The term “metaverse” first appeared in Neal Stephenson՚s 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash in which he defined it as a virtual environment shared over the Internet. Since the publication of that work, technological advances have allowed the creation of several metaverses for popular use-virtual world platforms such as Second Life, IMVU, VRchat, Sansar, Roblox, The Sims and Active Worlds, in addition to venturing into other fields such as education, for example, in which its use is prioritized to develop learning environments that allow students to function safely. and personalized in parallel realities. Through a bibliometric analysis of 130 documents, this article aims to review studies on the metaverse and its inclusion in education. The findings include a summary of the most important scientific articles and journals in the subject area, as well as the most prolific and prominent authors, organizations and nations. Additionally, a keyword co-occurrence analysis was made that helps reveal the main research clusters and their subtopics. The study offers a comprehensive overview of the expected impacts of the metaverse on education.
First introduced in 1992, the word metaverse took a substantial boost in 2003 when the Second
Life (SL) platform hit the market, which can be considered the first virtual world where a person
could use an avatar to enter a parallel universe and experience simulated situations in an
alternative world (George-Reyes et al., 2023b). Recently the term gained top popularity when
Mark Zuckerberg presented Facebook՚s rebranding plan in a virtual live broadcast. At this event,
the businessman showed the potential applications of the metaverse in the field of entertainment,
work or learning
The metaverse is understood to be the three-dimensional space shared online where people
can interact with each other using digital objects. It can also be regarded as a next-generation
internet application that uses novel technologies to create a virtual living environment that can
be produced and edited by users in which economic aspects, social and identity systems are
integrated
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and entertainment, educational technology has incorporated the use of computer software and
hardware into its theories and approaches in order to help improve teaching and learning
activities (Kang, 2021). Current education is in a process of transformation towards new
technological paradigms
Current education uses virtual learning environments, virtual simulations and experiments, access to global resources, improved distance education, among others to enhance the learning experience. Each of these resources contributes to improving the interaction between students and teachers, exploring complex concepts interactively, providing access to a variety of educational and cultural resources, and enhancing the experience by creating and using more immersive and social environments (George-Reyes et al., 2023a).
Over time, and as global research on the metaverse gains strength, it will be positioned as a
future educational trend, with great potential, especially because it involves technology,
interaction and evolution in the way we teach and we learn
Bibliometric analysis is a popular and rigorous method for exploring and analyzing large volumes of scientific data. It allows us to unravel the evolutionary nuances of a specific field, while also shedding light on emerging areas in that field (Donthu et al., 2021). The objective of this study was to carry out a bibliometric review on the use of the metaverse in education, whose inclusion in the field of education, as has been described, has been favored by the context in which we live. For this reason, the need arises to delve deeper into the scientific production on this topic from a bibliometric perspective. To do this, the characteristics of the publications, authors, sources, collaborations between authors and countries and research networks were analyzed.For paragraph, use Normal. Paragraph text. Paragraph text. Paragraph text. Paragraph text. Paragraph text. Paragraph text. Paragraph text. Paragraph text.
The bibliometric mapping technique was used in order to find research trends in the area related to the use or application of the metaverse in education. The variables analyzed were authors, publications, sources, countries, affiliations and collaborations. A bibliometric mapping is a research approach that uses quantitative techniques and bibliographic analysis to analyze and visualize scientific production in a particular field of knowledge. This method involves the collection and analysis of bibliographic data, such as journal articles, books, conferences, and other sources, with the goal of understanding patterns, trends, and relationships in the scientific literature. Unlike subjective methods, bibliometric analysis can provide an objective view of a scientific domain, as it avoids biases resulting from a selective choice of evidence (Rejeb, Rejeb, Appolloni, et al., 2023).
Scopus database was used (Mongeon & Paul-Hus, 2016) to identify peer-reviewed articles that have addressed the metaverse and its relationship or implication in education as topics. In terms of coverage, the Scopus database was chosen since it contains 84% of the titles indexed in Web of Science (WoS), while WoS covers only 54% of Scopus titles (Rejeb et al., 2020). The following were established as search keywords: ( TITLE ( metaverse AND education ) OR TITLE ( instruction AND metaverse ) OR TITLE ( metaverse AND training ) OR TITLE ( metaverse AND education ). The following were considered as an inclusion criterion for the descriptors: only papers that include the term “metaverse.” The data were exported to Microsoft Excel 365. After manual review of the documents, no duplicate articles were found.
After manual review of the documents, a final number of 130 articles were selected that met the study criteria. Considering the novelty of the topic, the use of filters was not necessary. Only one paper focusing on pigeon training was excluded. The rest of the results were converted to CSV (Comma Separated Values) and RIS (Research Information System) formats, to serve as analytical data (Shoaib et al., 2023). These data were used for analytical visualization regarding the international publication trend on metaverse and education.
Regarding the initial data analysis, it is perceived that the type of scientific document produced on metaverse and education are original articles (62), followed by conferences. papers (37), review articles (15) and book chapters (6).
The analysis of global production per year (see Figure 1) shows a considerable increase in research production, from 1 in 2014 to 76 articles so far in 2023. This is also evident in the annual growth rate (61.8%). While the largest number of citations occurred in 2021 (44 citations).
According to the trend shown in Figure 1, the growth since 2021 has been sustained, which
shows that the topic is interesting for educational researchers. It is important to highlight that
the production of peer-reviewed papers increased throughout the covid pandemic, this due to the
migration from face-to-face teaching to a digital context, a process that played a crucial role in
various educational settings. Although there are many different types of e-learning environments,
metaverse-based systems can help create safe and productive work and learning environments
by using virtual reality technology and continually seeking to expand learning experiences
(Devesh (Devesh & Amandeep, 2022). 2021 was known as the first year of the metaverse
Regarding the most important sources, the IEEE transactions on learning technologies magazine stands out (impact factor of 3.7 and citescore of 8.5) with 4 articles. In terms of impact, the journal Sustainability (Switzerland) stands out with an h index of 3 and 3 documents in total that accumulate 58 citations (see Table 3). Q1 Q1 Q1 Q1 Q1
4 3 3 3 2
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51 30.00 The list of countries with the greatest impact on metaverse research (see Table 6) is led by South Korea, with 254 citations in Scopus; followed by China with 200 citations and the United Kingdom with 138 citations. The country with the highest number of peer-reviewed documents is China (88), followed by South Korea (62) and India (40). Since a single document can be written by authors of different nationalities, the countries that have the highest number of collaborations are the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom (4 collaborations each). 6.1. Co-occurrence analysis
Keyword co-occurrence analysis generated 7 clusters, 68 items, 714 links, and a total link strength of 1709. Cluster 1 (red), about metaverses, had 18 occurrences and focuses directly on metaverse and its various forms of interaction in the educational context. Cluster 2 (green), about students, had 16 occurrences and focuses on the metaverse՚s interaction with students. Cluster 3 (blue), about metaverse, had 13 occurrences and focuses on the different facets of the metaverse. Group 4 (yellow), about education, had 12 occurrences and referred to the relationship between covid, education and metaverse. Finally, cluster 5 (purple), above computer aided instruction, had 5 occurrences and referred to higher education (see Figure 2).
The most significant keywords were metaverse technology (9), systematic literature (7), medical education (6) and virtual reality (6), as can be seen in the world map (see Figure 3). These keywords are the basis of the studies that have been generated in the current context. The axes of interest are directly focused on the impact of the metaverse on education and on the modalities of virtual reality.
Figure 4 illustrates the thematic map with the driving themes in the upper left quadrant. These topics drive the scientific literature on the metaverse, particularly on issues related to research, applications, and future perspectives on this topic. Other important and current topics are the application of training based on the metaverse. Regarding the basic topics, education in the era of the metaverse and learning in the metaverse stand out. Among the niche topics, highly developed internally but separated from all the others, the aspects related to engineering simulators stand out, in addition to the effect on the quality of learning. On the contrary, among the emerging or declining topics, represented by underdeveloped and marginal topics in research, security in the metaverse stands out as emerging.
The results of the multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), based on the Conceptual Structure Map (CSM) method, show the conceptual structure of the keywords associated with metaverse used in the articles included in this study (see Figure 5). The keywords closest to the central point have had a greater presence in recent years.
It can be seen in Figure 5 that the explained variance of dimension 1 (x-axis) reaches 75.32%, which is the highest value. On the contrary, the explained variance of dimension 2 (the least relevant located on the y-axis) is 10.62%. The red group of words in the title covers topics related to higher education and technology, which are closer to dimension 1. The results highlight the words three-dimensional computer graphics, virtual reality, metaverses, and virtual learning.
This study analyzed a sample of 130 documents retrieved from the Scopus database, which were
published in 105 scientific journals, with 4788 references and an average citation count per
document of 7. Scientific production reaches its peak in 2023, after the covid pandemic,
maintaining an annual growth rate of 61.80%. This result shows high growth from the year 2022.
This growth occurred during the post-covid period, due to the popularity of virtual environments,
which led to an increase in the research on metaverse
Regarding the most cited articles in Scopus, the 2022 study “Definition, roles, and potential research issues of the metaverse in education: An artificial intelligence perspective” by Gwo-Jen Hwang and Shu-Yun Chien stands out, whereas Ahmad Aburayya from the United Arab Emirates is the author with the largest number of publications on metaverse in the field of education. IEEE Transactions on learning technologies (impact factor of 3.7 and citescore of 8.5) is the source with the largest number of publications on the topic (4 articles).
On the other hand, the list of countries with the greatest impact is led by South Korea with 254 citations and 29 peer-reviewed documents. The most important affiliation is the Yonsei University College of Medicine of South Korea, results that coincide with those found by Chen and Zhang (2022). The keyword co-occurrence analysis generated seven clusters, highlighting the metaverse and its various forms of interaction in the educational context (specifically with students), its facets, covid, higher education and its relationship with the metaverse. Very similar results were those obtained by Bicen and Adedoyin (2022) who demonstrated the impact of the metaverse in remote education, medical and health education, its use to improve learning, evaluation and participation of students and teachers, as well as its impact on higher education.
The most significant author keywords were metaverse technology (9), systematic literature (7), medical education (6) and virtual reality (6)--the axes of interest being those focused on the impact of the metaverse on education and the modalities of virtual reality. This was corroborated by various investigations such as that of Chen and Zhang (2022) and that of Agac et al. (2023), who state that the use of metaverse resources in the field of medicine focuses mainly on multimodal medical information standards, fusion of medical and social data, telemedicine and online health management, and medical artificial intelligence.
In the thematic map we can observe the driving themes that drive the scientific literature on the metaverse, in particular, all issues related to research, applications, future perspectives and the validity of the application of training based on the metaverse. Chen and Zhang (2022) highlight that the metaverse offers a variety of collaborative, intelligent, immersive and synthetic environments for educational purposes. That is, metaverse technologies can establish a platform where intelligent learning environments connect the physical world with the virtual one. Regarding the basic topics, education and learning in the era of the metaverse stand out, which is corroborated by studies such as those by Tlili et al. (2022), Mustafa (2022), Hirsh-Pasek et al. (2022), Yue (2022), Almarzouqi et al. (2022) and Kaddoura and Husseiny (2023).
Regarding emerging topics, academic certification based on the metaverse stands out.
Blockchain technology plays a crucial role and provides a decentralized infrastructure for the
metaverse, developing strong use cases for its ecosystem
In relation to the possible applications of the metaverse in education and learning, the application of metaverse-based training through immersive learning environments stands out. In addition, academics could investigate the metaverse and its various forms of interaction in the educational context, evidencing how it interacts with students from diverse geographical locations and cultures, evaluating its development and personalized interaction, but at the same time its integration into a globalized world (Rejeb et al., 2023).
From a practical perspective, the findings of this study have great importance for the different stakeholders involved in the development and implementation of metaversal technologies within educational systems. This research identified different thematic groups that offer valuable information for the education industry seeking to use the potential of the metaverse to revolutionize various sectors within education. Finally, it is necessary for professionals, politicians and researchers to prioritize the responsible and equitable development of the metaverse, which is why the focus of this bibliometric review is based on ethical and sustainability considerations.
Despite the significant findings, this study has some limitations. Firstly, the exclusive use of the Scopus database to obtain scientific documentation may generate a selection bias, because not all published scientific literature on the metaverse and education was covered in Scopus. It is suggested that the databases be expanded to provide a more complete spectrum of the topic. Furthermore, future research can study the application of the metaverse in instruction and training in various areas. Secondly, it is likely that the 130 articles selected are not fully representative of the corpus of research on the metaverse and education, considering that the present research was specifically oriented to the metaverse and not its predecessors. Finally, while bibliometric analysis has its advantages, this methodological approach may not adequately capture the depth and complexity of this topic. Therefore, it is advisable to generate qualitative studies and systematic reviews that enrich the significance of the phenomenon and help interpret the modifications generated in the metaverse and the complexity of its development.
This research was not funded through any specific grant from public, commercial, or nonprofit funding agencies.
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