Vocational College’s Students’ Perceptions of Distance Education

The aim of this qualitative study is to determine vocational college’s students’ perceptions ofdistance education. Study group included 36 students enrolled at the departments of Computer Technologies(five students), Office Management and Executive Assistance (eight students), Child Development (18students) and Logistics (five students) at Develi Hüseyin Şahin Vocational College of Kayseri University during Spring term of 2019-2020 academic year. Phenomenology, one of the qualitative research designs, was used in the study. Study group was selected based on maximum diversity sampling. Volunteer students were included into the study. An interview form including 10 semi-structured questions developed by the researchers was used as the data collection tool. The data were analyzed based on descriptive analysis method. Study results revealed that students’ had both positive and negative opinions to wards distance education. Ten themes were determined based on study results; ‘students’ feelings to wards the decision of distance education’, ‘opinionson distance education system the university offered’, ‘information and support activities by the university’,‘positive effects of online courses on learning process’, ‘negative effects of online courses on learning process’,‘activities in distance education system’, ‘suitability of courses for distance education’, ‘system problems’,‘technological infrastructure problems’ and ‘simultaneous use of face to face education and distance education system’. Several recommendations are suggested based on the study results. The students expressed bothpositive and negative opinions about the distance education system.