Internet of things in education and smart learning environments: Bibliometric analysis

The development of Internet concept paves the way for connect devices and communicate with each other. This evolution is integrated into almost every sector, and the developments are the subject of research. This study aims to explore the current state of the Internet of Things at higher education level and to reveal the general framework of the literature. In order to achieve this aim, content analysis what one of the qualitative research methods and bibliometric analysis conducted together. Accordingly, this study is a mixed method research. Firstly, 632 studies were accessed from the WOS database with a query including the keywords: "internet of things in education", "smart campus", "smart education" and "smart learning environments". Science mapping technique, which is one of the bibliometric analysis methods, was used. It was observed that the studies in the data set were prepared as exploratory studies about Internet of Things applications. Through the co-author, co-word, and co-occurrence analysis, which were examined in the bibliometric analysis, the common network maps of the components such as author, country and affiliations were examined. And then the keywords commonly used in the studies and abstracts were examined. In order to make a qualitative research analysis, a semi-structured interview form was prepared based on these keywords. The interview technique, one of the qualitative research data collection methods, was used. Higher education students were selected using purposive sampling technique from non-probability sampling methods. The participants' views were analyzed through descriptive content analysis. According to the findings, as a result of the study, it was determined that there is a rising trend in the implementation of IoT in education. However, as a result of the qualitative analysis, it was determined that the IoT applications aren't widely spread and the participants have no knowledge in this area and they only adapted to the process. The adaptation of the students had a positive impact on their education. It has been determined that the applications and approaches related to the Internet of Things in education are open to development, with the gaps encountered in the literature review and with the case studies in the application.