Abstract
Recent years have brought a rapid growth of scientific output in the area of gamification in education. In this paper, we try to identify its main characteristics using a bibliometric approach. Our preliminary analysis uses Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science as data sources, whereas the main analysis is performed on 2517 records retrieved from Scopus. The results comprise the cross-coverage of databases, geographic distribution of research, forms of publication, addressed research areas and topics, preferred publishing venues, the most involved scientific institutions and researchers, collaboration among researchers, and research impact. The main conclusions underline the sustained growth of the research output in the area for at least seven years, the widespread interest in the area across countries and branches of science, and an effective research communication in the area documented by the number of citations and the map of co-citations.
Highlights
Since gamification rose to popularity in the early 2010s, it has become an object of interest for education researchers
By applying the bibliometric approach based on data retrieved from the Scopus database, and using simple visualization tools we were able to respond to all nine of the stated research questions
Regarding RQ1, the presented results show that, since 2013, gamification in education is a vivid and quickly developing area of research, with hundreds of new relevant publications coming out every year
Summary
Since gamification rose to popularity in the early 2010s, it has become an object of interest for education researchers. Gamification has been applied at various levels of education (from preschool [2], through elementary [3], secondary [4], and higher [5], to adult education [6]), and to various subjects (including as diverse ones as anatomy and physiology [7], architecture [8], computer programming [9], chemistry [10], foreign language [4], mathematics [11], or organizational behavior [12]). Gamification models were designed [13], specialized frameworks developed [14], and dedicated tools implemented [15]. Both success stories [3] and failures [16] were reported
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