Research trends in online distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Online distance learning emerged as a solution to continue with teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to more scholarly publications in the field. The current study critically analyzed the publications using a range of scientometric techniques. The journal article was the predominant form of publication, and collaborative research work was preferred by scholars in this domain. The most-cited articles were published primarily in interdisciplinary journals. Most of the papers (43.64%) used quantitative methods, followed by qualitative methods (13.33%), and mixed methods (9.09%). A large proportion of publications (33%) did not indicate a research methodology. Visualizations of research show that the field has focused largely on remote teaching as a new term to depict online distance learning but has also covered a wider spectrum of issues in relation to teaching and learning, with an emphasis on technologies for teaching and learning, assessment, teacher capacities, and institutional preparedness.

KEYWORDS:

• e-learning
• emergency remote teaching
• online distance education
• COVID-19
• SARS-COV-2

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the editor and reviewers for their invaluable feedback on the previous version of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was declared by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes on contributors

Sanjaya Mishra

Sanjaya Mishra is education specialist, elearning at the Commonwealth of Learning, Canada. Previously he served as director of the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia, New Delhi and Programme Specialist (ICT in Education, Science and Culture) at UNESCO, Paris.

Sidhartha Sahoo

Sidhartha Sahoo is currently scientific officer at Knowledge Resource Centre, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, Hyderabad, India. He has contributed several research papers in the field of scientometrics and return on investment analysis of libraries.

Shriram Pandey

Shriram Pandey is currently assistant professor in the Department of Library and Information Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. He is a recipient of the prestigious Commonwealth Professional Fellowship at the University of East London, UK.