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A systematic review of research on online teaching and learning from 2009 to 2018
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Systematic reviews were conducted in the nineties and early 2000's on online learning research. However, there is no review examining the broader aspect of research themes in online learning in the last decade. This systematic review addresses this gap by examining 619 research articles on online learning published in twelve journals in the last decade. These studies were examined for publication trends and patterns, research themes, research methods, and research settings and compared with the research themes from the previous decades. While there has been a slight decrease in the number of studies on online learning in 2015 and 2016, it has then continued to increase in 2017 and 2018. The majority of the studies were quantitative in nature and were examined in higher education. Online learning research was categorized into twelve themes and a framework across learner, course and instructor, and organizational levels was developed. Online learner characteristics and online engagement were examined in a high number of studies and were consistent with three of the prior systematic reviews. However, there is still a need for more research on organization level topics such as leadership, policy, and management and access, culture, equity, inclusion, and ethics and also on online instructor characteristics.
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“Online teaching training is often considered part of institutional support, primarily emphasizing higher education and less on K-12 settings (Martin et al., 2020).”
From Transforming Online Teacher Training Through Expansive Learning: A Case Study Applying Cultural-Historical Activity Theory and the Change Laboratory Method (2025) · cites this paper as Martin et al., 2020
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Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Martin, F., Sun, T., & Westine, C. D.
- Affiliations
- University of North Carolina at Charlotte (US)
- Corresponding author
- Martin, Florence
- Venue
- Computers & Education
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-12
- Volume
- 159
- Pages
- 104009
- ISSN
- 0360-1315 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7480742
- OpenAlex
- W3084070176
- Cited by
- 616
- References
- 105
- Citations by year
- 2026: 90 · 2025: 92 · 2024: 108 · 2023: 116 · 2022: 139 · 2021: 71
- FWCI
- 27.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Computers & Education (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Online and Blended Learning
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Online Learning and Analytics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Educational Technology and E-Learning
- Keywords
- online learning, research trends, research topics, higher education, online engagement, organizational leadership, publication trends
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