Trends in Studies on virtual Learning Environments in Turkey between 1996-2014 Years: A Content Analysis

This study aims to review studies on virtual learning environments in Turkey through the content analysis method. 63 studies consisting of thesis, articles and proceedings published in Turkish and English between 1996-2014 years were analyzed. It was observed that "Second Life" was mostly preferred as the virtual learning environment. Literature review and quantitative research methods were mostly preferred in the studies respectively. Most of these studies used surveys to collect the data and sample size in most studies was between 31-100 participants. Mostly, participants were undergraduate students, and purposive and convenience sampling method were preferred in the studies. The data was mostly analyzed using quantitative descriptive analysis method. The most studied variable was academic achievement and the least one was the cognitive load. The studies yielded varying results owning to their study purposes and showed that virtual learning environments fostered student academic success, diminished the cognitive load by concretizing the concepts and ensured social and collaborative learning. The findings of this study might guide researchers aiming to employ virtual learning environments in their educational studies.