Research Trends in the Study of ICT Based Learning Communities: A Bibliometric Analysis

The current opportunities to develop and acquire knowledge in the network, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) play a major role in the learning process. This research offers a bibliometric analysis in order to examine the state of the research activity carried out in relation to the learning communities based on ICT. The indicators obtained show steady growth since the study of ICT applied to models of teaching and learning began in the nineties, presenting a significant increase in interest on the subject in the year 2005 and the highest productivity of publications in the years 2010 and 2011. The countries with the largest contribution to the study of ICT in learning contexts are China, the US and Taiwan, leading research processes in the area. It was possible to identify that some of the issues that have emergent behavior are related to knowledge sharing, confidence-building mechanisms and networked learning.