Mapping the Intellectual Structure of e-Learning Tools Research: A Bibliometric Approach

Abstract

E-learning was derived as a result of the emergence of internet and the electronic devices such as computers after the technical revolution. The pandemic in 2019 marked a significant shift in the adoption and evolution of learning tools. Within this context, this research aims to assess and comprehensively review the scientific production in e-learning tools along with the time using academic publications as the key data source. The Biblioshiny package in R opensource software tool was used for statistical computing and modeling the data. The Scopus database, which is used as a citation index with a multidisciplinary scope is used as the source of a bibliographic database. The research examines 1,164 articles published in the database (Date acquisition: 05th March 2023) between 2000-2022. Articles published in English were refined after excluding the articles unpublished yet. Annual scientific production on research on e-learning tools started to grow in number after 2008 and reached its peak in 2021. The average citation number per document is 8.2 while the annual growth rate is 22%. The literature covers 102 countries. Spain, USA and Germany became the most productive countries while the most cited country is the USA. Along with the time the trending topics were diversified and the themes became more complex. Computer-aided instruction has become the most frequent word along the time. Finally, this study's implications highlight that e-learning tools have been impacted globally.