Özet:

As a result of the rapid spread of the infectious disease called Covid-19 all over the world, a number of measures have been taken, such as travel bans, closure of borders, and temporary closure of schools, universities, public institutions, and workplaces. This worldwide health crisis has also turned into an economic and social crisis, affecting students who are a segment within wider society. Increasing cases in April resulted in school closures in 199 countries and almost all higher education institutions being affected. Each country affected by the crisis has implemented different strategies by focusing on its own higher education system. With the announcement of the first case in Turkey, distance education started in approximately ten days in all universities with distance education capacity. Uşak University has also been involved in this process through the Google Classroom application. In this study, it is aimed to analyze the Faculty of Education students’ opinions on pandemic and distance education process. The population of the study, which was designed with survey model, consists of 2,158 students enrolled in the 2019-2020 academic year, and the study group consists of 913 students who returned to the survey. The data were obtained by the “Pandemic and Distance Education Questionnaire” developed by the researcher. Descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage calculations were used in the analysis of the data. Responses to open-ended questions were presented as frequency and percentage tables under specific categories via the content analysis method. As a result, it is seen that this global epidemic experienced by students negatively affects their lives in economic and social areas, especially their freedom and education. On the other hand, students consider distance education conducted during the pandemic period as an alternative to face-to-face education and want to return to their universities as soon as possible.