Metaverse in Education: Contributors, Cooperations, and Research Themes

Research on Educational Metaverse (Edu-Metaverse) has developed into an active research field. Based 310 academic papers published from 2004 to 2022, this study identifies contributors, scientific cooperations, and themes using bibliometrics, social network analysis, topic modeling, keyword analysis. Results suggest that Edu-Metaverse gained increasing attention in academia since 2019. Countries/affiliations located the same regions are close partners cooperation. By jointly interpreting modeling analysis results, reveals eight main field of Edu-Metaverse: 1) metaverse-based physical education, 2) metaverses-supported simulations for collaborative problem-based learning (PBL) health/medical 3) three-dimensional virtual environment-supported art appreciation creation 4) metaverse-enabled laboratories STEM 5) language 21st-century skill development through metaverse-supported immersive learning, 6) metaverse developing autism children' communication abilities, 7) world gameful experience-based 8) quantitative focusing learners' experience. We also identified challenges directions needing further attention: data security privacy protection, balance between real identities, preparing instructors Edu-Metaverse, assessment higher-order thinking competencies Edu-Metaverse-based PBL. This work helps facilitate researchers' practitioners' understanding raises their awareness frontiers future directions.