Critical Issues in Open and Distance Education Research

Despite its mainstreaming into the broader educational ecology, open and distance education (ODE) still leaves much to be desired in terms of both practice and research. Inspired and informed by the author’s 35 years of experience as an ODE practitioner, researcher, reviewer, and editor, this articl...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International review of research in open and distance learning 2023-05, Vol.24 (2), p.213-228
Main Author: Xiao, Junhong
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citation indexes
COVID-19
Creative Teaching
Distance Education
Distance learning
Education
Educational Research
Educational Technology
Educational Trends
Electronic Learning
Experiments
Generalization
Interactive television
Intervention
issues of concern
Learning Analytics
Literature Reviews
MOOCs
Online instruction
open and distance education
Replication (Evaluation)
sustainable development
Systems Approach
Validity
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Despite its mainstreaming into the broader educational ecology, open and distance education (ODE) still leaves much to be desired in terms of both practice and research. Inspired and informed by the author’s 35 years of experience as an ODE practitioner, researcher, reviewer, and editor, this article concentrates on 10 critical issues of ODE research that have long existed but may have a consequential impact on its healthy growth. The issues discussed cover scarcity of longitudinal research, paucity of scaling-up and generalization research, preference for success over failure presented in research, the need for a systems approach, lack of sociocultural sensitivity, technologization of research, scant attention to ODE for the underprivileged and disadvantaged, insufficient research on ODE policy, negligence of historical research, and disinterest in revisiting ODE theories. The causes of these problems are critically interpreted and their possible negative impacts on the field of ODE are explored in a concise manner. The purpose of this article is to encourage further discussion and debate on ODE research to sustain its presence and acceptance as a legitimate mode of education in the wider educational community.
ISSN:1492-3831
1492-3831
DOI:10.19173/irrodl.v24i2.6881