Research trends in social network sites’ educational use: a review of publications in all SSCI journals to 2015

Abstract

In the current study, 247 articles dealing with the use of SNSs (social network sites) in education and published in Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) journals up to 2015 were analysed. The articles’ demographic (year, learner type, used SNS, major contributing countries, and academic discipline) and topic trends were determined. As a result of the analyses that were conducted, the research topics were classified into nine groups (learner outcomes, instructional approaches, contributions to education, dispositions, demographics, interaction, comparison, support and others). These nine topics were subsequently divided into relevant sub‐topics. The findings demonstrate that the number of studies dealing with the educational use of SNSs is increasing each year. Significant numbers of research studies have investigated higher education. The topic of learner outcomes has also become a trend topic. Other findings obtained are discussed in detail, the existing gaps in the literature are determined and several suggestions are made regarding future research.