Covid-19 and E-Learning: An Exploratory Analysis of Research Topics and Interests in E-Learning During the Pandemic

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GÜRCAN F., Dalveren G. G. M., Derawi M.

IEEE ACCESS, vol.10, pp.123349-123357, 2022 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 10
  • Publication Date: 2022
  • Doi Number: 10.1109/access.2022.3224034
  • Journal Name: IEEE ACCESS
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Compendex, INSPEC, Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Page Numbers: pp.123349-123357
  • Keywords: E-learning trends, topic modeling, n-grams, covid-19, topic discovery, EVOLUTION, TRENDS, IMPACT
  • Karadeniz Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

E-learning has gained further importance and the amount of e-learning research and applications has increased exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, it is critical to examine trends and interests in e-learning research and applications during the pandemic period. This paper aims to identify trends and research interests in e-learning articles related to COVID-19 pandemic. Consistent with this aim, a semantic content analysis was conducted on 3562 peer-reviewed journal articles published since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, using the N-gram model and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling approach. Findings of the study revealed the high-frequency bigrams such as "online learn ", "online education ", "online teach " and "distance learn ", as well as trigrams such as "higher education institution ", "emergency remote teach ", "education online learn " and "online teach learn ". Moreover, the LDA topic modeling analysis revealed 42 topics. The topics of "Learning Needs ", "Higher Education " and "Social Impact " respectively were the most focused topics. These topics also revealed concepts, dimensions, methods, tools, technologies, applications, measurement and evaluation models, which are the focal points of e-learning field during the pandemic. The findings of the study are expected to provide insights to researchers and future studies.