#WedontWantDistanceEducation: a thematic analysis of higher education students’ social media posts about online education during Covid-19 pandemic

The current study is based on thematic analysis of 21,722 tweets posted under the #wedontwantdistanceeducation hashtag within a month after the start of online distance education in Turkish universities due to Covid-19 pandemic. Our findings have revealed that Turkish higher education students have faced multiple challenges in accessing and benefiting from online education due to the swift transformation from face-to-face to online format. These challenges included universities’ poor technical infrastructure, pedagogical and assessment issues, digital inequality in accessing online education, and general negative attitude towards online education. Further, students have expressed issues about financial, health, and social consequences of online education during Covid-19 pandemic. With regards to such challenges and issues, higher education students have criticized government authorities for ignoring their views when making decisions about how online learning is organized during Covid-19 pandemic. Further, students have offered some alternative solutions (e.g. summer courses) to online education.