Exploring the Impact of Research Conducted by Turkish Researchers on Open and Distance Learning

Scientific productivity performance and scientific field mapping reveal the current status and trends of the relevant science field by examining the relationships between many components such as publication, source and author. The aim of this research is to examine the scientific productivity performance and scientific field map of international distance education research produced in Turkey. The bibliometric analysis method was used in this research. The search query for "distance education" was made in the Web of Science (WoS) database in April 2023, with no year limitation, and with only the fields of education. The analysis of the 12491249 data was made in the Biblioshiny application using the Bibliometrix package developed in the open-source R language. Main information results showed that 1249 studies in the dataset were published from 236 sources between 1994-2023. The most publications on distance education were produced in 2022. The most average citation per year on distance education was cited in 2002. The most relevant source was the “Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education”. The most cited source was the “Computer Education” journal. The most relevant institution was Anadolu University. It was found that research has been directed to the theme of COVID-19 in recent years. In addition, it was found that the motor themes were interactive learning environments, computer-mediated communication, cooperative learning, content analysis, educational technology, and massive online open course themes. In conclusion, this research showed the scientific productivity performance, conceptual structure, intellectual structure, and social structure of the publications produced in Turkey related to distance education. It is thought that the results will shed light on researchers in the field of distance education.