Virtual Reality for Education from a User Experience Perspective: A Bibliometric Analysis

Education is shifting from traditional multimedia to immersive Virtual reality (VR) environments. Despite numerous reviews on VR in education, few focus on user experience. Existing reviews mainly use qualitative methods, limiting objective analysis due to small sample sizes. Quantitative analysis can address this by covering more studies. This study explores VR in education from a user experience perspective (VR-E-UEP) using bibliometric methods. Methods: We used the Web of Science (WOS) core collection database and employed VOSviewer and CiteSpace for keyword, evolutionary, and co-citation analyses. Results: VR-E-UEP research hotspots are divided into four clusters: 1) specific VR applications in education, 2) advantages and key concepts of VR in education, 3) data analysis techniques, and 4) key factors affecting user experience. Evolution analysis shows early research focused on VR technology and applications, mid-term research emphasized human factors, and recent studies highlight machine learning. Frequently co-cited research falls into five categories: 1) Definitions and Technologies of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, 2) Advantages and Effectiveness Evaluation of Virtual Reality Technology in Education, 3) Applications of Immersive Virtual Reality in Learning and Training, 4) User Experience Measurement, 5) Statistical Analysis Methods and Theoretical Models. Finally, future research directions are discussed.