Time in e-Learning Research: A Qualitative Review of the Empirical Consideration of Time in Research into e-Learning
Table 1
Answers found in the review for the five guiding questions.
Question
Answers found in the review
# of papers ()
% of papers
Conceptualisation of time
Time as the while during which a phenomenon is taking place
10
41.7%
Time as the moment in which a phenomenon takes place
3
12.5%
Time as the temporal distance between two phenomena
8
33.3%
Time as the evolution of a phenomenon
7
29.2%
Introduction of time into an explicative model
Variable-based model
20
83.3%
Model of a process
4
16.7%
Introduction of time into the research process
Introduction into the phase of defining dimensions and variables
23
95.8%
Introduction into the analytic phase
3
12.5%
Units used for analysing and measuring time
Units based on formal time
15
62.5%
Units based on internal components of the setting
10
41.7%
Theoretical-based units
3
12.5%
Data used for studying time
Electronic log files
12
50%
Questionnaires, surveys, and interviews
6
25%
Learning process students’ products
1
4.2%
Institutional documents
1
4.2%
Setting design
10
41.7%
The categories in each question are not exclusive (indeed they are only exclusive in the second question); that is, one and the same approach can include, for example, two different ideas of time, can introduce time into both phases, can simultaneously use units of different nature, and can combine different kinds of data. For this reason, in each question, the frequencies of each of the categories do not total 24, and the percentages do not total 100.
