Distance Education in Turkish Higher Education

The term distance education is used to define education where educators and learners are physically separated. The first use of the distance education as a term goes back to 1924 in Turkey. Establishment of the Open Education Faculty of Anadolu University is the first initiative for the appearance of distance education in the Turkish Higher Education. Distance education is offered at different levels of higher education at present. Changes happening in technology and students characteristics in higher education over the years have made distance education delivered over the internet popular. Systems used to offer education over the internet are called Learning Management Systems. Commercial and non-commercial Learning Management Systems are available and used in different level of higher education to offer distance education. Programs and Learning Management Systems preferred to offer distance education over the internet in Turkish Higher Education are investigated in this study. Results of the study indicated that Management and Computer Technology programs are dominantly preferred in various level of the Turkish Higher Education. It was also found that commercially and open source freely available Learning Management Systems are also used to offer distance education in the Turkish Higher Education. It seems that distance education programs in higher education will continue to grow to respond to the changing needs of students.