Scientific Mapping of Social Media in Education: A Decade of Exponential Growth

Abstract

Given the increasing number of research on social media for educational purposes, few studies have examined the scientific literature in this field of interest. However, reviews that comprehensively mapped this research landscape in a broader view remain very limited. It is on this premise that the current study identifies the growth trajectory, distribution, and topical foci of scientific literature on social media in education published between 2007 and 2019. A total of 2,215 documents from Scopus-indexed journals were analysed. Using a bibliometric approach, the findings show a steady growth of scientific output and citations and the expansion of the topical foci in the past decade. Of the 15 examined social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have attracted the greatest attention, while the rest remained underexplored or unexplored. The popularity of certain platforms among scholars was attributed to three factors: the number of active users, the pedagogical affordances, and the geographical scope. Implications for future studies are discussed.