The literature review on changes in research trends regarding distance education before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2017-2020)

In the eary periods of distance education when it was considered as a separate field. During the pandemic process, even the education -training and evaluation processes have started to be done through distance education. The present research tries to reveal research trends including the development of distance education and the pandemic process. The research was carried out in qualitative research design with document analysis. 333 articles published in the field of distance education between 2017-2020 in the Dergipark database constitute the sample of the present research. These articles are examined in terms of form, methodology and content. Data analysis for the present research was conducted by descriptive analysis method. While the trend of quantitative research was at the forefront in the distance education researches until the pandemic process; in 2020, which covers the pandemic process, the qualitative research trend has come to the fore and the interviews were conducted from afar; there are also studies that try to reveal the problems related to distance education, and the use of online tools has increased. In addition, it has been observed that studies on distance education have started to be published in many other fields apart from the field of distance education.