Message from our Rector...
Tarih: Date
"Dear Students,
The World has been facing the pandemic caused by novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), such as our country. A great struggle is going on both globally and nationwide. This pandemic has broken our routines; we cannot make every-day plans, go to school, meet with friends at a café, etc. We don’t know how long this outbreak will last and how it is going to spread. These uncertainties make us feel as if we are losing the control of our daily lives and that causes fear, anxiety and even anger, which may be experienced in various degrees by each one of us. Yet it may well be possible to turn these uncertainties into something positive. This may be an opportunity for doing things which we long neglected due to our daily life routines. Many of us may have books in our libraries that we have previously bought somehow yet could not find time to read. I have plenty. Now it is time to read them. And, remember that this period gives us more time to spend with our families too.
Your health is the most important thing during this period. Please take every precaution to protect yourselves against the pandemic. Take heed of the prevention directives and warnings issued by the Ministry of Health. Stay home, keep away from crowded places. Also, keep away from the information pollution at the social media. Inaccurate and provocative data will take us nowhere but increase our fear and anxiety. I also advise you to keep away from these.
After having read all those written above, I can almost hear you asking: “Isn’t that distance education going to make us feel stressed?” “No, it is not!” Yes, I agree that we may encounter certain difficulties to connect and use the system at the beginning, but all the problems will be solved in time. Distance education is a whole new process in our lives, as it is also for the World. It is a platform that had been used for a limited number of courses at the national or international level. Yet this has been the first time ever in the World for a University to conduct all teaching activities through distance education. Our aim in implementing distance education is to prevent the suspension of teaching process as far as possible. This process is going to be a whole new experience for us, the instructors, as well as for you, the students. Distance education will give us an opportunity to continue our education activities to some extent without risking our health.
Our distance education infrastructure could have been completed in a very short time owing to the devoted work particularly by the members of the Department of Information Technology. Thus we have now become able to start distance education as of Monday, March 23rd. Setting up the infrastructure is only the first phase of such an activity. We are well aware that distance education cannot be a substitute for face-to-face education. We can compensate for the deficiencies of distance education when we’ll resume our normal education. The real difficulty for this system is going to be to carry it out for an unknown period of time and as worthily as TED University. At this regard, all the components of the system, notably you, the students, will have a great responsibility. Distance education is going to succeed with your efforts and devotion during such times of uncertainty. Days to come will bring great responsibilities for each one of us. We have complete faith in you, as the students of TED University, that you are going to be aware of your responsibilities in these times of trouble which our nation and the whole World is struggling to overcome.
Dear students, remember that your health is the most important thing. When the health is concerned, everything else is insignificant. Don’t take risks, protect yourselves.
You, the students of TED University, have always been supportive for us and fulfilled your responsibilities. I thank you all in advance for your support in this process and I wish to resume our normal, healthy days as soon as possible.
With the warmest regards,
Professor H. Belgin AYVAŞIK
TED University Rector"