A systematic literature review on technology in online doctoral education

Abstract

Alongside the growing demand for doctoral degrees, there has been an increasing number of online doctoral programmes and online doctoral students enrolled across the globe. While the importance of mediating roles that communication technology plays in online doctoral education has been extensively documented, a comprehensive account of how and for what purpose online doctoral students use different technological tools has been lacking in the literature. To address the gap, the present authors have conducted a systematic literature review on doctoral students’ use of technology in distance programmes. The review results suggest that the range of technology used by online doctoral students is limited–asynchronous and synchronous communication technology for discussing and community building being predominantly top. Arguably more advanced technology was rarely discussed in the reviewed literature. How online doctoral students learn and use other information technology to support their research activities was largely unknown. Based on the results, the directions of future research efforts have been suggested.