Research Landscape of Digital Learning Over the Past 20 Years: A Bibliometric and Visualisation Analysis

Abstract

The concept of digital learning has grown in popularity significantly over the last few decades especially in the past couple of years due to covid-19. Digital learning is defined as any type of learning that integrated Information and communication technology in its conduct. This study aims to presents a research landscape of digital learning research published in the past 20 years. We conducted a bibliometric analysis to determine the pattern of digital learning published literature from 2002 to 2021. The search for the relevant articles was made on the basis of keywords linked with digital learning in the article's title, abstract, and keywords. As a result, we retrieved 1361 papers from Scopus for bibliometric analysis. The review identifies the publication growth trend, most cited articles, top journals, productive authors, and the leading countries and institutions and major subject areas. According to the findings of our analysis, the United States is the most productive country in terms oof publications and citations. Computers and Education is the leading journal. Through the co-occurrence of keywords analysis, we determined that the most significant keywords associated with digital learning are covid-19, online learning, e-learning and digital learning environment, higher education, digital technologies and so on. The highest number of digital learning articles are published under social science domain.  The publication growth trend is consistently rising and is projected to continue in the following years, indicating the importance of digital learning in different domain. The study provides a roadmap for future researchers to follow, where they can focus on key areas where success is possible.