APPROACHES TO ONLINE LEARNING: A STUDY OF THE FACTORS AFFECTING TEACHERS IN A FULLY ONLINE FACULTY

Abstract

Nowadays there has been a wide interest in implementing online courses in universities. Even though most of studies on online learning focus on issues related to technology or teaching methods, so there is less attention is given to online teachers and their approaches to learning. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of how teachers approach online learning and different factors that influence the approaches to individual teachers in online learning, especially in a fully online faculty. One hundred ninety-eight (198) teachers belonging to the A. Yasawi International Kazakh-Turkish University were interviewed. Dependent variables include three approaches to online learning: the approach to content acquisition, the approach to collaborative learning, and the approach to building knowledge. Explanatory variables are socio-demographic, academic knowledge, online teaching experience, teaching, online teaching and the role of teachers in online learning. Different analyses of multiple regression are used to determine judgments and verify the influence of independent variables. The results show that age, academic experience, online devotion to teaching and especially the role of teachers in online learning are important predictors of adapting a specific approach to online learning.

Keywords

• online learning
• distance education
• online courses
• internet
• study