Ondokuz Mayıs University (OMU) Rector Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Akan has attended the 2nd Turkish Arab Congress on Higher Education (TACHE 2016) held in Istanbul which is organized by the partnership of Istanbul Medeniyet University and the Association of Arab Universities.
Rector Hüseyin Akan made a speech entitled “Distance Education: Present and Future” in the congress which aimed to bring together for the second time leaders of Turkish and Arab universities in order to promote a sustainable process of dialogue, mutual understanding, exchange of knowledge and increased cooperation between Turkey and Arab world. Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey Prof. Dr. Numan Kurtulmuş, various rectors, presidents, vice-chancellors, and academicians attended the congress.
Rector Akan started his speech with a brief definition of distance education, and continued: “Among the efforts to integrate technology into educational settings, distance education has recently been one of the popular approaches. Distance education provides opportunities for those who have limited access because of various reasons to traditional face-to-face classroom teaching and to meet their educational needs. For this reason, many developed countries have been trying to integrate distance education facilities into their traditional school systems.”
Rector Akan compared the development stages of the distance education implementations in the past and the present, and emphasised that technology is one of the most powerful forces in the development of distance education.
Pointing out the fact that the demand for distant education increases with each passing day, Akan explained that governments such as the USA, Turkey, and South Korea have been trying to include technology in their schools systems in different ways so that they can transform their current systems towards a more productive one. “We can conclude that technology use in general, and distance education in specific has already become part of the educational system and now educators have already started seeking ways to benefit from it as much as possible. This means that the concept of distance education has been accepted by educators and seems as if it will continue to be a part of the educational system into the future,” said Akan.
Rector Akan continued his speech with quotations from Thomas Friedman, a New York Times Columnist who has published several articles about the role of technology and globalization in recent years; and told that Friedman tells the story of how big, well-known universities (i.e., Harvard, Berkeley, M.I.T) have been using distance education to reach people located in the different parts of the world.
Rector Akan underlined the fact that, despite all the potential and promising advantages of distance education, technology alone would be meaningless without skilful teachers and educators; and said the following: “Therefore, distance education will not only force universities to change their traditional structure, but also force educators to change their pedagogy and be ready for the new approaches to pedagogical practices.”
Reminding that OMU established its distance education centre in 2009 with a national diploma program; Akan continued his speech with the following: “Since then, OMU has been trying to establish its technical infrastructure and to increase personnel capacity on different subjects. Today, we are serving about 15.000 students in 15 diploma programs, certificate and on campus courses. Also, we are providing services to three different universities.”
Indicating that OMU has made great progress in terms of setting up its technical and organizational structure in the past 7 years, Akan explained that OMU has specifically focused on three major points; which are technical capacity, organizational capacity, and educational quality. “So far, we believe that OMU has been successful on two major points, which are technical and organizational capacity. OMU has been providing services and leadership nationally and internationally; and has been working with several universities in the region and sharing its experience with them.” said Akan.
Akan, underlining the fact that it takes time and effort to experience new ideas and develop innovative ways of teaching, has specified that OMU has been working on the professional development of its staff.
Rector Akan has concluded his speech with the following: “OMU’s primary goal with regard to distance education is to increase the educational quality of the programs; secondly, to disseminate this idea for on-campus courses; and lastly, to make collaborations with other universities to provide courses and programs internationally.”
The closing of the congress, which had started on April 26th, was held on April 28th with the participation of President of The Turkish Republic Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
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