Trends in E-Learning Research from 2002-2013: A Co-citation Analysis

As research in e-learning areas may have progressively become an important field, it is essential to view the emerging trends and critical turns of the publications of research findings. This study utilized Cite Space, a citation analysis software for analyzing and visualizing trends in e-learning research between 2002 and 2013. A total of 4898 research papers were analyzed in terms of the timelines of co-citation, a visualized network of co-cited references and burst terms. It is found that a major ongoing research trend is concerned with the topics of self-efficacy, self-explanation and virtual reality. Moreover, recent research fronts focus on the distributed learning environments, learning communities, computer-mediated communication, and collaborative learning, etc. The research trends and research fronts are distinct and have different implications on future research, so as to track the development of new and critical emerging trends.