A Bibliometric Analysis of Virtual Reality in Higher Education: Research Trends and Productivity

This bibliometric study examines the overall research trends and productivity in virtual reality in higher education based on published articles (2010–2024). Initially, we identified 1,412 studies from the Scopus database using the search string ("virtual reality" AND "higher education" OR "tertiary education"). Finally, we selected 1,128 articles for analysis after filtering by articles, book chapters, review, and conference papers published in English within social science, psychology, multidisciplinary, arts, and humanities subjects. Utilizing Biblioshiny (R Studio) and VOSviewer software, we observed a significant upward trend in publications from 2010 to 2023. Most studies (31.8%) were in Computer Science, and the USA is the dominant contributor, followed by China and international collaborations with other countries. Gregory, S. (n = 14 articles) is the most prolific author, while the Catholic University of Avila is the leading institute (n = 22 articles). The leading source is the “ACM International Conference Proceeding Series” (n = 38 articles). The article “A Systematic Review of Immersive Virtual Reality Applications for Higher Education: Design Elements, Lessons Learned, and Research Agenda” by Radianti et al. (2020) was highly cited (1060). 'Virtual Reality' and 'Higher Education' were the most common co-occurrences among the authors' keywords. The most prominent theme based on the author’s keywords is "Innovative Education Ecosystems in the Digital Age." This study provides valuable insight into the research landscape of VR in HE. The study suggests a comprehensive review and meta-analysis of relevant studies for improved generalization.