Augmented Reality in Education: An Overview of Twenty-Five Years of Research

Oct 15, 2026

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Research on augmented reality (AR) in education is expanding globally across decades of technology development and scholarly inquiry. A bibliometric analysis was conducted using metadata from 3,475 studies published between 1995 and 2020, extracted through the Scopus database and analyzed with the bibliometrix R package and VOSviewer. The study compares journal-based and other publication sources and evaluates trends using author, content, and citation data. The results support decisions on adopting AR technologies in educational settings.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages29

Reading Time1 h 13 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Research purpose and rationale

Bibliometric analysis approach

Scope of studies and research questions

Augmented Reality in Education: An Overview of Twenty-Five Years of Research Cecilia Avila-Garzon Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz, Faculty of Mathematics and Engineering, Bogotá, Colombia ORCID: 0000-0002-2384-0518 Jorge Bacca-Acosta Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz, Faculty of Mathematics and Engineering, Bogotá, Colombia ORCID: 0000-0003-0381-6972 Kinshuk University of North Texas, College of Information, Denton, USA ORCID: 0000-0003-3923-9003 Joan Duarte Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz, Faculty of Mathematics and Engineering, Bogotá, Colombia ORCID: 0000-0002-6285-6926 Juan Betancourt Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz, Faculty of Mathematics and Engineering, Bogotá, Colombia ORCID: 0000-0003-2351-2693 Received: 8 Jul 2020 Accepted: 3 Feb 2021 Abstract Research on augmented reality (AR) in education is gaining momentum worldwide. This field has been actively growing over the past decades in terms of the research and development of new technologies. Reviews in the field of AR in education consist of systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses (around 45), surveys (around 33), and only one bibliometric analysis. However, these reviews do not provide a general synthesis of the research published in the field to depict its evolution over the years. This study used the metadata of articles from a 25-year period (1995-2020) to conduct a bibliometric analysis. A total of 3,475 studies were considered. In this study, we used tools such as the Scopus database, the bibliometrix R package, and the VOSviewer analysis tool. The analysis of the literature is based on the metadata, author, content, and citation information extracted from the dataset. In addition, we focus on comparing literature published mainly in journals (articles, articles in press, and reviews) and those published in other sources (conference papers, books, and book chapters) . Practitioners could use the results of this study to make decisions about the adoption of AR technologies in education. Keywords: augmented reality, education, learning, bibliometric, trends INTRODUCTION In the field of educational technology, there is a wide variety of technologies and approaches being used around the world to provide better support for teaching and learning processes. Among these approaches, augmented reality (AR) is a technology that is gaining momentum around the globe. AR allows users to see the real world with digital information superimposed (Azuma, 1997) . AR has been an active area of research in the educational setting as a supporting technology for learning and teaching processes. AR has attracted a lot of interest in the research community because it provides unique learning experiences that cannot be achieved using other technologies or approaches. AR offers new forms of interactivity with content, improved visualisations of scientific phenomena, and a reduced cognitive load. Many AR applications have been developed for a wide variety of learning domains, such as science, engineering, and social sciences (Cipresso et al., 2018; Garzón & Acevedo, 2019) . Research on AR in education has demonstrated that AR has a positive effect on students’ learning outcomes (Akçayır & Akçayır, 2017; Bernal et al., 2019; Cano et al., 2019; Radu, 2014) and motivation (Arici et al., 2019; Bacca et al., 2018; Chiang et al., 2014; Ibañez et al., 2020) . In their meta-analysis of the effectiveness of AR in education, Tekedere and Göker (2016) found a medium effect size (0 .67) of AR on education. Likewise, Garzón et al. (2020) found a medium effect size (0 .72) of AR on students’ learning gains. According to the EDUCAUSE Horizon Report, Extended Reality (XR) technologies (a concept that includes AR) seem to be ‘an effective way to augment traditional forms of pedagogy’ (Brown et al., 2020, p. 30) . This study aims to conduct a bibliometric analysis in the field of AR in education. While there are many systematic r

FAQs

What research method was used to study augmented reality in education?

A bibliometric analysis was carried out using article metadata from 1995-2020, with tools including the Scopus database, the bibliometrix R package, and VOSviewer.

How many studies were included in the analysis and what time span did they cover?

The analysis considered 3,475 studies published over a 25-year period from 1995 to 2020.

What types of publication sources were compared in the study?

The study compares mainly journal publications (articles, articles in press, and reviews) with other sources such as conference papers, books, and book chapters.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by nayy☆