Can Distance Education be Closer: A Training Program about Autism

In this study, families with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders, teachers working with these individuals and experts in their fields were brought together in an online learning environment. It was aimed to determine the participants' expectations, the state of contentment after the implementation and to evaluate their opinions regarding the process of "Online Seminar on Autism" structured within the scope of transactional distance theory. At the end of the fully remote 17-week study, educational contents were created, and the main implementation was performed online. The process was evaluated by families connecting at convenient times. The strongest aspects of the process were determined as videoconferencing environment used by 54 volunteered the participants, access and question asking opportunity to field experts. In this study, a mixed method approach was adopted in which qualitative and quantitative data collection tools were used together. The data collection tools used in the research process included open-ended and scale ranking questions. Open-ended questions were analyzed with content analysis where the data obtained from the responses were coded, and themes were obtained from codes with similar characteristics. The obtained themes and codes were presented in tables indicating the repetition percentages of the codes. The answers given by the participants to the scale rating questions in this form are expressed with frequencies. The most important opportunities offered by the online environment were listed as the late and convenient training hours, attending trainings from home and the support which was exhibited by the families to each other. Emerging technical problems were revealed as the biggest threats against the online training.