The "International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning" (IRRODL) published its first issue in 2000. This paper provides an overview of the journal's development over its 25-year history using bibliometric indicators. We analyzed IRRODL's performance relative to other journals in the field and have highlighted key…

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged the practice of traditional higher education providers (HEPs) and highlighted the need for innovative approaches to education for sustainable development. This research note focuses on online short courses (OSCs)--micro-credentials geared at upskilling or reskilling learners with a competitive application process…

Online learning in civic education (OLCE) has been going on since the 2000s. It has become an increasingly interesting topic in light of recent technological advances and emergencies, and it contributes to improving the quality of learning processes and outcomes. This study aimed to track the publication trends of OLCE in the Scopus database…

This bibliometric analysis explores the rapidly growing field of open education, offering insight into its nature and the wide range of academic topics it covers. This study applies co-citation and co-word analyses approach to critically review 402 publications from the Web of Science database. The aim is to identify emerging topics, seminal…

MOOCs (massive open online courses) have attracted considerable attention from researchers. Fueled by constant change and developments in educational technology, the trends of MOOCs have varied greatly over the years. To detect and visualize the developments and changes in MOOC research, 4,652 articles published between 2009 and 2021 were…

This study aimed to present a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 1,726 academic studies from among those indexed by the Web of Science database platform between 2013 and 2023, to provide a general framework for the concept of artificial intelligence in education (AIEd). Trends in publications and citations across countries, institutions,…

Since open universities can adapt to students' work schedules, personal preferences, age, and so on, they have facilitated access to education for a large group of people. The open university phenomenon, which arose in the 1960s, fostered countries' cultural growth; higher education was now longer exclusively for a privileged few. This paper…

The field of distance education (DE) is dynamic and constantly evolving; it reflects and adapts according to changes in socio-cultural, demographic, political, and technological domains. Thus, there is a need to understand past and present activities in the field, in order to better inform future research. The main purpose of this study was to…

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are an important approach for achieving UNESCO's aim of open and accessible education. However, there are concerns regarding fragmentation or bias of MOOCs toward certain disciplines or countries. This study sought to: (a) examine how MOOCs research has evolved and is distributed, (b) determine what key areas…

Publication of research, innovation, challenges and successes is of critical importance to the evolution of more effective distance education programming. Publication in peer reviewed journal format is the most prestigious and the most widespread form of dissemination in education and most other disciplines, thus the importance of understanding…

Open educational resources (OER) is a topic that has aroused increasing interest by researchers as a powerful contribution to improve the educational system quality and openness, both in face to face and distance education. The goal of this research is to map publications related to OER, dating from 2002 to 2013, and available through the Web of…