Technostress, equity, and institutional management in open and distance learning: A bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Open and distance learning (ODL) institutions built their case on a promise of access, using technology to reach learners that conventional systems could not. Yet for many learners in low-resource settings, that same technology becomes a source of psychological strain that institutions manage poorly, if at all. This paper treats technostress in ODL as an institutional management problem, not only an individual or purely educational one, and argues that the field has not adequately recognised it as an equity and organisational-design concern. A bibliometric analysis of 347 Scopus-indexed peer-reviewed articles published between 2018 and 2026 shows that technostress research and ODL equity research have developed largely in parallel, covering overlapping ground while rarely informing institutional practice or management theory. To close this gap, the paper proposes the Equity-Centred Technostress Framework (ECTF), a management tool grounded in Conservation of Resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989) and Digital Equity theory (van Dijk, 2005). This is not an established model but a propositional framework, setting out four concepts for empirical testing that require primary validation. For ODL institutions and the managers who run them, it offers a shared vocabulary connecting equity concerns to technostress, and gives concrete direction for management decisions in enrolment screening, platform procurement, and completion monitoring.