Instructional design and instructional effectiveness in virtual classrooms: Research trends and challenges

Abstract

This literature review aimed to examine the status, trends and tendencies in publications about virtual classrooms, instructional design in the virtual classroom and instructional effectiveness in the virtual classroom, as indexed in the ERIC database. For this review, we examined 2680 publications indexed in ERIC between 1994 and 2018. We collected data with data mining and utilised several Python libraries as resources for developing the analysis plan. The results of the analysis are presented in visual form. For each of the three subject matter areas examined in this study, we present the themes in the publications by years, titles, abstracts and ERIC descriptors. We report in detail the trends and challenges that emerged from the analysis. The results show that the words “learning”, “online”, and “environment” were prominent in each of the three subject matter areas. The primary topics addressed were literacy and curriculum development, and researchers examined the roles of instructors, learners and managers. Implications for practice or policy: This review will be a useful resource for scientists, researchers and policymakers who conduct studies on the virtual classroom. Instruction should be planned according to differences in instructor, learner and manager roles, as revealed by the studies. Practitioners who want to teach in virtual classrooms can also use it as a guide.