Trends and future directions of metaverse in education: a bibliometric analysis

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze metaverse topics and education through bibliometric methods to identify research trends, leading researchers, institutions, and prevalent themes from the past decade (2010–2020) and developing themes for the next five years (2021–2024). This study followed the PRISMA framework to extract data from the Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) databases, resulting in 475 publications. Biblioshiny was used for descriptive bibliometric analysis and thematic mapping, whereas VOS Viewer co-occurrence and trending analysis were used to identify clusters and trending topics in this domain. Thematic mapping and cluster analysis revealed that Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies are dominant forces shaping the future evolution of education in a metaverse context. The co-occurrence analysis revealed that future studies could focus on customized education, dynamic teaching methods, and a sustainability-oriented educational framework. This study suggests the potential of an interactive, dynamic, and scalable learning environment using metaverse learning. Policymakers, educators, and developers should establish collaborations, enhance infrastructure, and remove barriers to realize this potential. By combining the results from both the Scopus and WoS databases, this study offers a thorough literature overview of the applications of the metaverse in learning and development while proposing future research areas for academics to address existing gaps and explore the potential of metaverse technology in this field.