Educational Scholarship in the Digital Age: A Scoping Review and
Analysis of Scholarly Products
Abstract
Boyer’s framework of scholarship was published before significant growth
in digital technology. As more digital products are produced by medical
educators, determining their scholarly value is of increasing
importance. This scoping systematic review developed a taxonomy of
digital products and determined their fit within Boyer’s framework of
scholarship. We conducted a broad literature search for descriptions of
digital products in the medical literature in July 2013 using Medline,
EMBASE, ERIC, PSYCHinfo, and Google Scholar. A framework analysis
categorized each product using Boyer’s model of scholarship, while a
thematic analysis defined a taxonomy of digital products. 7422 abstracts
were found and 524 met inclusion criteria. Digital products mapped
primarily to the scholarship of teaching (85.4%) followed by
integration (7.6%), application (5.5%), and discovery (1.5%). A
taxonomy of 19 categories was defined. Web-based or computer assisted
learning (41%) was described most frequently. We found that digital
products are well described in medical literature and fit into Boyer’s
framework of scholarship and proposed a taxonomy of digital products
that parallel traditional forms of the scholarship of teaching and
learning. This research should inform the development of tools to
examine the impact and quality of digital products.