Taxonomical classification of engineering education research publications - an IT perspective

In recent years, bibliometric analysis of publications has been receiving growing attention in engineering education research (EER) as a research approach that can bring a number of benefits. In this paper a taxonomical analysis of papers published in two EER journals is used to create a characterization of the work published in these two publications from an IT perspective. The analyzed papers are from the first 2011 number of IEEE Transactions on Education, (21 papers) and from the two 2011 numbers of the ASEE-published Advances in Engineering Education (22 papers). Applying an existing framework, seven taxonomical dimensions are used to characterize the papers. In addition this data is compared with that from an earlier taxonomical analysis of computing education publications. We conclude that from an IT research point of view, both of these journals represent attractive publication channels and we note some indications of a developing maturity of engineering education research as a field of scholarship.