Determining the Trends of Motivation Research in Distance Education

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze 26 articles that include “motivation” in their titles and “distance education” as a topic in the Web of Science database in SSCI and ESCI indexed educational sciences journals between 2010 and 2020, and thus to determine the current situation and trends of motivation research in distance education. According to some findings, the most articles on motivation in distance education were published in 2018. Achievement was the most examined variable associated with motivation. As a theory, self-determination theory is the most widely used theory. The country with the highest number of articles is the USA, the most used research method is a quantitative method, and the most used data collection tool is a questionnaire. Lastly, some suggestions are offered to shed light on future research.