Investigation of the Satisfaction Levels of Teacher Candidates towards E-Courses

ABSTRACT

In today's technology age, e-learning environments and e-courses are increasingly used in every level of education. In e-learning environments, teachers and students come together without time and place limitation and they are trained such in a traditional classroom environment. Courses in e-learning environments are often used in universities and teacher training departments. E-learning has become one of the preferred learning environments, especially since students are not limited by a particular classroom environment and are flexible. From this perspective, it is also important to determine the level of teacher candidates' satisfaction with the lessons in the e-learning environments for organizing and expanding the e-courses. In this study, it is aimed to determine the satisfaction level of the teacher candidates towards e-courses. Survey method was used to collect the research data. Participants of the study are the teacher candidates of the Faculty of Education at Sakarya University in the academic year of 2016-2017. "Satisfaction Scale for E-Courses" developed by Kolburan Geçer and Deveci Topal (2015) was used in the study. The scale consists of 35 items and 5 factors. These factors are Course Content and Teaching Process, Used Materials and Communication Tools, Attitude Towards E-Course, Media Design and Teacher-Student Interaction. It was examined whether there was any difference between the satisfaction levels of teacher candidates towards e-courses according to their gender, department, high school graduation types and internet usage period. According to the results of the study, it was concluded that the satisfaction level of the teacher candidates towards e-courses was medium level. Satisfaction levels towards e-courses vary according to the gender of the teacher candidates, the used materials and communication tools and attitudes toward e-courses. Satisfaction levels towards e-courses differ only in the dimension of media design according to the departments of teacher candidates. Another result is that the satisfaction levels of the teacher candidates towards e-courses do not differ according to their high school graduation types and daily internet usage periods.