Gap Topics – Too Important to Jump Over!

As educators interested in the continuous improvement of education, it can be disappointing to see research articles on the same topics repeatedly. This is not new. Berge and Mrozowski (2001), Zawacki-Richter, Bäcker, and Vogt (2009), and Zawacki-Rchter and Anderson (2014) analyzed distance educations publications from 1990 onwards and found that policy/management/administration topics were rarely the focus. Of course, pedagogical topics are important, but so is research on those human and structural supports required for providing quality education. We need deeper research on the whole system of distance education. It can become challenging to remain quizzical about gap topics – those gaps in published research that take a systems view — when not triggered in our usual academic readings. That holistic approach comes from our professional immersion into published research, from practice/observation, and I’m suggesting, from an informed following of the gray literature. Grey literature is those white papers, reports, webinars, conference proceedings, professional publications produced by affinity group that provide information on current threads in education, often from wide national survey data. Demographic and trend numbers from gray literature are often cited within the first few paragraphs of academic articles; yet important potential trigger research questions are missed. See https://bit.ly/3QufLNV for some gray literature recommendations.