Acceptance and use of the distance education systems of Turkish medical educators during COVID-19 pandemic: an analysis of contextual factors with the UTAUT2.

The aim of this study was to analyze the factors that has affected the use and approval of distance education systems during the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey according to the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2). The study provided valuable insights on factors affecting the acceptance and use of distance education systems, which have become vital media of instruction since 2020. A total of 708 medical educators volunteered to participate in the study. The data were collected with a scale that was developed according to the UTAUT2 model. The scale consists of the variables of the UTAUT2 model as a ten-point Likert type questionnaire, including twenty-five items and seven dimensions: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, hedonic motivation, habits, facilitating conditions and behavioral intentions. The data were processed through correlation analysis, simple and multiple linear regression, and the structural equation model. The findings of the study indicated that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, hedonic motivation, habit, facilitating conditions and behavioral intentions all had positive effects on medical educators using distance education systems.

Multi-level analyses of distance education capacity, faculty members' adaptation, and indicators of student satisfaction in higher education during COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 pandemic triggered distance education in higher education. Decisions such as isolation, social distancing and quarantine made by countries unexpectedly and suddenly forced face-to-face education to change to distance education within days. All academics around the world had to move online overnight. All the educational and academic activities in higher education (courses, exams, meetings, etc.) had to be conducted online in a few days. Based on these changes, this study aimed to analyze the relationships among student, faculty (adaptations of faculty members to distance education) and institutional (distance learning capacities of the universities) variables that affected satisfaction of the students related to distance education in higher education institutions in Turkey during COVID-19 pandemic using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). The study group included 14,962 students and 3631 academics from 30 universities. The results showed that universities with higher distance education capacities got higher satisfaction scores. HLM analysis showed that 43% of the variation in satisfaction scores resulted from universities. The second HLM analysis showed that 44% of the overall satisfaction score variance of the students could be explained by the factors of university features (Level 2: distance education capacity and acceptance and use of distance education systems of faculty members). Thus, it was determined that 44% of the university factor calculated as 43% in Model 1 (which is calculated within students' general satisfaction scores) resulted from the distance education capacity and the acceptance and use of distance education systems of faculty members. The findings of this study provide insights to improve distance education by stakeholders of higher education institutions.

Effect of COVID-19 pandemic on grade inflation in higher education in Turkey.

This study analyzes the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on grade inflation in higher education. Data were collected from five universities in Turkey, including grades of 152,352 students who attended 2,841 courses conducted by 903 instructors before the COVID-19 pandemic and grades of 149,936 students who attended 2,841 courses conducted by 847 instructors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of this study demonstrate that the COVID-19 pandemic causes a marginal increase in grades in higher education when the other factors that might explain the differences are controlled. Grade inflation of 9.21% is the highest ever reported in literature. Compared with a year ago, DD and DC grades decreased 55%; FD and FF grades decreased 31%; and the highest-grade AA increased 41% for courses taken during the pandemic. Additionally, classroom population, academic history of the instructor, class level, field, university entrance scores, and course execution and evaluation (grading) forms of course notes are important determinants. This increase can be explained by the effort of instructors who are accustomed to face-to-face settings. When they suddenly switch to distant education, they might try to grade higher to compensate for the unforeseen negative circumstances.

Increase in Covid-19 Cases and Case Fatality and Case Recovery Rates in Europe: A Cross Temporal Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND: The new coronavirus (COVID-19) infection reported by China in December 2019 has become a pandemic affecting the entire world in a few weeks. In this respect, it is crucial to determine case increase and case fatality and case recovery rates in order to control COVID-19. In this study, case increase, case fatality and case recovery rates of COVID-19 in 36 European countries were analyzed with meta-analysis method using data released by the health organizations and WHO. METHODS: The data were obtained from the website of health organizations of 36 European countries and the website of WHO until the date of May 11, 2020. The analyses were carried out on 1,744,704 COVID-19 diagnosed cases in 36 European countries. The case increase and case fatality and case recovery rates of COVID-19 were calculated using 95% confidence intervals (95% CI), single-arm meta-analysis, cross-temporal meta-analysis and meta-regression random effects model. RESULTS: The standardized case increase rate of COVID-19 is 5% (95% CI [0.040, 0.063]) and the average case increase rate in European countries has started to decline by around 3% (95% CI [0.047, 0.083]) weekly. The countries with the highest rate of case increase are Belgium, Sweden, Russia, the Netherlands and the UK. Although the case fatality rate of COVID-19 patients was 4.5% as of May 11 (95% CI [0.037-0.055]), this rate is 6.3% (95% CI [0.047, 0.083]) in standardized time (6(th) week). Case recovery rates of patients are 46% (95% CI [0.376-0.547]). CONCLUSION: This research presents important results regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe. Although the rate of increase in new COVID-19 cases has dropped, there is not much decline in case fatality rates and no increase in case recovery rates. The case fatality rate of COVID-19 in Europe was estimated to be in the range of 4-4.5% and minimum 4 weeks (As of May 11) are expected in order to have the figure below 1% in the country with an average case increase rate. Monitoring case fatality in Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden, and treatment successes in Germany and Austria play an utmost importance. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.