Research Trends in E-learning from 2005 to 2007: a Content Analysis of the Articles Published in Selected Journals

Abstract

This study conducted a content analysis of articles published in four Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) journals (i.e., British Journal of Educational Technology, Innovations in Education and Teaching International, Computers and Education, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning) from 2005 to 2007. Among the 616 articles published in these four journals from 2005 to 2007, 413 articles were identified as being related to e-learning. These articles were analyzed in terms of research types, research topics, study participants, and academic disciples. It was found that the empirical study was the dominant research type and the category ‘New Roles of the Instructor & Learner’ was the major published topic, but this topic revealed a declining trend by year within these e-learning articles. The most common category for study participants was ‘college/university’, whereas ‘early childhood’ was the least. The top two academic discipline categories were ‘physical sciences’ and ‘social sciences’.