Research Trend on OER: A review and Bibliometric Analysis (2018-2021)

Abstract. The advanced of technology and information has been providing the current education
system a chance to improve further. This is shown by the applications of e-learning, blended
learning and electronic-based learning medias that rely on internet connections. This research
aims to analyze the trend of research on Open Educational Resources (OER) using bibliometric
study and explore the contribution of Indonesian researchers regarding this topic. The data
collected based on articles published in journals and proceedings on Google scholar and Scopus
database from 2018 to 2021. The data was selected by using Publish or Perish (PoP) software.
The data obtained from Scopus database results only 26 documents. Meanwhile, the obtained
data from Google Scholar sorted from 200 into only 63 documents. This is because the rest of the
documents didn’t share the same issue as the topic expected. After the selection, the data was
analyzed using VOSviewer platform. The result of the research is the visualization of the
network, overlay and density of the data which revealed that the research of OER, especially in
Indonesia, was supposed to have a great potential in the contribution of education yet it was still
unpopular compared to other topics related to technology.

Keywords: Open Educational Resources, Bibliometric, Vosviewer, trend, Publish or Perish,

visualization

Introduction
Learning sources are easily found on the internet as references, yet some of them are lack
of quality while others are licensed. This causes the inability of taking advantage of the advanced
technology and information as an educational resource. In 2019, UNESCO’s General Conference
at its 40th session on November 25 recommended the application of Open Educational Resources
(OER) as a way for learners and educators to be able to access, improve and re-distribute the
education resources that might be needed by others. The use of OER in teaching and learning has
become trend during the pandemic Covid-19 outbreak. This trend triggered many researchers to
analyze the effectivity of OER, develop\ OER for increasing students’ competence, and review
the use of OER based on other papers regarding the topic.
The need of OER has significantly become well-known due to the keen interest about it
among the researchers, practitioners, and educational institutions which led to the exploration of
the concept and the inherent potentials towards improving the level of education from around the
world. In the 21st century, OER has become one of notable educational movement that was
noticed by education researchers [9]. Specifically, Open Educational Resources have been created
not solely to strengthen Open and Distance Learning through the establishment of a knowledge
pool for developing useful courseware, but also to empower and build institutions' capacity to
participate effectively in creating the open courseware [10].
Based on the analysis done [9]-[10], OER-based research should have been a popular
topic chosen by education researchers due to the status quo happening nowadays where online
learning is not a new concept anymore. This research aims to clarify this argument by conducting
bibliometric analysis on OER topic to figure out the trend and the related variables studied by
researchers. Thus, it is expected that this research can give other researchers a brief image
regarding OER topic through visualization analyzed by VOS viewer.
Method
This study was utilized a desk study by adopting the five-step bibliometric analysis
method [1], as shown in Figure 1. The use of this analysis was expected to be able to provide an
essential reference for future research [3]-[7]. The term bibliometric was firstly generated by
Pritchard [2]. He mentioned that bibliometric analysis can be used explicitly in all studies by
seeking to quantify the processes of written communication and can be accepted in the field of
information science [8]. The researcher optimized the use of PoP as the main data searcher to
obtain data both from Google Scholar and Scopus database.

Define Keywords Getting Initial Search Result Collecting Data

Search Results Sorting Information Analye Data

Figure 1 Five-Step Bibliometric Analysis Method

2.1. Find Keywords
The data collection used PoP software for initial search. The keywords used for collecting the
data was “Open Educational Resources” based on Scopus and Google Scholar database from
2018 to 2021.
2.2 Getting Search Results
Based on the data collected through PoP software, the researcher obtained 200 articles from
Google Scholar database and 26 articles from Scopus database. This data was saved in a
Research Information Systems (RIS) format.
2.3 Search Result Sorting
The sorting process was done in Mendeley by importing the RIS data and eliminating articles
that don’t fit with the topic expected by the researcher. There were 137 documents that must be
eliminated due to 0 citation or incompatibility of the contents.
2.4 Collecting Data Information
The RIS-formatted data imported to Mendeley was reviewed briefly by checking the metadata. If
the metadata was incomplete, the researcher then did some editing to adjust the need of the
research for VOSviewer analysis. The result of the editing on Mendeley was saved in RIS
format.
2.5 Analyze Data
The RIS format data edited on Mendeley Desktop was imported to VOSviewer for further
analysis including authors distribution, cluster distribution, network correlation, as well as
novelty determination.
Results and Discussion
The output of the PoP Viewer and VOSviewer will display any keywords used by the
author. For instance, the table 1. Below shows the data of top 10 articles about e Open
Educational Resources:
Table 1 Top 10 Pop Sorting Articles
Ran Writer’s name Year Title Journal
k
1 L.R. Musser 2020 Older Engineering Books are Journal of Online
Open Educational Resources Engineering
2 A.S.A Hakim 2021 Study of Open Educational Academica: an
Resources: A survey Based International
Approach
3 D. Otto 2021 How to promote the use of Open Open Praxis
Educational Resources (OER) in
higher education. A parley with
OER experienced teachers
4 M.E. Ibeanu 2018 Open Educational Resources Open Educational
(OER)-University of Nigeria Resources-
Nsukka University of
Nugeria Nsukka
5 C.E.A. Okezie 2018 OER in TVET: Open Educational UNESCO-
Resources for Skills UNEVOC
Development International Centre
6 M.Ehlers, R 2018 Open Educational Resources Open Educational
Schuwer, B Janssen (OER)-University of Nigeria Resources-
Nsukka University of
Nugeria Nsukka
7 E.D. Eze 2018 Open Educational Resources Open Educational
(OER)-University of Nigeria Resources-
Nsukka University of
Nugeria Nsukka
8 F.O. Attah 2020 Open Educational Resources Open Educational
(OER)-University of Nigeria Resources-
Nsukka University of
Nugeria Nsukka
9 H.Y. Alyami 2018 Integration of Open Educational World Journal of
Resources in Higher and General Education
Education Institutions: From the
Perspectives of Specialized and
Concerned Bodies in E-Learning
10 F. Bellinger, P. 2019 Researching Open Educational Mendiendidaktische
Bettinger, V. Dander Practices (OEP): Hoschulforschung
Mediendidaktische zwischen
Hochschulforchung zwischen Praxisrenstruktion
 Praxisrekonstruktion und und Diskursanalyse
Diskursanalyse
VOSviewer will display a network visualization between keywords used by the author. Figure
2.show the visualization of the overlay.

Figure 2 Network Visualization on Google Scholar and Scopus Database

In Figure 2, it is found that there are five clusters indicated in five different colors. The
first color is red which contains seven items, namely benefit, university, student, instructor,
strategy, barrier, and open educational resource. The second cluster is blue which contains five
items, namely open educational practice, practice, OEP, use, and open textbook. The third color
is green which contains four times, namely education, impact, research, open and adoption. The
fourth color is purple which contains three items, namely open education, open educational
resources, and development. The fifth color is yellow which contains four items, namely higher
education, digital educational resource, resource, and study. Based on the clusters discovered, it
can be concluded that most of studies in OER are using qualitative research method.
 Figure 3 Overlay Visualization on Google Scholar and Scopus Database
Figure 3 revealed about the trend of OER topic in corresponding to time. The yellow
color, indicates the newest research conducted, while the darker colors indicate the older one.
From the Figure, it can be seen that the most recent research about OER is in 2019. This was not
to be expected by the researcher due to the potential of OER in current meantime, especially
during and after the Covid-19 outbreak [10].

Figure 4 Density Visualization in Google Scholar and Scopus Database

 Figure 5 Network Visualization on Google Scholar and Scopus Database with Keyword instructor

Figure 6 Network Visualization on Google Scholar and Scopus Database with Keyword development
Figure 7 Network Visualization on Google Scholar and Scopus Database with Keyword Higher Education

Figure 8 Network Visualization on Google Scholar and Scopus Database with Keyword use
 Figure 9 Network Visualization on Google Scholar and Scopus Database with Keyword
adoption

Figure 10 The most recent OER studies related to adoption

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