Education at Hacettepe University is carried out at 3 different levels (associate degree, undergraduate, postgraduate), in 513 different programs, with more than 9000 courses offered each semester and with more than 62000 students enrolled in these courses. Our university courses are offered in many different fields such as engineering, health sciences, social sciences, conservatory, sports sciences, fine arts, and sciences, and are carried out with different methods. Due to this large, inhomogeneous education structure, different approaches and tools are used in the distance education processes of our university.

In this guide, the principles of practice that must be followed by those responsible for the courses conducted by the remote access method at Hacettepe University are explained.

1. Moodle and/or Blackboard will be used as Learning Management System (LMS) in associate degree and undergraduate courses to be conducted with distance access. Instructors who teach in associate and undergraduate courses will continue to use the platform ( Moodle / Blackboard ) they used in the 2019-2020 Spring semester. At the beginning of the semester, these courses will be opened on the relevant platform under the coordination of the “Department of Information Technologies” and the students registered for the course will be automatically transferred to this system. The instructor who wants to run the course on a different platform should provide a link or an information note on the Moodle course page.
2. Moodle will be used as a Learning Management System (LMS) in graduate courses to be conducted with distance access. At the beginning of the semester, these courses will be opened on the relevant platform under the coordination of the “Department of Information Technologies” and the students registered for the course will be automatically transferred to this system. Since the number of students enrolled in graduate courses is generally low, the instructor can conduct the course on a different platform by giving a link or an information note on the Moodle course page.
3. All department/departmental program directors will prepare the associate/undergraduate/graduate course lists to be opened at the beginning of the semester, the method (distance/face-to-face) and Learning Management System (LMS) in which the courses will be conducted, in the table format in Annex-1 and during course registrations, They will announce the branch on the program web pages.
4. At the beginning of each semester, a “Course Curriculum” should be prepared to be distributed to the students enrolled in the course. As a syllabus, the Bologna process course information package link should be specified in the Learning Management System (LMS) where the course will be conducted. However, it is checked that the content written in the Bologna process course information packages and the weekly plan are up-to-date and that there is a plan to be followed at that time. If there will be a difference in the weekly topics and/or other content, the updated version is given to the student. For this purpose, Annex-2: Form U-01 can be used, the “Bologna update is required” tab is marked on the form and the Bologna course information package is also updated in the first update period. (Note: If the lecturer deems it necessary to share with the student, he can add new fields to Form U-01.)
5. one-page “weekly lesson plan” form with the student at the beginning of each week. ( Annex-3.1.: Form U-02 ) The weekly lesson plan will include information such as the topics to be covered that week, the material given that week, the weekly course work flow and duration, homework, external resources, reading list. Annex-3.2. A completed copy of this form can be found in.
6. Instructors can choose one of the following methods to conduct the course:
   a. Using synchronous platforms ( Zoom, Big Blue Button, Blackboard ) during the lesson (Note: The use of Collaborate is limited to certain units and courses. Regulations continue.)
   b. Using synchronous platforms ( Zoom, Big Blue Button, Blackboard ) during the lesson Collaborate …) and upload the link of the video recorded in the Learning Management System (LMS) for the student to watch and study again after the lesson by recording this lesson.
   c. He uploads the link of the lesson video he recorded using asynchronous platforms to the Learning Management System (LMS) before the lesson, and synchronous platforms ( Zoom, Big Blue Button, Blackboard ) during the lesson. Collaborate …) or whatsapp / discussion group “flipped learning method” on platforms. learning )” can conduct the lesson,

Of these options, b and c are more effective. However, in the short term, it increases the burden of the lecturer. The videos, whose links are uploaded to the teaching management system, can only be watched by registered students. The videos, whose links are uploaded to the teaching management system, can also be set to be accessible for a short time (a few days).

1. Sample templates for lecturers to follow during the weekly conduct of their classes have been prepared and made available on the stl.hacettepe.edu.tr web portal. ( Annex-4.1. , Annex-4.2. , Annex-4.3. , Annex-4.4. )
2. Instructors should determine one of these examples or a lesson template that they will prepare themselves and share it with the student in the “Syllabus”. All department/program directors will record and file the templates used in the courses in the table in Appendix-5 .
3. Support can be provided at HUZEM studios for asynchronous video shooting. Plans are being made for these studios to be used equally by all units, to focus on applied courses and to be used more widely in classes with broad participation.
4. Various methods/tools that can be used to increase effectiveness and keep student interaction high in distance education are listed on the stl.hacettepe.edu.tr web portal. The course instructor should determine what they will use from these methods/tools, make new additions if necessary, and share them with the student in the “Syllabus”. It is emphasized that pedagogically, and especially in distance education, teaching the whole course synchronously or asynchronously by the lecturer reduces the effectiveness of education and the necessity of ensuring student interaction. To give an example, in a weekly 3×40-50 minute lesson, 40-50 minutes of lecture should be given by the instructor on average, and in the remaining 2×40-50 minutes, the activities that the lecturer will be an active observer/director and that will be carried out mainly with student participation should be determined. Activities that will take place in 2×40-50 minutes, synchronous meeting applications ( Zoom-Blackboard Collaborate ) or on platforms (such as whatsapp / forum/discussion group) where the lecturer will be an active viewer/admin during these hours. On the other hand, in line with the nature of the course, the instructor may choose to teach the entire course of 3×40-50 minutes, knowing that student interaction will be low in the course.
5. Zoom conference system is provided in an integrated manner in the lessons to be used with moodle. In pedagogical distance education, student interaction decreases significantly in courses that are given continuously for more than 40 minutes. It is possible to open new 40-minute sessions by connecting to the same link again after the deadline. On the other hand, an unlimited Zoom license will be provided to each faculty/college/institute for events that require a Zoom connection for more than 40 minutes, such as meetings, thesis juries, and exams. There are also extra licenses in the IT Department for emergencies where this license is not sufficient.
6. Various methods/tools that can be used in measurement-evaluation processes in distance education are listed on the stl.hacettepe.edu.tr web portal. The course instructor should determine what they will use from these methods/tools, make new additions if necessary, and share them with the student in the “Syllabus”. All of our faculty members express the drawbacks of conducting measurement-evaluation processes in distance education with a standard, exam-based method. In this direction, it is generally accepted that continuous and short evaluations during the process and open source access project-assignments are more effective methods. Measurement-evaluation sample templates in distance education are given in Appendix-6 . ( Annex-6.1. , Annex-6.2. , Annex-6.3. , Annex-6.4. )
7. In order to increase the effectiveness of distance education and to intervene immediately to possible problems, feedback will be received from the students at three points throughout the semester. With a few questions to be asked in the 3rd week ( Appendix-7 ) the student’s perception of “course syllabus” will be measured. Appendix-9 ) “general course evaluation” will be requested from the student.
8. In addition to the lessons, weekly online conversation organizations are planned to provide psycho-social support to our students.
9. stl.hacettepe.edu.tr web portal, where success stories of distance courses are shared in the spring semester of 2019-2020, has been opened to access.
10. Help videos and files, the contents of which are provided by HUZEM, are available on the stl.hacettepe.edu.tr web portal.
11. The problem support line to be managed by the IT Department has been activated. Frequently asked questions will be grouped and made available on the stl.hacettepe.edu.tr web portal.
12. An intense video sharing traffic is created in distance education. A 10-minute video can be 35 MB or up to 700 MB, depending on the shooting format and compression options. All lecturers should pay maximum attention to the preparation of the video files they share in small formats. You can find help files for saving small files or compressing large files on the stl.hacettepe.edu.tr web portal . If the lecturers pay attention to this issue, a significant saving in file traffic will be achieved.
13. In the past period, there have been periodic difficulties in accessing distance education at the scale of our country, our university, and our students. Due to the fact that more courses will be given remotely in the upcoming period, it is predicted that similar problems may occur periodically. Risk plans of our university have been prepared in this direction. Within these plans, many solutions were evaluated, from dynamically increasing the server capacity to delivering the course contents to our disadvantaged students who have access problems in portable memory. Instructors should also evaluate periodic risk management strategies and create b plans, which include recording audio instead of video in times of seasonal distress, sending lecture notes to the student via e-mail, and communicating with the student on less resource-consuming platforms such as whatsapp – skype – e-mail-forum. Sample risk plans are given in Annex-10 .
14. Disadvantaged students who have remote access problems within the scope of the previous article should be determined by the department/department program responsible and reported to the Rectorate.