Using Google Trends to analyze top EdTech-trends 2020 in Russia and worldwide

Problem and goal. The top Educational Technology (EdTech) trends 2020 in the world and in Russia particularly are examined. The analysis involves the research of Gartner - the world’s leading advisory company that is specialized in information technology market, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, The Open University - a public research university, L&D Global Sentiment Survey and HolonIQ - a market intelligence platform. Methodology. The data from these reports was aggregated, grouped and analyzed by using Google Trends. The geographical areas embraced Russia and the whole world. The data was sorted by choosing “Jobs and Education” section and 2020 year as a time period. Results. Four dominant areas were identified: 1) industries; 2) formats; 3) tools; 4) analytics. Only the first two categories were involved in the analysis. The section “formats” embraced massive open online courses, hybrid education, blended learning, personalization, flipped classroom, inclusive education and simulation-based education. The section “tools” included mobile technologies, social networks, mixed and augmented reality (AR/VR), virtual classrooms, artificial intelligence (AI) and learning management system (LMS). Each section element was illustrated by the EdTech case. Conclusion. The most popular search query in the “formats” group among Russian users and the global audience in general was the implementation of inclusive education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Concerning the “tools” category, all users were interested in the features and types of LMS platforms for organizing online classes in 2020.