Review Article
Ángela Novoa-Echaurren, Alejandra Canales-Tapia, Linda Molin-Karakoç
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 17, Issue 1, Article No: ep561
ABSTRACT
Rapid technological developments have heightened global interest in pedagogically sound uses of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in education. However, universal principles for ICT integration need to better align with the local realities of teachers and schools for optimal uptake. Using Chile and Finland as case studies, this research summarizes, appraises, and synthesizes literature on teachers’ ICT uses before and during the pandemic. Adopting a ‘glocal’ framework (Manca et al., 2021), the study identifies local and global trends in ICT uses, including potential research shifts that carry implications for both theory and practice. A systematic literature review was conducted to examine Finnish and Chilean teachers’ ICT uses as reported in studies across five databases. The search was limited to peer-reviewed, English-language publications over a thirteen-year period and yielded 26 high-quality papers that were analyzed using meta-aggregation. Findings reveal that the reported ICT uses depended on the research methods employed to study these where qualitative studies documented innovative uses and quantitative studies more traditional uses of ICT. During the pandemic, research shifted to focus more on teacher experiences with Finnish studies highlighting positive ICT-related experiences and Chilean studies negative experiences including teachers’ lack of training and practical issues. Based on the findings, recommendations are given to continue to enhance ICT integration both locally and globally.
Keywords: ICT integration, pedagogical uses of ICT, systematic literature review, COVID-19 pandemic, Finland, Chile
Review Article
Pan Qi, Nurul Farhana Binti Jumaat, Hassan Abuhassna, Li Ting
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 16, Issue 4, Article No: ep529
ABSTRACT
This systematic literature review aims to offer an in-depth analysis of the existing research landscape regarding the application of the flipped classroom approach within the domain of language learning. The investigators methodically selected and analyzed 57 papers from 656 documents using a systematic and rigorous approach to literature selection. Our findings demonstrate the significant international impact of this field, with contributions from many countries and districts as well as globally excellent academic institutions. This review examines multiple areas of research, including improving students’ perceptions and attitudes in flipped classrooms, language proficiency, motivational factors, etc. In addition, the research methods employed were evaluated, with a particular emphasis on mixed methods which combined the quantitative method with the qualitative method. Even though the application of flipped classrooms in language learning has achieved some achievements, some limitations are obvious. The most notable are the problem of sample size, the difficulty of technology integration, the lack of teacher training, the singularity of language research, etc. The research gaps revealed in this literature review, indicate interesting possibilities for future research. The diversity of research languages, the multiplicity of research methods, the integration of advanced technologies, and intensive teacher training will be significant of the area focus. This systematic literature review not only enriches the existing knowledge system but also has the potential to the direction of the development of flipped classrooms in language learning.
Keywords: flipped classroom, language learning, systematic literature review, SLR
Review Article
Hassan Abuhassna, Mohamad Azrien Bin Mohamed Adnan, Fareed Awae
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 16, Issue 2, Article No: ep499
ABSTRACT
To enhance education, we conducted a comprehensive investigation into integrating instructional design models (IDMs) and learning theories in this systematic literature review. We methodically selected and analyzed 25 publications from a pool of 1,102 documents using the preferred reportinfg items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses framework to guarantee a rigorous and systematic approach to literature selection. Our results demonstrate the worldwide span of study on this topic, including contributions from prestigious academic institutions and scholarly journals. This examination explores both the benefits and drawbacks of combining IDMs with learning theories. Noteworthy positives include increased student motivation, support for innovative teaching methods, and the development of complex and diverse learning environments. However, several shortcomings were observed. most notably relating to accessibility problems, evaluation difficulties, and questions about the adaptability of such integrated techniques. Our findings have implications for a broad range of stakeholders, including educators, instructional designers, and students functioning in a variety of educational contexts. The increase of learner motivation, the creation of novel pedagogical tools, the refining of teacher training programs, and the promotion of interdisciplinary learning methods are significant areas of focus. In addition, our evaluation uncovered a number of gaps in the current literature, indicating intriguing possibilities for future research. The examination of holistic learning environments, the untapped potential of integrated systems, the incorporation of educational robots into pedagogical tactics, and the refining of schema assessment approaches are notable research fields. By providing these insights, this systematic review not only adds to the current body of knowledge, but also has the potential to shape the future trajectory of educational practices, so acting as a significant resource for boosting learning outcomes in a variety of educational environments.
Keywords: instructional design models, learning theories, systematic literature review, SLR
Review Article
Kai Hu, Arumugam Raman
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 16, Issue 2, Article No: ep497
ABSTRACT
This systematic literature review (SLR) explores the integration of e-learning in universities, emphasizing a comprehensive approach that intertwines various mainstream perspectives. Despite numerous studies on e-learning implementation evaluation, few have holistically considered financial, human, technical, and policy factors. This review used PRISMA guidelines and sources from Scopus, Google Scholar, ERIC, SAGE, and ProQuest. Of 26 analyzed studies, seven core themes emerged: Policy, financial, technical, human, institutional factors, others, and an integrated perspective, further distilled into 13 sub-themes. Findings highlight the importance of an integrative framework for evaluating e-learning, underscoring the interplay between macro and institutional policies. Additionally, the authors recommend cross-national comparisons and data synthesis from stakeholders, including students, educators and directors, to fully grasp e-learning implementation dynamics. Distinctively, it adopts an integrated perspective, filling the research gap by emphasizing overlooked financial considerations and presenting a comprehensive view through an SLR. By drawing insights from human, finance, technical, and policy perspective, the study provides a multidimensional lens on e-learning. This forward-looking approach not only captures the current state of e-learning integration but also charts future research directions, establishing its originality and significance in higher education.
Keywords: an integrated perspective, holistic integration of e-learning, systematic literature review, universities
Review Article
Elham Hussein, Ashraf Kan’an, Abeer Rasheed, Yousef Alrashed, Malek Jdaitawi, Ahmed Abas, Sherin Mabrouk, Mona Abdelmoneim
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 15, Issue 3, Article No: ep443
ABSTRACT
Special education settings have experienced technological innovation that have advanced the development of various skills. Gamification is increasingly used to enhance the skills of individuals with special needs. There have been some studies and limited systematic reviews of gamification in general and special needs settings in particular, however, gamification design applied to special needs lacks a comprehensive systematic review. This article conducts a Literature review of gamification in special needs settings to investigate the effect of gamification in special needs as well as to identify gamification domains, groups and trends for individuals with special needs. Valuable data has been highlighted concerning the technology techniques used in enhancing the skills of individuals with a disability. However, further studies are still needed to examine areas, where research is lacking in the gamification field. The preferred reporting items for literature reviews and meta-analysis PRISMA standard was adopted for inclusion and exclusion criteria’ in this study such as including, eligibility, screening, dentification, and inclusion and exclusion steps. The results revealed that gamification design facilitates the development of various skills among individuals with special needs. Additionally, gamification design was mostly used to enhance the learning skills of individuals with a disability.
Keywords: special needs, gamification, literature review, outcomes
Review Article
Abdullah S. Alshalawi
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 14, Issue 4, Article No: ep378
ABSTRACT
The purpose of the current study is to provide a synthesis review of previous social media networks studies and to elaborate on the influence of social media networks on learning performance. The study analyzed 130 articles on social media networks that were published by five major journals in the field of educational technology in the last decade. It summarizes demographic, methodological, and theoretical trends, including educational level, learning domain, country context, research methods, data collection tools, data analysis techniques, and research purpose, followed by a summary of the influence of social media networks on student learning performance and students’ perceptions toward the use of social media networks in learning. The findings show that more than two thirds of the reviewed articles studies were conducted in higher education institutes, college students were the most common participants in these studies, and most of the learning performance focus articles reported a positive influence of social media networks on learning performance. Students recognize and value the learning benefits of social media networks on the majority of the reviewed articles. Patterns in these articles are discussed in order to better understand the research and identify gaps that need to be filled by future studies.
Keywords: social media networks, learning performance, teaching/learning strategies, mobile learning, literature review
Review Article
Rakesh Kumar Meet, Devkant Kala
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 13, Issue 3, Article No: ep312
ABSTRACT
Advent of internet has a revolutionary impact on every sector of economy and so is with the education sector, which has witnessed the evolution of online education through scalable educational technology, namely, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The purpose of this paper is to summarize the pool of available knowledge related to MOOCs in the scholarly literature, published during the period 2013–2020. One hundred and two available published studies in peer reviewed journals & conferences searched in major academic databases have been reviewed and presented in the systematic literature review. The findings have been divided under the various research themes of MOOCs including geographical contribution of MOOC studies, citation trends, prominent research themes, theoretical frameworks and methodological rigor in the existing scholarly works. The results demonstrate that most empirical research were conducted by the researchers having affiliation to institutions based out of United States followed by institutions in the developing economies of China and India. The most focused area of research in MOOCs is on MOOC adoption. Limited research has happened on poor MOOC completion status, the instructor-related topics and on democratization of MOOC. Thrust areas of MOOC researches and future research directions are also discussed.
Keywords: Massive Online Open Course (MOOC), e-learning, online education, educational technology, technology adoption, literature review
Research Article
Nuri Kara
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 13, Issue 2, Article No: ep295
ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic literature review on the use of serious games in science education between 2016 and 2020 years. A total of 39 articles were included from Science Citation Index- Expanded (SCI-Expanded), Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) and Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) listed in the Web of Science database. The results showed that experiential science was the most emphasized subject area in the articles. The results also indicated that learning/academic achievement was the common examined topic in the articles. For the research designs, more than half of the articles implemented quantitative research design. Considering the data collection tools, achievement tests were the most used data collection tool. Regarding the use of sampling methods, convenience sampling was preferred in more than half of the articles. Secondary and primary school students were the most used sampling groups. The sample size of 31-100-person group was commonly chosen in the articles. Considering the data analysis methods, a majority of articles implemented descriptive analyses methods. It was also found that computer game was the most used game type. Regarding the game genres, adventure was the most preferred one in serious games.
Keywords: serious games, educational games, science education, literature review