The document summarizes a presentation by Prof. Olaf Zawacki-Richter on research trends in open, distance, and digital education (ODDE). It discusses the research track at the EADTU conference, the Center for Open Education Research (COER) network and projects, key areas of research on ODDE over time, and opportunities and challenges with emerging technologies like artificial intelligence in education. It emphasizes the need for more research on the organizational and policy levels to help guide evidence-based practice in implementing innovations in open and distance learning.

1. Research Trends in ODDE
Prof. Dr. Olaf Zawacki-Richter
EADTU Conference (Athens),
Greece
October 19, 2022

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Research Track at EADTU Conferences
‒ Today two sessions
chaired by Cengiz
Hakan Aydin, and
Victoria Marin
from 4:30 to 6:30 pm
‒ Thursday four sessions
chaired by Olaf Zawacki-
Richter, Victoria Marin,
and Berrin Cefa Sari
‒ 13 presentations in the
Research Track

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‒ Journal of the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), USA
‒ Chief Editor Prof Peter Shea
‒ SCOPUS citescore 5.7
‒ Ranking in top 10 % of all journals in Education
‒ Top 3 % of all open access journals in Education

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 International Reserach Centre founded at University of
Oldenburg (Germany) in 2018
 Network of 20 Professors, 5 Post-Doctoral Researchers
and 7 doctoral students from 12 countries
 Research into Open and Distance Learning, Educational
Technology, and International Education
Center for Open Education Research (COER)
https://uol.de/coer

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Center for Open Education Research (COER)
Oldenburg, October 2018
Prof. Patricia
Slagter v. Tyron

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‒ U of Heidelberg, Hamburg, Duisburg-Essen, Oldenburg, Fürth (Germany)
Prof. Michael
Kerres
Prof. Kerstin
Mayrberger
Prof. Marco
Kalz
Prof. Olaf
Zawacki-Richter
COER Members
Prof. Svenja
Bedenlier

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‒Anadolu U and METU (Turkey)
‒UOC (Spain), East Carolina U (USA), Athabasca U (Canada)
‒Athabasca U & Royal Roads U (Canada), Melbourne (Australia)
Dr. Aras
Bozkurt
Prof. Adnan
Qayyum
Prof. Hakan
Aydin
Prof. Yasar
Kondaki
Prof. Albert
Sangra
Prof.
George
Veletsianos
Prof.
Dianne
Conrad
Prof. Som
Naidu
Prof. Slagter
v. Tyron

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‒ Beijing U, OU China (China), U Lancaster (UK, Korea)
‒Korea/Japan, U of South Africa (South Africa)
‒5 Post-Doc Researchers (2 in Oldenburg)
‒7 Ph.D. Students (in Oldenburg)
Prof. Junhong
Xiao
Prof. Jingjing
Zhang
Prof.
Jennifer
Roberts
Prof. Paul
Prinsloo
Prof.
Kyungmee Lee
Prof. Insung
Jung

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COER Research Projects
‒ Prospects for the Future of Learning – Artificial Intelligence Applications in
Higher Education
‒ Strategic scenarios for AI applications in HE
‒ Funded by Volkswagen Foundation, Germany
(2021 – 2024)
Dr. John Bay
ODeL Conference
2022
Anadolu University

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COER Research Projects
Marin, V., Peters, L., & Zawacki-Richter, O.
(Eds.). (2022). (Open) Educational Resources
around the World—An International
Comparison. EdTech Books.
https://edtechbooks.org/oer_around_the_world
OPEN ACCESS
‒ Distributed Digital Learning Architectures
(EduArc)
‒ Funded by BMBF (2018-2021)

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Consulting & Evaluation
Kyungmee Lee & Olaf Zawacki-Richter
(Turin, July 2022)
https://www.itcilo.org/s
ites/default/files/inline-
files/Evaluation%20R
eport%202021%20ED
ITED%20FINAL.pdf

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Elements of Open Education
‒ "open education (…) refers to a set of educational practices, in which the notion
of access is complex and has broadened over time, from the initial
understanding of it relating only to university entrance. Such efforts are
supported by a variety of media, learning materials, assessments, tools, and
systems to provide flexible learning opportunities." (COER Group, 2020)
‒ Elements of Open Education:
‒ Open and distance learning (ODE)
‒ Open education practice (OEP)
and scholarship
‒ Open Educational Resources
(OER)
Istanbul, 13.09.2019

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COER Group. (2020). Elements of Open Education: An Invitation to Future Research. International Review
of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 21(3), 319–334. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v21i3.4659

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3M-Framework Research Areas in ODDE
Zawacki-Richter, O., & Bozkurt, A. (2022). Research Trends in Open, Distance, and Digital Education. In O. Zawacki-Richter & I. Jung (Eds.),
Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education (pp. 1–23). Springer Nature Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0351-9_12-1

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Zawacki-Richter, O., & Anderson, T.
(Eds.). (2014). Online distance
education—Towards a research
agenda. Athabasca University Press.
http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/boo
ks/120233
OPEN ACCESS

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Research Trends
ODDE 1980 – 2030

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Learning better with digital media?
 sdfdsf
‒ The history of educational
technology is a series of recurring
hopes and disappointed
expectations.
‒ Critical voices…

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Tamim, R. M., Bernard, R. M., Borokhovski, E., Abrami, P. C.,
& Schmid, R. F. (2011). What Forty Years of Research Says
About the Impact of Technology on Learning: A Second-Order
Meta-Analysis and Validation Study. Review of Educational
Research, 81(1), 4–28.
‒ Meta-Analysis of the effects of
“new“ media on learning
o TV, Radio, video-conferencing,
o Multimedia, CBT, WBT, virtual
worlds...
‒ Consistent results over the last
>40 years (Tamim et al., 2011)
Kulik, J. A., Kulik, C.-L. C., & Cohen, P. A. (1980). Effectiveness
of Computer-based College Teaching: A Meta-analysis of
Findings. Review of Educational Research, 50(4), 525–544.

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‒ Positive, personal teacher-student
relationships have the highest effects
‒ Learning is a social process
N=3.990.028
N=355.325
N=22.554
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement.
London, New York: Routledge.

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Opportunities for teaching and learning with digital media
open and flexible organization
independent of time and space
more self-directed and collaborative
with international experts and peers
individual and personalized
with diverse digital learning content (OER!)
preparing for a digital society and labour market

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Content Analysis of Research Trends in ODE
 Journal: Distance Education, since 1980, SSCI
 515 articles from 1980-2014
 Textmining with Leximancer
 Results are depicted in concept maps based on relative locations
of concepts in the text that form a thematic region.
Zawacki-Richter, O., & Naidu, S. (2016). Mapping research trends from 35 years
of publications in the journal Distance Education. Distance Education, 37(3).
http://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2016.1185079
OPEN ACCESS

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1980-2014
(N=515)
Overall scope of the journal
 Articles on distance and open
education in the context of higher
education and academic learning
 Two major themes "students" and
"learning" are connected via
"interaction”.
EDUCATION
INTERACTION
LEARNING
STUDENT
RESEARCH

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1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030
Alternating waves of research trends
Zawacki-Richter, O., & Bozkurt, A. (2022). Research Trends in Open, Distance, and Digital Education. In O. Zawacki-Richter
& I. Jung (Eds.), Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education (pp. 1–23). Springer Nature Singapore.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0351-9_12-1

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AI in Education (AIEd)

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Zawacki-Richter, O., Marín, V. I., Bond, M., & Gouverneur, F. (2019). Systematic review of
research on artificial intelligence applications in higher education – where are the
educators? International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 16.
AIEd Systematic Review (2019, 2022)

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Zawacki-Richter, O., Kerres, M.,
Bedenlier, S., Bond, M., & Buntins, K.
(Eds.). (2020). Systematic reviews in
educational research: Methodology,
perspectives and application.
Springer.
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-
3-658-27602-7
OPEN ACCESS

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‒ 2010–10/2018:
146 included studies
‒ Update 11/2018–2021:
428 included Studies
(Report for the German
Parliament, Office for
Technology Assessment)
‒ Only 14% of studies led
by educators
AIEd Systematic Review (2022 update)
Number of included articles per year

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Herodotou, C., Hlosta, M., Boroowa, A., Rienties, B., Zdrahal, Z., & Mangafa, C. (2019). Empowering online
teachers through predictive learning analytics. British Journal of Educational Technology, 50(6), 3064–3079.
Profiling and prediction…

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Liu TT, Wang JX, Yang B, & Wang X. (2021). Facial expression recognition method with multi-label distribution learning for non-verbal
behavior understanding in the classroom. Infrared Physics & Technology, 112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infrared. 2020.103594
Classroom bahaviour management systems

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Automated Essay Scoring (Gierl et al., 2014)
 AES for large-scale assessment
 Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination
 5.540 students took the test in 2013
 100 raters needed 4 days (~3.000 hrs) to score the items
 Supervised machine learning classification
 ~98 % agreement between AI and human raters
 3.5 hrs to prepare the data, and
10 sec to score 2013 examination
Gierl, M. J., Latifi, S., Lai, H., Boulais, A., & Champlain, A. (2014). Automated
essay scoring and the future of educational assessment in medical education.
Medical Education, 48(10), 950–962.

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Summary / Conclusion
‒ Heritage of ODE to build upon, to inform evidence-based practice
‒ Majority of research on the micro level of learning & teaching
‒ More research needed on the meso and macro levels, e.g.
‒ National and institutional infrastructures (e. g. for OER)
‒ Policies for implementing & integrating innovations
‒ esp. for AIEd as a high risk technology

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One last thing…
‒ OPEN ACCESS
‒ Springer’s Major Reference Series
‒ 80 chapters, >120 authors, 25 countries
‒ 72 chapters already available in the
living online edition
Zawacki-Richter, O., & Jung, I. (Eds.). (2022). Handbook of Open, Distance, and Digital Education. Springer.
https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-981-19-0351-9

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Thanks for your attention!
Prof. Dr. Olaf Zawacki-Richter
Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg
Fakultät für Bildungs- und Sozialwissenschaften
Center for Open Education Research (COER)
olaf.zawacki.richter@uni.oldenburg.de
@Zawacki_Richter
http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/COER/