Critical Issues in Open and Distance Education Research

Abstract

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.

Critiquing Sustainable Openness in Technology-Based Education from the Perspective of Cost-Effectiveness and Accessibility

“…There is too much talking but too little thinking about these key issues, as Selwyn (2011) aptly observes (also see Xiao, 2023). At the heart of these questions lies the sustainable openness in technology-based education.…”

“…Unfortunately, the zeal for technology in education shows no sign of waning due to many and various reasons. In this, a research agenda of practical relevance may be needed to cool down this obsession (Wang & Reeves, 2003;Xiao, 2023).…”

“…Thirdly, sustainable openness in technology-based education is also related to students' social and cultural factors (Kuhn et al, 2023). Simply providing access to technology may not be able to enable sustainable openness because technology itself, technological applications, and education are all culturally loaded (Xiao, 2023). A particular technology-based intervention may work for the disadvantaged in one country but not in another (Murris et al, 2022).…”

Grounding, framing, and problematising research in online, distance and digital education

“…Eschewing the orthodoxy that takes the report structure of empirical papers as the natural, if not the sole legitimate format in which scholarly discourse on ODDE should take shape, this paper seeks to show, as part of its commitment to cross-mode critical inquiry, that ODDE stands to be vitalised rather than compromised from a diversification of the formats in which scholarly ODDE discourse is cast. While report-style empirical papers certainly have their place in ODDE scholarship, it is also crucial that departures from it are effected when the occasion calls for it, particularly in light of the startling findings that a significant proportion of empirical papers churned out and published in even some of the more established ODDE-related journals are, despite their best intentions, problematic and potentially undermining of the credibility of ODDE as a field, a mode, a practice, and a community (Peng and Xiao, 2022;Xiao, 2022Xiao, , 2023.…”