Huseyin Bicen

Determination of the Opinions of Students on Tourism Impact Using Mobile Applications

Abstract Since smart phones has become popular, we have been introduced to a huge volume of mobile applications. Every day, we are able to find a new mobile application for different purposes. With these applications, we can edit our photos or contact people on social networks. The main aim of this study is to determine the students’ opinions on Tourism impact using Mobile Applications. In line with this aim, the authors developed a 5-point Likert-type scale consisting of 20 positive statements. The scale was administered to 352 distance learning students during the 2014-2015 spring terms at Near East University. Data were analyzed with IBM SPSS 22. The results showed that students prefer Trip Advisor application to find historical places and they select places to visit after they read user comments. Students also revealed that booking.com are more reliable than other applications. Besides, students prefer to download maps applications and they use GPS when they travel the cities.

Determination of teacher candidates’ opinions about the efficiency of virtual classes used in distance education

This study was aimed to determine the teacher candidates’ opinions about the efficiency of virtual classes. Nearly, 173 voluntary teacher candidates who receive distance education at Near East University participated in this research. This research was conducted in the spring semester of 2014–2015 academic year. The results of five-point Likert-type scale which was developed by the researchers were analysed with SPSS program. When the results of the research were analysed, it was revealed that teacher candidates who receive distance education reported that virtual classes are effective in learning, being in the virtual classes at the same time with their teachers increase the students’ interests in the lecture, the materials used in the lectures are more effective for students to understand the subject, the students get opinions from their classmates by making their presentations through file sharing in virtual class setting and this leads to a significant contribution to their learning.