A bibliometric analysis of knowledge mapping in Chinese education digitalization research from 2012 to 2022

Abstract The digital transformation of education should be continuously promoted to guarantee its sustainable development. Extensive research has been conducted in this field but has not comprehensively addressed Chinese education digitalization. To fill this research gap, discover the gaps between Chinese and international research on the digitization of education and provide well-founded, innovative ideas for future research, we perform a bibliometric analysis of knowledge mapping in Chinese education digitalization. WOS and CNKI databases were used to gather literature on Chinese education digitalization research from 2012 to 2022. CiteSpace was used to draw a knowledge map of Chinese education digitalization research through co-occurrence analysis of core authors, issuing institutions and regions and cluster analysis and burst terms analysis of keywords, combined with intensive manual studying of the literature. The results show the research status and hot spots of Chinese education digitalization research are divided into four dimensions: studies of lifelong education research in digital open universities and the online teaching transformation in higher education; studies of digital educational publications, the development and application of digital learning resources in vocational colleges and universities, and the equity of basic education resources in the digital context; studies on artificial intelligence technology empowering the digital transformation of education in China; and studies of digital integration of production and teaching in rural revitalization and improvement of digital literacy of university students and faculty. Future digital education research trends in China are likely to focus on the normalization of online education; the development of online education resources in the context of new infrastructure; “new technology plus education”; the impact of digital games on education; a more diversified digital divide in education; and digital rights, digital ethics, digital maturity and the Global Digital Education Development Index.