Gender and collaboration patterns in distance education research

Abstract

This paper explores the associations between gender, collaboration and research methods in distance education research. Following a bibliometric approach, collaboration is operationalised through co‐author relationships. The study is based on a review of 695 papers published in five prominent distance education journals between 2000 and 2008. It reveals a significant trend towards collaborative research in distance education. There are no significant gender differences regarding the number of co‐authors of collaborative papers. However, female researchers significantly choose different research topics than their male colleagues. Women are over‐represented in research areas such as learner characteristics, learner support or interaction, and communication in learning communities, while men are more concerned with topics stereotypically associated with them: technology and management. There is a significant propensity for female researchers to apply qualitative methods or to triangulate qualitative and quantitative methods. Research methods also affect collaboration. On average, research teams on quantitative projects are significantly bigger than those who produce articles that are qualitative in nature.