Digital Learning Technologies in Higher Education: A Bibliometric Study

Abstract

In a society mediated by technological tools, which interconnect several continents, digital education is part of higher education institutions. In this context, these institutions have to assume the role of being connected in time and space to the changes resulting from the impacts to which society is subjected, whether from a pandemic or for political reasons, in short, in different contexts of transformation. Thus, the aim of this article is: to analyze, through a bibliometric study, the main technologies, practices, and contexts used to promote the digital development in higher education. Therefore, bibliometrics were carried out, based on a systematic search in the Scopus and Web of Science databases, to answer the following problems: What are the main technologies for digital higher education? What are the main practices and contexts of digital education? As a result, it was identified that the highest productivity in the Scopus database was in the years 2018 and 2020 and in the Web of Science database in the years 2019 and 2020. It was found that Australia is the country that stands out in publications, in both databases, and research is concentrated in the areas of knowledge, social sciences, information technology, engineering, and education. The contributions of this survey are to verify whether technologies and technologies practices they are tools for transforming education. In addition, it was found that the technologies and educational strategies adopted in digital education are a fundamental instrument to facilitate justice and inclusive access to education, eliminating barriers to learning, expanding the view of teachers in order to qualify the process student learning process.