Leading Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) in Education: Bibliometric and Content Analysis From the Web of Science (2018–2022)

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are two different types of technologies that have become at the forefront of the entertainment industry. However, these technologies are also being applied in education to help students see things from a new perspective or learn a new skill. By definition, Virtual reality (VR) is a computer-generated simulation of a real-life environment that can be explored and interacted with using head-mounted displays or other devices (Stuchlíková et al., 2017). This immersive environment can be either interactive or non-interactive. Head-mounted displays and other devices that provide virtual reality allow people to experience a simulated world rather than the physical world (Su et al., 2021; Wang & Zhang, 2021). Alternatively, Augmented reality (AR) is the superimposing of digital information on the user’s real-world view through specialized glasses, lenses, or contact lenses, or through an app that projects virtual images overtop of a live camera feed from a mobile device. This is done to augment what would appear to be experiential in the real world (Shanu et al., 2022; Jeřábek et al., 2014). While these technologies take learning to new heights, they are not without limits and can be difficult for teachers to implement (Capone & Lepore, 2020). The emergence of VR/AR in education could change every aspect of teaching and learning by providing an immersive experience (Gandolfi et al., 2018). However, it is important that teachers systematically evaluate the technology’s potential and adoption in their classrooms before implementing it with their students (Faqih & Jaradat, 2021).

In recent years, there has been a substantial increase in research into the use of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) in education, with studies examining the potential of these technologies to improve learning experiences. However, there are still certain research gaps that must be filled (Verner et al., 2022). For example, the absence of actual studies comparing the educational impacts of AR and VR is one gap. While studies have looked at the potential advantages of each technology individually, there is a need for additional study that examines their relative usefulness in an educational setting (Solmaz et al., 2021).

Another gap is a paucity of studies on how to employ AR/VR technology to engage kids with special needs like autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Rega et al., 2018), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (Goharinejad et al., 2022), dyslexia, or other learning disabilities (Staggini & Cersosimo, 2021). More study into how AR/VR technology may be utilized to facilitate remote learning is also required. Moreover, further study is needed to determine how educators and administrators may successfully use AR/VR technology in their classrooms without having specialized technological skills (Zhang et al., 2022). This involves producing tools and opportunities for educators to build the skills and knowledge required to properly deploy these technologies, as well as offering resources and assistance on integrating AR/VR into current curricula (Choi, 2022).

Based from contemporary literature reviews from the Web of Science (WoS), the next section depicts the background of study on several topics related o AR and VR in education, such as (a) innovation and academic contribution from AR and VR; (b) Difference in the application and effects of VR and AR technology in education; (c) Leading intention of teachers and students in using AR and VR; (d) Classroom teaching and learning mode matching the AR/VR applications; and (e) Conducting assessment of AR/VR’s viability and possible acceptance in the classroom

To improve teaching and learning, VR and AR may be utilized by teachers to create immersive and engaging learning environments. This may help pupils become more engaged and the subject more remembered. For example, in a science lesson, a teacher may utilize VR to take students on a virtual field trip to a historical place, or AR to overlay information on a real-world item (Solmaz et al., 2021). VR and AR may be utilized to deliver hands-on learning experiences for students that would be difficult or impossible to reproduce in the classroom. This may help students comprehend complicated topics and make the content more appealing (Choi, 2022). A student, for example, may utilize VR to rehearse a complicated surgical operation or AR to examine a virtual representation of the human body (Bansal et al., 2022). Clearly, teachers and students want to use VR and AR to deliver an immersive, dynamic, and engaging learning experience that may aid to improve comprehension and retention of the subject being taught (Choi, 2022). For further discussions, several ways to improve classroom teaching experience for teachers and students include:

Evidently, the use of VR and AR technologies in the classroom may assist to create more interesting and dynamic learning experiences, making information more accessible, and giving students opportunity to learn in ways that conventional teaching approaches cannot (Zhang et al., 2022). As VR/AR becomes more mainstream and VR headsets become less expensive, it is expected that many students will have access to VR technology (Hsiao et al., 2018). While there are several benefits of having VR headsets available in the classroom, there are also many challenges and obstacles that educators need to consider before implementing this technology (Krauss et al., 2021). One of the biggest challenges is student distraction. The immersive nature of these technologies makes them very distracting which may disrupt other students who are not wearing the headsets (Peng et al., 2019). For teachers, they need to be aware of the following problems:

In various areas, research into augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) in education is limited. One difficulty is teachers’ lack of expertise, as well as inadequate instructional design. Furthermore, there are hurdles to faculty use of AR/VR technologies in minority-serving institutions (MSIs) (Boland et al., 2021). Furthermore, many prospective users are unaware of how AR/VR might assist them and there is a scarcity of economic and network resources for pupils afflicted by the digital divide (Solmaz et al., 2021). It is clear that from the body of knowledge, there is a dearth of concentrated attention and effort given to AR/VR research in education (Choi, 2022). We speculate that AR and VR may be used in the near future to supplement traditional education by giving chances for experiential learning that enhance intellectual and emotional intelligence (Chan et al., 2022). At this point of writing, this paper is not suggesting the substitution of conventional methods of teaching or learning but calls for more efforts to introduce AR/VR from schools to higher education, and thus, technology leaders, educators, policymakers and must address equity, access, efficiency and quality in education (Su et al., 2022). Recent research has shown that virtual reality systems may also assist educators in overcoming typical discipline-based constraints, and extended reality (XR) technologies (Morimoto et al., 2022) such as VR and AR can promise significant value to the learning process (Guray & Kismet, 2023). Therefore, this article justifies the need to bibliometric analysis to indicate the state of the body of knowledge, so that school stakeholders can understand and be ready for VR/AR integration by using technology to guide students in new directions.

As much as the existing body of knowledge is concerned, other research has unveiled how VR or AR is applied and evolved in the education industry and linked to other fields of research. Concerning the information presented in the previous sections, more can be done to mine data from the Web of Science database core collections to understand how and where research on VR/AR is trending in the last 5 years. This attempt can be achieved through bibliometric and content analysis of top trending articles in the Web of Science database. In essence, the problem also lies in the need to highlight potential gaps in areas of content, process and context of AR/VR in education so that future researchers can consider and investigate new objectives and problem-solving in education technology. Therefore, the following research questions are set out in this study:

The findings from the bibliometric analysis are used to address the first research questions, while both bibliometric and content analysis will specifically address the second and third research questions. The process is described in the next section.

The process of locating and assessing different types of research outputs is known as bibliometric analysis. The purpose of a bibliometric study is to identify publications or researchers that have produced work that is highly referenced throughout a variety of scientific domains, journals, and topics of study during a certain period (Aria & Cuccurullo, 2017). It seems to reason that the sort of analysis that is most suited for this objective would be a longitudinal one that considers all of the research that has been published on a subject over the preceding century. However, due to the enormous number and diversity of research output that exists on any given subject, doing such an analysis from start would require an amount of time that is inconceivably long to complete (Hallinger & Kovačević, 2019). As such, this study relies on Vosviewer bibliometric software to analyze the trends of information obtained from the Web of Science database (van Eck & Waltman, 2010). Subsequently, several key papers will be studied through content analysis (Downe-Wamboldt, 1992) to extract findings that are related to how educators are leading VR and AR in education around the world.

As a process, Table 3 highlights the key research areas (according to the research questions), the Boolean search command, and the search results obtained from the Web of Science database. The key information is then downloaded to be analyzed by Viewer and content analysis.

In essence, bibliometric information on the Web of Science is readily accessible and can be used to assess publication activity in any field of study. By setting the search criteria to the last 5 years and according to the top five countries that produce knowledge in aspects of VR and AR, the voluminous data is reduced and ranked in the list of results. These data are downloaded and then analyzed accordingly. The next section shall present the findings according to each of the research questions.

More efforts were also conducted by the authors in the bibliometric analysis to investigate conceptual and social structure in the body of knowledge. With the data downloaded from the web of science, the authors refine the search to uncover the co-occurrence of keywords and collaboration between scholars from various universities. As a result, the following figures show the findings that would later usher the authors into selecting the right articles for content analysis (Figure 13).

Thereafter, the selection threshold is set at a minimum number of five documents per organization (as shown in Figure 14). With the selection in Vos viewer, 73 organizations met the threshold requirement from the Web of Science.

With the selection of choices from Vos Viewer, the following Figure 15 shows the universities that produced knowledge based on Bibliographic coupling based on universities.

Subsequently, Figure 16 is presented to reveal the name of the universities more clearly.

As a brief explanation, the bibliometric analysis using bibliographic coupling based on universities has revealed that Technology University Munich, Beijing Normal University, and Ludwig Maximilian University Munich are universities at the forefront of publications in the subjects of VR and AR. The universities that followed are Texas A&M University, Osaka University, Stanford University, Nanyang Technology University, and University Nottingham. Publications in VR and AR are spread between the east and the west as it develops their knowledge base in the Web of Science between 2018 and 2022.

Bibliometric analysis is also conducted by the authors to investigate bibliometric coupling among authors in the body of knowledge. With the data downloaded from the web of science, the authors refine the search to uncover the collaboration between scholars all over the world. As a result, the following Figure 17 shows the findings that would later usher the authors into selecting the right articles for content analysis.

With the selection of choices from Vos viewer, 25 sources met the requirement of having at least five documents per author from the bibliographic coupling analysis (Figure 18).

The names of the authors are also shown in the next Figure 19.

The result of the network analysis is shown in Figure 20.

Subsequently, Figure 21 is presented to reveal the authors’ names.

Based on Figure 21, bibliometric analysis has found that more scholars are publishing in non-educational areas as compared to the field of education. With further investigation of authors’ profiles from Google Scholar, it was found that the following scholars have published about AR and VR in education:

Subsequently, the rest of the scholars do not have any evidence linked to educational studies:

As the last process of bibliometric analysis, the data downloaded from the web of science prompted the authors to refine the search by examining the sources of publications. As a result, the following Figure 22 shows the findings that would later usher the authors into selecting the right journal for content analysis.

With the selection of choices from Vos viewer, 31 sources met the requirement of having at least five documents per source from the bibliographic coupling analysis (Figure 23).

The result of the network analysis is shown in Figure 24.

Subsequently, Figure 25 is presented to list the name of journals more clearly.

As noticed from the density visualization, most publications concerning the topic of “Virtual Reality in Education” OR “Augmented Reality in Education” consists of proceedings from the IEEE conference. From the visualization, it is evident that Interactive Learning Environments, Computers & Education, Anatomical Science Education, Sustainability, Journal of Science Education and Technology, Frontiers in Education, and IEEE access are prominently publishing the topics of VR and AR in education. This analysis has also indicated the acceptable scope and potential journals for future publications for this studies concerning “Virtual Reality in Education” OR “Augmented Reality in Education.”

AR and VR technologies have the potential to transform education by enabling immersive learning experiences that are engaging, memorable, and effective for students (Zhang et al., 2022). AR may be used to show instructional text and lesson-specific information on top of a user’s real surroundings, whilst VR can bring academic topics to life by providing students with fresh insights and perspectives (Guray & Kismet, 2023). AR/VR may be more effective learning aids than conventional techniques, according to studies, since they enable learners to experience circumstances that would not be feasible otherwise and act rather than just seeing things (Chan et al., 2022). Furthermore, while students are studying from home, AR/VR technology might assist keep them interested in lectures (Solmaz et al., 2021).

However, studies on the psychological effect of VR indicate that it should be used sparingly and under tight supervision in educational settings. Furthermore, although AR/VR technologies might deliver a more immersive learning experience, they cannot completely replace human contact (Verner et al., 2022). Because learning is inherently a social experience, VR should be utilized with conventional teaching approaches such as discussion groups or one-on-one instruction (Bansal et al., 2022).

Through the bibliometric and content analysis, it is evident that both VR and AR have grown in popularity in recent years from 2018 to 2022. AR has been applied in academic, medical, entertainment, tourism, economic, and promotional domains. Unsurprisingly, tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, and Amazon have lately increased their investments in research and development in virtual and augmented reality (Kepuska & Bohouta, 2018; Reis et al., 2018). As implications, this might enhance educational accessibility, equity, and quality of teaching and learn in the post-pandemic era of Covid-19. It is shown from the findings above that VR and AR promote student learning and retention in the classroom. Both VR and AR-based learning use current technology to bring digital content into the real world so users may better connect with it on smartphones and tablets. In addition, the proliferation of Animation, 3D visuals, and music may increase user comprehension. This improves students’ understanding. Augmented reality may replace traditional instructional approaches soon (Tenh et al., 2017).

As also explained, this study provides a literature review and model analysis of virtual and augmented reality classroom systems. The presented model supports the authors’ conclusions and inspires practical recommendations in aspects of technological adoption. For educational leaders, they need to consider factors such as technology fit, performance expectation, effort expectancy, social influence, enabling condition, and hedonic incentive that motivates technological adoption in AR/VR (Faqih & Jaradat, 2021). Alternatively, future educators need to understand how to develop AR to complement learning. Also, most of the literature on collaborative AR is promising and should be encouraged in the educational setting because research in this area is still in its infancy (Phon et al., 2014). Educational Leaders must find ways to improve the use of different software for VR/AR (Tomaschko, 2020) because VR and AR promote classroom engagement and focuses differently than conventional teaching approaches, enhancing student motivation and aiding learning. However, access to mobile devices, technological expense, technical problems, and teacher preparation are among AR concerns in developed and underdeveloped nations (Huertas-Abril et al., 2021).

In conclusion, virtual reality and augmented reality are promising technologies for use in the classroom. Still, there are many hurdles involved with their implementation in the classroom.

Looking ahead, there is a need for VR and AR scientists to develop software that is affordable for schools and provide educators with training on how to teach with these enhanced learning technologies. More innovation should also concentrate on projects that combine VR-enabled low-cost digital gadgets to create a virtual, highly engaging collective learning environment for each student in a class. Therefore, teachers can guide students through the environment and controls the speed and degree of progression to fit the curriculum and student capabilities.