e-Journal of New Media (Apr 2021)
PERCEPTION OF AUTHORITY IN DIGITALIZING HIGHER EDUCATION
Abstract
In Corona pandemia times recently, digitalization and distance education became more important than it was at all other times, reminding us that education should not be restricted with and should not depend on conditions such as time and location. Although the distance education system is primarily known as independent from time and place, its performance and outcomes are dependent on how it is practiced by the teaching and the learning populations. Here comes the question of authority: due to its position, is the teaching staff still considered as the authority in distance education, as it was in the formal education? Within the frame of higher education, and distance education in particular, this study questions the preference differences in education and communication methods and investigates if the perception of “authority” has been changing, between higher education generations. The hypothesis was that the students of the younger generations seem to have developed as more independent and autonomous individuals in their education periods mainly under the circumstances and effects of the digital world, and that they are not in need of being consulted and approved anymore, therefore to find the traditional authority figures as useless or at least negligible. A questionnaire was designed around the hypothesis and forwarded to the students of the Faculties of Communication in order to determine their approaches and preferences concerning their education. Our findings led us to conclude that the role of the scholars has not been minimized due to their digital literacy capacity and the authority role of the tutors is still continuing in the digitalization era.
