The Rector Çomaklı: The Greatest Part of this Success Belongs  to Our Academicians

Courses within the scope of formal education programs, which were  halted due to the pandemic period and then decided to be carried out through distance education, continue synchronously (simultaneously) at Atatürk University).

Face to face education were halted in order to prevent the spreading of Corona Virus (Covid-19) ,described as pandemic by World Health Organisation, in Turkey and then it was decided to continue distance education by using digital technology from the date 23 March 2020.

Emphasizing that they have a wide knowledge and experience about distance education and open education model, the Rector Prof. Dr. Ömer Çomaklı stated that Ataturk University is acting in this pandemic period  under the principle of “ Always Forward in the Service of Life” with its experience of over a half  century, existing data processing, background of distance education, open education experience, movements of improving teaching and learning , studies of digital transition, academic and administrative staff’s competence.

Rector Çomaklı stated that after the coronavirus epidemic, with the recommendation of the Higher Education Council (CoHE), the distance education process had been carried out quite successfully and added: “When scientific statistics and digital data were monitored, we observed that our students had an intense attendance in online courses and interest in the course materials. There has been no malfunction in the online courses system that carried out successfully by our academicians. Atatürk University Distance Education Centre, Digital Transformation Office and Computer Applications Research Centre which have prepared the infrastructure of the distance education system and been ready for this system long before the pandemic period, works hard to ensure that our students don’t have any problems.

Rector Çomaklı, who made an assessment regarding the pandemic period distance education process, shared the following information:

We Managed Compulsory Transformation with Quick and  Planned Steps

Pandemic Period Distance Education Applications Commission was established at an early date as 16 March 2020. On 17-18 March LMS Preparations and Technical Preparations were carried out and a training about the system was given to the academicians. Our Demo course was published by preparing supporting guidebooks and video on 19 March. The Continuing Education Platform was prepared and made available to the academic staff and students on March 21 and Ataturk University has been one of the first universities in Turkey that used distance education system earliest on 23 March by clarifying all the process of distance education.

We Provided Strong Transition with Technical,  Pedagogical and Support Services

Atatürk University, which does not see distance education only as a technical process, has supported its students and teaching staff with its pedagogical and support services. Necessary preparations and organizations were made in the context of distance teaching training, support and information. In addition, nearly 200 system usage videos and support documents were shared through the Continuing Education portal.

Both the technical and pedagogical adaptations of our instructors to the process were facilitated by distance education training provided by the Teaching and Learning Development Application and Research Center (ÖGEM). For all the academicians, distance learning seminars were given online in technical and pedagogical dimensions in 5 sessions.

The storage capacity of the servers used for DBS during the distance education process was increased by 15 times and the processor capacity was increased by 10 times, while the processor and storage capacities were increased by 6 times for Adobe Connect Live Class servers.

We Assigned 492 Staff to Support Students and Faculty Members

Nearly 500 technical support staff from all faculties and vocational schools have been assigned to inform faculty members and students and to resolve possible problems. The units supervisors assigned in the units guided for the academicians in the place.

Through the support request system established within the BAUM, a support team of 15 responded to 4,863 requests with an average response time of 9 hours.

Non-stop Informing and Updated Continuing Education Portal

By constantly staying in touch with all stakeholders via corporate SMS, e-mail addresses, OBS and social media accounts, with a transparent management approach  intensifying  their work in order not to leave students and lecturers uncertain in the process from the preparation stage of the teaching lessons to exam applications in  the Pandemic Period Distance Education Process, Ataturk University  continuously provided information about the Higher Education Council (CoHE) and university decisions and exams, internships, support for students with disabilities through the Continuing Education portal.

Flexibility and Large Capacity in Online Course Applications

We have expanded the scope of the online course applications that we started in certain lessons from the first day. Our faculty members have performed live classroom applications with different tools such as Zoom, Skype, Bigbluebutton as well as Adobe Connect and MS Teams application from licensed live classroom environments.

As of April 17, 2020, the capacity of using Adobe Connect infrastructure was increased to 5560 lessons per week by means of increasing the technical capacity in the BAUM and ATAUZEM infrastructure and online appointment.

Intense Interest from Our Faculty Members in Material-Activity and  Online Classes

In this period, the activities that provided diversity with discussion, homework and exam applications, and instant communication via online lessons and for later viewing were shared through the Course Information System (DBS).

The numerical data of the studies made were as follows: It has been seen that more than 40 thousand students has been reached to 13.200 lessons on DBS daily and there has been nearly a million visits to the page. More than 30 thousand resources have been shared on the system by our instructors. These include 30 thousand lecture notes / readings, 8 thousand 450 assignments, 6 thousand 100 online quizzes and 6 thousand video materials. Especially with the intense interest in recent weeks, online lessons have passed more than 20 thousand course hours in total.

"I thank the Members of Ataturk University"

Stating that as the university they give importance to students and faculty members to carry out their lessons as interactively as possible, the Rector of Ataturk University Prof. Dr. Ömer Çomaklı completed his words by saying :" In this great transformation, I would like to firstly thank our students who follow their lessons remotely, make the lessons efficient by participating in homework and discussion activities, and our academic and technical staff who show extraordinary efforts in teaching with online activities and online lessons. ”

CORPORATE  COMMUNICATION DIRECTORATE - 08.05.2020