Teaching and Learning in Health Sciences in the Era of Educational Technologies: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Background/purpose: The emergence of educational technologies has profoundly transformed teaching and learning methods in health sciences. This bibliometric study aims to identify the most widely used educational practices in this field between 2014 and 2024, exploring their applications within a constantly evolving technological context. Materials/methods: Data were collected from the Scopus database using a specific query incorporating terms related to educational technology, resulting in a final corpus of 2460 articles written in English. A quantitative analysis was conducted using the R programming language within the RStudio development environment, utilizing the Bibliometrix package and its Shiny App interface. This analysis included a keyword co-occurrence analysis to identify the most cited publications, leading journals, and the most frequently associated keywords. Results: The findings reveal a strong predominance of terms related to education, learning, and teaching, reflecting a significant focus on pedagogical approaches tailored to health sciences. Constructivist and cognitive theories emerged as the most commonly used conceptual frameworks. The integration of advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and online learning environments, was also highlighted. The COVID-19 pandemic served as a catalyst to accelerate these pedagogical transformations. Conclusion: This study underscores the importance of transitioning toward educational practices that integrate digital innovations and highlights the need to develop pedagogical strategies tailored to the profile of health sciences students.