Detecting latent topics and trends in blended learning using LDA topic modeling

With the rapid application of blended learning around the world, a large amount of literature has been accumulated. The analysis of the main research topics and development trends based on a large amount of literature is of great significance. To address this issue, this paper collected abstracts from 3772 eligible papers published between 2003 and 2021 from the Web of Science core collection. Through LDA topic modeling, abstract text content was analyzed, then 7 well-defined research topics were obtained. According to the topic development trends analysis results, the emphasis of topic research shifted from the initial courses about health, medicine, nursing, chemistry and mathematics to learning key elements such as learning outcomes, teacher factors, and presences. Among 7 research topics, the popularity of presences increased significantly, while formative assessment was a rare topic requiring careful intervention. The other five topics had no significant increase or decrease trends, but still accounted for a considerable proportion. Through word cloud analysis technology, the keyword characteristics of each stage and research focus changes of research were obtained. This study provides useful insights and implications for blended learning related research.