April 2012 Volume 15 Number 2 - Educational Technology & Society

Compared to the publications in 2000-2004, the articles in 2005-2009 addressed less general TBL issues (e.g. TBL
policy impacts or the development of wide-ranging learning systems) but more specific contextual applications (e.g.
game-based learning).
Moreover, the present study also found that “higher education” is the major sample group employed the most in the
TBL articles, while “Adults/Working adults” is the least employed. This finding implies that most of the TBL
research is still being conducted by academic scholars. These experts have direct access to postsecondary students’
responses or performance results as research data and may have obstacles finding support from other institutes.
However, as universal learning is emphasized in the US National Educational Technology Plan (US Department of
Education, 2010), future research should put more efforts into adults or community learning outside the academic
setting.
Finally, the findings reveal that the “Non-specified” learning domain was used most for the TBL studies in the past
ten years. However, the percentage of articles in the “Non-Specified” learning domain has dropped in the recent five
years. “Engineering” was the field which increased the most since 2005. These findings infer that the early TBL
studies may have been reluctant to emphasize the research design based on domain-specific knowledge structure.
However, the trend has changed such that more researchers have projected their TBL research in accordance with
their particular interests in specific learning domains. The results also imply that more technical designers or
engineers have started to cooperate with educators to include research-based learning theories into their application
design, making the learning more effective.
The cross analysis among research topics, sample, and learning-domain selections
The current study indicates that “Higher Education” is the sample group utilized most in the TBL publications.
However, the results of the Chi-square analysis show that the articles with topics in “Motivation, Perceptions, and
Attitudes” and the “Teachers” sample group, “Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning” and the
“Elementary School” sample group increased the most in the nearest five years.
As revealed from the aforementioned literatures, most of the studies reviewing TBL trends from 1999 to 2008
concluded that the feature of communication innovations created by the new technologies played an important role in
the TBL development (e.g. Waight et al, 2004; Karatas, 2008; Zawacki et al., 2009). The interaction methods and the
design of instructional activities under the new TBL environment are different from traditional classroom
environment that teachers and learners are required to adjust (Bernard et al., 2004). Therefore, the issues of
“motivation, perceptions, and attitudes” were worth more investigation under TBL learning context. Early studies
mainly focused on these topics from learners’ perspective (e.g. Northup, 2002) while the current finding reflects that
the trend has been shifted to teachers in the recent five years (e.g. Mahdizadeh, Biemans, & Mulder, 2008). As more
personalized communication advances become available, the motivation research in related to TBL learning is
expected to be emphasized for other groups of learners, such as adult and special education.
Besides, the present result indicates that game-based learning has gained more attentions in the latest five years
(2005-2009) and most of the relevant research was employed in elementary education. The result infers that children
in the current era habitually play games in their daily life that they may be easily attracted by the game-related
activities. Therefore, game-based learning may be more suitable for young children (e.g. Ke, 2008) and educators
may hope to use game as “... a way to create relevant learning experiences that mirror students’ daily lives and the
reality of their futures ” (US Department of Education, 2010, p. 9).
Furthermore, this study also reveals that the topics in “Policies, social culture impacts and trends for technologyenhanced
learning” with the “Non-specified” learning domain, “Computer Supported Collaborative Learning” with
“Social Studies”, and “Development of New Learning Systems, Platforms, and Architectures” with “Arts &
Languages” have increased during the last decade. Additionally, the topics of “Adaptive and Personalized
Technology-Enhanced Learning: Knowledge and Competencies Management” with “Engineering,” “Mobile and
Ubiquitous Learning” and “Evaluation of Learning Systems, Platforms, and Architectures” with “Arts &
Languages,” “Pedagogical Design and Theories” and “Artificial Intelligence in Education” with “Mathematics,”
“Pedagogical Design and Theories” with “Science,” and “Learning Behaviors, Usage Patterns and Discourse
Analysis” with “Others” have more growth in the recent five years. Clark and Salomon (1986) proposed that the
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