What the Distance Education Themed Master’s Theses and Dissertations in Türkiye Examined Prior to Covid-19 Pandemic

The purpose of this study is to evaluate and compare the research tendencies of the theses and dissertations published in Türkiye prior to the Covid-19 pandemic between 2013 and 2018 in the field of distance education in terms of thematic research fields, methodological preferences and the components that scientific researches should include. In accordance with this purpose, theses and dissertations were analysed with regard to such sections as introduction, method, findings, result and recommendations. This qualitative study was carried out through document (content) analysis method and was made use of purposeful sampling. The results suggest the most popular theme among researches is web-based distance learning, most preferred designs are quantitative, qualitative, respectively. Top universities publishing doctoral dissertations in the field are the Universities of Anadolu and Ankara while Gazi University ranks first in master’s theses. The years of 2013 and 2014 outnumber other years in terms of doctoral dissertations while 2018 was found as the year when most master’s theses was carried out. It was found out dissertations and theses generally have the basic components of a scientific research. The quantitative studies were designed in survey model while qualitative studies focused on case studies. The most commonly used sampling method is purposeful sampling in the case of both research models. It is recommended that more doctoral dissertations could be carried out in the field of distance education in Türkiye and future studies may include not only the studies that the term of distance education exists in the title but also others carried out in the field.