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Topic · Education

Online and Blended Learning

Online and Blended Learning is a research topic within Education. Science Explorer counts 68k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the transformative potential of blended learning in higher education, focusing on topics such as student satisfaction, community of inquiry, instructional design, social presence, and cognitive engagement. It delves into the comparison of online and traditional classroom instruction, factors influencing learner satisfaction in e-learning, and the effectiveness of different types of interaction in distance education.

  • Blended Learning
  • Online Learning
  • Distance Education
  • Student Satisfaction
  • Community of Inquiry
  • E-Learning
  • Instructional Design
  • Social Presence
  • Cognitive Engagement
  • Virtual Learning Environments
Research works
68k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
6.8k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+5%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
30% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Online and Blended Learning

Which countries lead Online and Blended Learning research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (2.3k and 976 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 2.3k works
  2. 2 China 976 works
  3. 3 India 869 works
  4. 4 Indonesia 776 works
  5. 5 Nigeria 595 works
  6. 6 Malaysia 549 works
  7. 7 Türkiye 516 works
  8. 8 Pakistan 387 works
  9. 9 United Kingdom 385 works
  10. 10 South Africa 366 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 30.0%China: 12.6%India: 11.2%Indonesia: 10.0%6 others listed: 36.1%30%largest
United States2,325 · 30.0%China976 · 12.6%India869 · 11.2%Indonesia776 · 10.0%6 others listed2,800 · 36.1%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Online and Blended Learning research?

By volume in 2022-now, University of South Africa publishes the most Online and Blended Learning research, followed by Universiti Teknologi MARA and Central China Normal University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of South AfricaSouth Africa 92 works
  2. 2 Universiti Teknologi MARAMalaysia 87 works
  3. 3 Central China Normal UniversityChina 53 works
  4. 4 Islamic Azad University, TehranIran 44 works
  5. 5 University of Technology MalaysiaMalaysia 42 works
  6. 6 University of JohannesburgSouth Africa 40 works
  7. 7 Beijing Normal UniversityChina 38 works
  8. 8 Federal College of Education, KanoNigeria 36 works
  9. 9 Indonesia University of EducationIndonesia 35 works
  10. 10 State University of MalangIndonesia 34 works

Who are the leading researchers in Online and Blended Learning?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Online and Blended Learning include Azeem Majeed, Steven J.M. Jones and Herbert A. Simon.

  1. 1 Azeem Majeed United Kingdom 235k citations
  2. 2 Steven J.M. Jones Canada 200k citations
  3. 3 Herbert A. Simon United States 179k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Online and Blended Learning?

The most cited paper in Online and Blended Learning is "The fifth discipline, the art and practice of the learning organization" (Peter M. Senge, 1991), with 20,158 citations. Next come "Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach" (11,628) and "Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Framework for Teacher Knowledge" (10,114).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The fifth discipline, the art and practice of the learning organization Peter M. Senge · NSPI Journal Open access May 1991 20,158
2 Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach Joseph A. Maxwell 12 Apr 1996 11,628
3 Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Framework for Teacher Knowledge Punya Mishra, Matthew J. Koehler · Teachers College Record The Voice of Scholarship in Education 26 May 2006 10,114
4 Motivational and self-regulated learning components of classroom academic performance. Paul R. Pintrich, Elisabeth Vialpando De Groot · Journal of Educational Psychology Mar 1990 7,882
5 Critical Inquiry in a Text-Based Environment: Computer Conferencing in Higher Education D. Randy Garrison, Terry D. Anderson, Walter Archer · The Internet and Higher Education Mar 1999 6,566
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Online and Blended Learning research done?

The largest centres of Online and Blended Learning research in 2022-now are Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Pretoria (South Africa), Beijing (China) and Shah Alam (Malaysia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Ilorin.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 Kuala LumpurMalaysia 137 works
  2. 2 PretoriaSouth Africa 123 works
  3. 3 BeijingChina 121 works
  4. 4 Shah AlamMalaysia 104 works
  5. 5 AnkaraTürkiye 95 works
  6. 6 LahorePakistan 95 works
  7. 7 JakartaIndonesia 90 works
  8. 8 MelbourneAustralia 89 works
  9. 9 WuhanChina 76 works
  10. 10 IstanbulTürkiye 74 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. IlorinNG · 55.4 works19×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Online and Blended Learning than the world average.

See Online and Blended Learning on the map

Where is the best place to study Online and Blended Learning?

Among universities, judged by research, Central China Normal University, University of Oulu and University of South Africa score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%60%mean 26.55%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of OuluUniversity of Busine…Central China Normal…University of South …
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Central China Normal UniversityChina 66.834.8%18.3×53 +14.7%
2University of OuluFinland 62.148.8%3.0×10 +12.6%
3University of South AfricaSouth Africa 59.58.9%18.6×92 +72.8%
4University of Business and TechnologySaudi Arabia 58.338.2%7.5×8 +68.1%
5Education University of Hong KongChina 57.232.7%13.0×22 +5.6%
6Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore 56.825.5%2.7×25 +25.5%
7University of RwandaRwanda 56.227.0%19.1×16 +317.0%
8Universiti Teknologi MARAMalaysia 55.22.6%10.0×87 +70.1%
9Beijing Normal UniversityChina 54.130.5%4.2×38 +4.9%
10University of MalayaMalaysia 53.816.5%4.6×29 +44.8%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Online and Blended Learning, country by country

Is Online and Blended Learning research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 5% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2021. The fastest-growing topics are Online and Blended Learning.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Online and Blended Learning as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.065% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%0.15%Online and Blended Learning0.046% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Online and Blended Learning over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Online and Blended Learning10.5% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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