educational technology research trends: examining six ssci-indexed refereed journals

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Educational Technology Research Trends: Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals Yu-Chang Hsu | Jui-Long Hung | Yu-Hui Ching Boise State University

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This study applied text mining methods to examine the abstracts of 2,997 international research articles published between 2000 and 2010 by six journals included in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) in the field of Educational Technology (EDTECH). A total of 19 clusters of research areas were identified, and these clusters were further analyzed in terms of productivity by country and by journal. The analysis revealed research areas with rising trends, stable status, and low attention. This study also identified areas of research emphasis by journal and research strength by country. A discussion of results through the lens of Critical Theory of Technology is also included. The authors hope to inform the EDTECH community about the trends of EDTECH research on topics and regions of research contributions. The authors also believe that such examination of trends can help facilitate fruitful discussions of directions for future research, and possible international collaboration across various geographical regions.

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Page 1: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Educational Technology Research Trends: Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Yu-Chang Hsu | Jui-Long Hung | Yu-Hui ChingBoise State University

Page 2: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Introduction

Educational TechnologyYear 2000-20106 Journals indexed in SSCI2,997 ArticlesText MiningInternational Research Trends

Page 3: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Prior “Review” Research

Selective article review: conducted by discussing author-selected articles. Winn (2002) reviewed self-selected articles and defined the evolution of e-learning into the ages of instructional design, message design, simulation, and learning environments. => scope, data source, and article selection standards were usually not clearly defined. Systematic content analysis Shih, Feng, and Tsai (2008) investigated trends of cognition research in e-learning. The authors collected 444 articles from five major SSCI educational technology journals during the period from 2001 to 2005. => Require significant time and efforts on content analysis. Text mining can be a relatively efficient alternative approach. Systematic citation analysisOzcinar (2009) investigated 758 ‘‘instructional design’’ articles published between 1980 and 2008 and found that 87 % of those articles came from seven countries, with the countries in the Far East being poorly represented.

Page 4: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Method: Text Mining (TM)

Text Mining adopts a set of algorithms for converting unstructured text into structured data objects then analyze them with quantitative methods. Characteristics/Advantages:

Large sample size: • Sample size could range from hundreds to more than ten thousand

• Exhaustive search• Traditional content analysis methods might focus mostly on selective

journals only, while TM enables researchers to extract all related articles from the entire database.

• Data source: • In order to control data noise and avoid obtaining trivial clusters, TM

studies usually utilize abstracts as the major data source.

Page 5: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Generic Text Mining Process

Page 6: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Tool

SAS Text Miner 4.2Compared abstract similarity by using domain-related wordsGrouped similar articles into clustersAll clusters were agglomerated into a hierarchical tree/taxonomy structure based on agglomerative clustering algorithm

Additional variables (i.e., indicators commonly used in library science)

Publication YearJournal TitleNumber of AuthorsNumber of Pages First Author’s Country First Author’s Institution

Page 7: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Data Source

2,997 Articles (Abstracts) from the following 6 refereed journals:British Journal of Educational Technology (BJET)Computers & Education (C&E) Journal of Educational Technology and Society (JETS)Educational Technology Research & Development (ETR&D)Innovations in Education and Teaching International (IETI)Journal of Computer Assisted Learning (JCAL)

Year Range: 2000-2010

Page 8: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Data interpretation/evaluation

Examining the hierarchical taxonomy structure of research areas; Sampling and reviewing articles in respective research areas; Triangulating professional knowledge of research areas among the researchers of this study.

Page 9: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Results

2997 articles → 19 Clusters → 6 Groups → 3 DomainsAuthors discussed, negotiated, gained consensus, decide on the “category” terms

Page 11: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Productivity by Country

Page 12: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

TOP 5 Productive:

USA, England, Taiwan, Australia, and Netherlands

USA

• Led the productivity in ETR&D, and • Ranked second in C&E, JCAL, and JETS

England

• Led productivity in BJET and IETI

Taiwan

• Ranked first in C&E, JCAL, and JETS

Page 13: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Top 5 Country: Productivity by Cluster

USA

• Macro View of Online Learning • Learning Interactions and Online Collaborative Learning • Instructional Design

England

• Macro View of Online Learning • Educational Software and Simulation • Learning Interactions and Online Collaborative Learning

Taiwan

Automated Instructional Systems Learning Interactions and Online Collaborative Learning Assessment in Technology-based learning Environments

Page 14: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Top 5 Country: Productivity by Cluster (continued)

Australia

Macro View of Online LearningLearning Interactions and Online Collaborative Learning Macro View of Technology Integration

Netherlands

Instructional DesignLearning Interactions and Online Collaborative Learning Macro View of Online Learning

Page 15: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Productivity by Journal

Page 16: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Top Clusters by Journal

BJET

Macro View of Technology Integration (CL2), Learning Interactions and Collaborative Learning (CL17)Instructional Design (CL10) CL2 > CL17 by 61.3 % in terms of the numbers of published articles

C&E

Learning Interactions and Collaborative Learning (CL17) Educational Software and Simulation (CL14) Macro View of Online Learning (CL2) CL17 > CL14 by 29.3 %CL17 > CL2 by 51.5 %

JETS

Macro View of Online Learning (CL2) Learning Interactions and Collaborative Learning (CL17) Instructional Design (CL10) CL2 > CL17 by 23.3 %

Page 17: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Top Clusters by Journal (continued)

ETR&D

Instructional Design (CL10)Learning Interactions and Collaborative Learning (CL17)Macro View of Technology Integration (CL2)CL10 > CL17 by 9.5 %CL10 > CL2 by 53.3 %

IETI

Macro View of Online Learning (CL2) Assessment in Technology-based Environments (CL12) Instructional Design (CL10)/Learning Interactions and Collaborative Learning (CL17) CL2 > CL12 by 308 % CL2 > CL10/CL17 by 386 %

JCAL:

Macro View of Online Learning (CL2) Learning Interactions and Collaborative Learning (CL17) Educational Software and Simulation (CL14) CL2 > CL17 by 9 %

Page 18: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Trends: Rising

Hot topics (i.e., averaged more than 15 articles published per year) include Macro View of Technology IntegrationMacro View of Online LearningInstructional Design Assessment in Technology-based Environments Educational Software and SimulationAutomated Instructional Systems Learning Interactions and Online Collaborative Learning

Page 19: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Trends: Stable

Stable topics (i.e., averaged no more than 15 articles published per year)Educational Games Technology-assisted LearningAttitudes toward TechnologyLearning CommunityOnline DiscussionsProblem-solving

Page 20: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Trends: Low Attention

Cold topics (i.e., averaged no more than 5 articles published per year) include Learning Styles Technology Adoption Learning ObjectsMultimediaComputer-Assisted Language Learning

Page 21: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Relatively New

E-learning in Higher Education

None between 2000 and 20032 articles published in 200419 articles published in 2010

Page 22: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Current Era of EDTECH Research

D1: Technology Integration & D3: Learning Environments have more rising clusters than D2: Acceptance/Attitude of Emerging Technologies

Internet technologies constitute the major teaching/learning environments in EDTECH

Interaction and collaborative work contribute to the mainstream of instructional/learning strategies

EDTECH research is the era with a focus on learning environment (Winn, 2002)

Instructional Design and simulation (focusing on interactions) are still hot topics in the field

Page 23: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Through the Lens of Critical Theory of Technology

Technology is a two-sided phenomenon that involves the operator and the object. Through design, the operator can narrow the range of the object’s interests and concerns

(Feenberg, 2005).

Possible operators that could have potentially shaped the trends of EDTECH research:GovernmentJournalTechnology Developer

Page 24: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Future Research

What do you hope to find out more about the EDTECH research trends?

Page 25: Educational Technology Research Trends:  Examining Six SSCI-indexed Refereed Journals

Article Information

○ Hsu, Y. -C., Hung, J. -L., & Ching, Y. -H. (2013). Trends of Educational Technology research: More than a decade of international research in six SSCI-indexed refereed journals. Educational Technology Research & Development, 61(4), 685-705. doi:10.1007/s11423-013-9290-9

○ Abstract: This study applied text mining methods to examine the abstracts of 2,997 international research articles published between 2000 and 2010 by six journals included in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) in the field of Educational Technology (EDTECH). A total of 19 clusters of research areas were identified, and these clusters were further analyzed in terms of productivity by country and by journal. The analysis revealed research areas with rising trends, stable status, and low attention. This study also identified areas of research emphasis by journal and research strength by country. A discussion of results through the lens of Critical Theory of Technology is also included. The authors hope to inform the EDTECH community about the trends of EDTECH research on topics and regions of research contributions. The authors also believe that such examination of trends can help facilitate fruitful discussions of directions for future research, and possible international collaboration across various geographical regions.