Literature Review on Emerging Educational Practices Mediated by Digital Technologies in Higher Education, Based on Academic Papers

Compared to the abundant generic research on technologies and education, few studies focus on the scope of whether the technologies used meet the expectations set forth in international reports and to what extent technology contributes to transforming educational practice. Our objective was to identify and analyze the characteristics of educational practices that are being developed in higher education and to assess the value that technology brings to educational practice. We conducted a systematic review of academic papers published in scientific journals: a corpus of 1,207 articles from six journals included in indexed databases (JCR and SJR), selected using Google Scholar Metrics. According to the various records screened, the study we present is based on 49 articles, published between 2018 and 2019. We conclude that beyond their reproducible, enriching, or transformative nature, most of the articles analyzed address the improvement of students' performance, engagement, or self-perception, in which they positively value the experience of learning mediated by digital technology, although they do not have an impact on the transformative value.

Automated summary

Compared to the abundance of research on technologies and education, few studies have investigated whether the technologies used meet international expectations and the extent to which technology contributes to transforming educational practice. This study aimed to identify and analyze the characteristics of educational practices in higher education and assess the value that technology brings to such practices. The systematic review of academic papers selected 49 articles published between 2018 and 2019 out of a total of 1,207 articles. The findings indicate that most of the analyzed articles focus on improving students' performance, engagement, and self-perception, and positively value the learning experience mediated by digital technology, although they do not have a transformative impact.