Aras Bozkurt

Research Trends in Turkish Distance Education: A Content Analysis of Dissertations, 1986-2014

Abstract This paper presents a content analytic approach on doctoral dissertations in the field of distance education in Turkish Higher Education context from the years of 1986 through 2014. A total of 61 dissertations were examined to explore keywords, academic discipline, research areas, theoretical/conceptual frameworks, research designs, research models, tests and analyses, data collection tools, participants, variables/research interests, and leading contributor institutions. It is believed that this study can be beneficial to the field of distance education in Turkish context to identify research trends and set a research agenda by exploring dissertations that were published between 1986 and 2014.

Digital identity formation: socially being real and present on digital networks

Abstract Social networks have become popular communication and interaction environments recently. As digital environments, so as ecosystems, they have potential in terms of networked learning as they fulfill some roles such as mediating an environment for digital identity formation and providing social and emotional presence. Based on this phenomenon, the importance of identity formation as a sociological and psychological process was explained throughout this study. Following that, social networks as digital social ecosystems and learning environments in which self-actualization, self-presentation, and self-disclosure of the individuals were discussed and their necessity as well as their potential for social and emotional presence was explained to better understand social networks. Besides, social networks and “Facebook” as a case were examined. Within this perspective, the purpose of this study was to explore online social networks with an emphasis on learning; to put forward its educational premises; and to analyze digital identity formation, social presence, and emotional presence in social networks.