Trends, collaboration, and intellectual structure of Scopus-indexed blended learning research in Malaysia from 2015 to 2025

Blended learning has gained increasing prominence in Malaysia as part of national efforts to enhance educational quality through digital integration. Despite a growing volume of studies, there remains limited bibliometric evidence on the intellectual structure of Scopus-indexed Malaysian blended learning research. This bibliometric analysis examined 68 peer-reviewed journal articles on blended learning in Malaysia published between 2015 and 2025. Using data extracted from the Scopus database, this analysis employed VOSviewer and Microsoft Excel to examine publication trends, author productivity, institutional output, keyword co-occurrence, co-authorship networks, citation patterns, and bibliographic coupling. First, the results revealed a steady increase in Scopus-indexed research activity, with higher publication activity during and after the COVID-19 period. Keyword clustering identified five dominant research themes, namely instructional modalities, higher education contexts, learner perceptions, methodological approaches, and pandemic-driven shifts. Next, co-authorship analysis showed moderate collaboration concentrated within a few institutional clusters, while citation analysis highlighted key researchers shaping the Scopus-indexed Malaysian blended learning corpus. Finally, the bibliographic coupling uncovered underlying intellectual linkages among articles, revealing groups of articles connected through overlapping reference bases and related research concerns. As an implication within the Scopus-indexed corpus, the study identified limited attention to school-level implementation, digital equity, and cross-regional collaboration.