Thematic Evolution of Educational Technology Research: A Large-Scale Topic Modeling Perspective

Aslan, Alper ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2970-6114, Aktı Aslan, Seda ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9345-6194, Turgut, Yiğit Emrah ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6306-4090, Allison, Jordan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8513-4646 and Özyurt, Özcan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0047-6813 (2026) Thematic Evolution of Educational Technology Research: A Large-Scale Topic Modeling Perspective. Journal of Educational Computing Research. doi:10.1177/07356331261425006 (In Press)

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Abstract

This study aims to reveal the thematic evolution of the educational technology field by analyzing 17,393 articles published between 2000 and 2024 in ten leading journals using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) based topic modeling. Based on the analysis of title, abstract, and keywords, 20 themes were identified and grouped under seven broader meta-themes such as “Teacher Professional Competence and Technology Adoption”, “Digital and Disciplinary Literacy Development”, and “Immersive and Experiential Learning Technologies”. The model achieved its highest coherence at K = 20 (c_v = 0.4091), and the stability of the thematic structure was supported through additional runs with alternative hyperparameter configurations and expert validation. The findings show that there has been a significant increase in themes such as “Technology Integration”, “Teacher Roles in Online Learning Design”, and “Technology Acceptance and Self-Efficacy” in recent years. Temporal trend and growth analyses indicate that these themes will continue to shape the research landscape in the upcoming years. This holistic approach, which overcomes the contextual limitations of traditional bibliometric analysis, makes a significant contribution to the literature by mapping the last 25 years of scholarly accumulation in educational technology.

Item Type:	Article
Article Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Topic modeling; Educational technology; Latent dirichlet allocation; Thematic evolution
Subjects:	L Education > LC Special aspects of education T Technology > T Technology (General)
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Business, Computing and Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Kamila Niekoraniec
Date Deposited:	13 Feb 2026 15:41
Last Modified:	13 Feb 2026 15:45
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/15839

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