Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice

ISSN: 2630-5984

The Effects of Turkey’s Level of Socioeconomic Development on the Open Education System*

Bahar Berberoğlu
Faculty of Open Education, Anadolu University, Yunusemre Campus, Eskişehir Turkey.
Rabia Ece Omay
Independent Researcher. İstanbul Turkey
Cafer Necat Berberoğlu
Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Anadolu Universty, Yunusemre Campus, Eskişehir Turkey
Çağlar Karaduman
Faculty of Economics, Anadolu Universty, Yunusemre Campus, Eskişehir Turkey

Abstract

Provinces that vary by socioeconomic levels in Turkey are among the main starting points of planned development. Meanwhile, one of the most important indicators considered in determining differences in development is education. Anadolu University clearly has a very important place in Turkey’s higher education system with its Open and Distance Education System. Therefore, we aim in our study to investigate how socioeconomic development affects provincial demand for an open education system. First, we perform analyses over 81 provinces. However, we thought the demand in Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir to have a special place and excluded them to perform analyses over the remaining 78 provinces using the developmental index of 2012. We evaluated 48 different regression models statistically and, using four different regression techniques, created these models by dividing them into four classes: linear, nonparametric, generalized linear, and generalized nonparametric. The relations in the models between education and development are examined not only as a parametric and linear relationship but also as a nonparametric and nonlinear relationship. We found a positive, nonparametric, and nonlinear relationship for the demand for the Open and Distance Education System with the provincial socioeconomic developmental levels.

Keywords
Socioeconomic development, Open and Distance Education System, Linear regression model, Nonparametric regression model, Generalized regression model, Generalized nonparametric regression model.