ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’ Reliability and Validity: Cronbach alpha for positive attitude toward the course content is 0.720 Maximum likelihood was conducted and three factor loadings were found, namely, factor is attitude toward distance learning program, factor is attitude toward the course, factor is positive attitude toward the course content Data Analysis: The conversations during meetings with the students in academic consultancy hours in addition to observing their online attitudes and behaviors were written, and the conversations and discussions among DL lecturers and the members of the management in meetings were reported and archived as the data collection method for case study Table Factor analysis Items Factor Factor Factor In classroom 903 038 000 With distance learning 961 065 001 Course is useful 066 915 049 I not want this course 046 839 024 Fun and exciting 033 027 939 Mysterious and interesting 032 013 601 I like research 043 196 496 Note: Bold indicates a significant factor loading identifying the item and factor associated with it N=121 All items shared a common prompt: “Indicate how much you agree with each option by marking the appropriate response” and were measured with a 5-point Likertscale ranging from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree” 62 I Have a Story to Tell You Quantitative findings of this study were collected, coded and then analyzed by using SPSS, version 22.0 Percentages and mean scores were conducted to represent the results of this study Findings Demographic Profile: The majority of the respondents were between 18 to 21 years old (62.3%) Females (61.1%) were more than males (38.9%) The students were the representative of all departments (seven faculties and one vocational high school) of the university; however, the majority of participants were from the faculty of economics and administrative science (21.4%) and less participation was from vocational high school (5.0%) The number of freshmen and sophomore were almost equal and they are the one fourth of the participants Attitudes toward Course Content, Course, and DL: The comparison of the fall and the spring semester showed that students had favorable attitude toward the course content, and the course; but negative attitude toward DL throughout the academic year of 2012-13 (See Table 3) Table Demographic profile of respondents Category Frequency % Age 18-21 149 62.3 22-25 78 32.6 12 5.0 26+ Gender Male Female 93 38.9 146 61.1 Department Faculty of Communication 26 10.9 Faculty of Engineering 44 18.5 Faculty of Science & Letters 25 10.5 Faculty of Law 50 21.0 Faculty of Architecture 16 6.7 Faculty of Econ & Admin Sci 51 21.4 Faculty of Art & Design 14 5.9 Vocational High school 12 5.0 Year in University Freshman 64 26.8 Sophomore 75 31.4 Junior 63 26.4 Senior 37 15.5 Note: N=239 63 I Have a Story to Tell You Table Mean and standard deviations for the Fall and Spring semester M SD PACC Fall Spring 4.19 4.12 51 51 PAC Fall Spring 4.11 4.05 83 95 NAC Fall Spring 1.82 1.75 97 1.05 PADL Fall Spring 2.52 2.43 1.33 1.44 NADL Fall Spring 3.55 3.60 1.35 1.36 Note: Positive attitude toward the course content= PACC; Positive attitude toward the course=PAC; Negative attitude toward the course= NAC; Positive attitude toward distance learning=PADL; Negative attitude toward distance learning= NADL CONCLUSION AND FURTHER SUGGESTIONS Spring semester’s regulations and all of those effort for the betterment of the DL program created higher cognitive, social, and teaching presence compared to the fall semester Although online presence was better in the spring semester than the fall for both Research Culture course and DL, students’ attitude toward DL was unfavorable and this attitude remained the same throughout the year One of the reasons is the cultural aspect; thus one of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions was considered in interpreting the results of this study Turkish culture is a culture where people’s uncertainty avoidance level is high In addition to the cultural high uncertainty avoidance, newly opened DL program was giving extra uncertainty avoidance atmosphere to the students Students who are the generations of digital media and use social network sites (SNSs) in their daily activities were expected to quickly adapt to this new educational program, because the infrastructure of SNSs and DL online platforms are identical to each other They both offer a flexible way of connecting, communicating, and writing comments wherever and whenever they want However, in addition to cultural uncertainty avoidance, program-based uncertainty avoidance made the students’ task of adaptation difficult, because their main tasks of learning are classroom-centered, instead of learner-centered Since their childhood the students of Yaşar University have learned that for learning the subject the best and the only method is that they have to come to class and the teacher of the course sets the educational agenda, delivers the speech by using audiovisual materials, asks questions; and the students’ task is to listen to the teacher carefully by keeping silent The DL program offered them a new way of learning which is learner-centered in place of the classroom The responsibility of learning was on the shoulders of students and they needed to set the educational agenda, ask questions, and make an extra effort to learn by reading, writing, watching videos, and producing critical thinking instead of expecting their teacher to teach them which is difficult for students whose habits of learning is far different than this new learning method Therefore, they naturally showed uncertainty avoidance (Gallini & Barron, 2001-2002) from DL program and wanted their traditional method in education 64 I Have a Story to Tell You There are many other aspects that students considered as barriers to their learning; for example, producing original and deep discussions and writing constructive criticism in their comments for their peer’s discussions in both asynchronous and synchronous forum discussions is one of them There was also an affiliation and identification problem among students who didn’t know where the DL program was affiliated at Yaşar University To increase affiliation among the students, the Web page of Science Culture was linked to the Web page of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Affiliation and identification are the fundamental aspects of SNSs and explain the reason why Facebook is so popular with more than 1.11 billion users today For easing the students’ adaptation in especially high uncertainty avoidance cultures, the DL programs can be designed in a way to give a platform for students who can identify and affiliate themselves (Lemke & van Helden, 2009) and feel part of their virtual community To this, either Sakai may be developed or other programs can be used to create more interaction and communication among the students of the DL program Furthermore, a blended (hybrid) program which combines traditional learning and distance learning may be helpful not only UFND courses but also adapting the other courses of Yaşar University It is proven by some studies (e.g., Erdem & Kibar, 2014; Horzum, 2011) in Turkey that the perception about blended learning is positive To understand whether or not a blended system works for Yaşar University, there are two different investigation methods which can be applied The first method is an experimental study in which a DL course, a blended course, and a traditional course that are given on the same course subject and by the same instructor can be compared to each other at the end of the semester The second method includes a survey study asking questions to the students at the beginning and at the end of the semester Those two questions are adapted to this study from an article entitled as The relationship between motivation, learning strategies and choice of environment whether traditional or including an online component (Clayton, Blumberg, & Auld, 2010, p 364) and can be as below: Question 1: Imagine that you need to take a course that is important for your degree You have the option of choosing one of the following learning environments to take the course Please check the environment you would choose a Traditional face-to-face learning environment _ b Hybrid (combination of traditional and online education) _ c Online education _ Question 2: Regardless of your answer in question one (1), why might you take an (a): a Online course? Briefly explain _ b Hybrid course? Briefly explain _ c Traditional course? Briefly explain _ After assuring that blended learning is the preferred learning alternative over traditional education and/or DL, the second phase will be discovering students’ preferences for a type of blended learning For example, problem-based learning methods can be mixed with game elements in a virtual platform (Warren, Dondlinger, McLeod, & Bigenho, 2012) Or Web 2.0 and social software tools may be used to design and deliver DL courses (Lee & McLoughlin, 2010) Or Facebook (Yüksel & Olpak, 2014) 65 I Have a Story to Tell You or Second Life (Pellas, & Kazanidis, 2014) might be blended with traditional learning By the use of a suitable blended learning environment for the students of Yaşar University, social and teaching presence and in turn cognitive presence can be generated among students, between students and instructor, and students and learning materials The main limitation of this chapter is including survey study applied to only one DL course which is called Research Culture at Yaşar University Thus, it is lack of understanding the students who took other UFND courses However, in order to eliminate this limitation of the quantitative research, the researcher used case study and field notes as qualitative approach and combined them with the quantitative part One of the major strength of this chapter is its ability to explore some obstacles and explain their roots in newly established DL program in Turkey ACKNOWLEDGMENT I thank Selỗuk Yaşar who is the founder of Yaşar University and Prof Dr Murat Barkan who is the Rector of Yaşar University, Assistant Prof Dr Melih Zeytinoğlu who was the Chair of Department of Science Culture, the members of Media Center, Information Technologies Center, the coordinators of Anadolu University, and the coordinators and lecturers of distance learning courses of Yaşar University for their renunciative work I am grateful to them for their latitudinarianism in education, efforts and contribution to distance learning program, and enthusiasm for encouraging me to write this paper REFERENCES Acelajado, M J (2011) Blended learning: A strategy for improving the mathematics achievement of students in a bridging program Electronic Journal of Mathematics and Technology, 5(3), 342–351 Amirault, R J (2012) Will e-Learning permanently alter the fundamental education model of the Institution we call “the university?” In L Visser, Y L Visser, R J Amirault, & M Simonson (Eds.), Trends and issues in distance education: International perspectives (2nd ed., pp 157–172) Charlotte, North Carolina: Information Age Publishing, Inc Banerjee, G (2011) Blended environments: Learning effectiveness and student satisfaction at a small college in transition Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 15(1), 8–19 Borup, J., West, R E., & Graham, C R (2012) Improving online social presence through asynchronous video The Internet and Higher Education, 15(3), 195–203 doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2011.11.001 Cheung, H Y., & Chan, A W H (2008) Relationships amongst cultural dimensions, educational expenditure and class size of different nations International Journal of Educational Development, 28(6), 698–707 doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2007.11.003 Cheung, H Y., & Chan, A W H (2010) Education and competitive economy: How cultural dimensions fit in? 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across environments Computers & Education, 69, 131–138 doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2013.07.002 70 ... generated if there is a deep, critical, and meaningful thinking, in addition to collaborative and shared understanding in learning which is typical of a constructivist learning environment (Nagel,... 2012) Incorporating educational learning elements is called blended learning which combines different teaching and learning methods of online and traditional learning environments, such as interactions... 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