Objective: In today's ever-changing living conditions, there are changes in the education sector as in all sectors. In 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic that started in China, the distance education process has started in educational institutions all over the world, including Turkey. The aim of this study is to investigate the historical development of the distance education process, which started with such an important pandemic and continues to remain on the agenda, and the issue of this process becoming a normal education system is discussed. Method: An extensive literature review on distance education was conducted to examine how the process started and how it continues. A large number of sources related to the subject in the literature were accessed. Findings: Although the distance education process started compulsorily with the COVID-19 pandemic, today it is desired to be used in education as a normal system against all kinds of disasters and negative developments that may occur. It is thought that this system will develop further in the future and will be applied as the main education system, not as an alternative system to the formal education system. Conclusion: Online education has become important due to extraordinary reasons such as disasters and epidemics that started in China in 2020, which were compulsory due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and which we are experiencing today. Due to the risk of transmission of the disease with the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become necessary to carry out the education and training process remotely, that is, online education, with the help of technological tools in an environment where people pay attention to the social distance to each other. In this period, face-to-face education was discontinued in schools all over the world and education was carried out through distance education. With the emergence of the first cases in Turkey, the Ministry of National Education announced its decision to switch to online education in primary and secondary education institutions as of March 23, 2020. Although online education has entered our lives as a compulsory process in this way, it has started to become a normal education system today. Today, online education is no longer seen as an alternative to face-to-face education, but as a new education system and is being developed as a digital education process. Originality: There are studies on distance education system in the literature. In this study, the historical development process of the online education process, the studies conducted in the literature, and the positive and negative consequences of this new normal education system on all our lives, especially our educational life, are discussed.
Online education, face-to-face education, digital education