Interdisciplinarity in Online Teaching and Learning Research: A Bibliometric Study

Abstract

This study examines the interdisciplinarity of the field of online teaching and learning research using a framework for the bibliometric assessment of the interdisciplinarity of scholarly journals, adapted from the work of Imad Al-Sabbagh, as captured in the journal The Internet and Higher Education, a top-cited journal in this field. It analyzed the citations (n = 21854) for all articles published in the history of the journal and presents findings for the complete history of the journal and trends throughout the history of the journal. The findings indicate that online learning and teaching research is a highly interdisciplinary field that builds on research from dozens of disciplines.

Keywords: online teaching, online learning, bibliometric, higher education, interdisciplinarity