Explore the vast range of titles available.

The combination of artificial intelligence with extended reality technologies can significantly impact the educational domain. This study aims to present an overview regarding the combination of artificial intelligence with augmented reality and virtual reality technologies and their integration in education through an analysis of the existing literature. Hence, this study examines 201 documents from Scopus and the Web of Science (WoS). This study focuses on examining the basic characteristics of the document collection, highlighting the most prevalent themes, areas, and topics, exploring the thematic evolution of the topic, revealing current challenges and limitations and on identifying emerging topics and future research directions. Based on the outcomes, a significant annual growth rate (60.58%) was observed indicating the increasing interest in the topic. Additionally, the potential of combining artificial intelligence with virtual reality and augmented reality technologies to provide personalized, affective, interactive, and immersive learning experiences across educational levels in both formal and informal settings supporting both teachers and students arose. Therefore, through this combination, intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs), which offer behavioral, cognitive, and social personalization, have a virtual presence, and can effectively be used as tutors or peer learners, can be created. Such ITSs can be characterized as affective and social entities that can increase students’ learning performance, learning motivation, and engagement and promote both self-directed learning and collaborative learning. This study also highlights the need to examine how the physical presence that characterizes some new technologies compares to the virtual presence that extended reality technologies offer in terms of overall learning outcomes and students’ development.

In contrast to other learning technologies, social robots are social and affective entities that are defined by their physical presence, their anthropomorphic characteristics, and their advanced social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Social robots are intelligent tutoring systems that can improve students’ learning, affective, and cognitive outcomes when used as tutors or peer learners offering affective and personalized learning. As the field of social robots and their use in education is rapidly advancing, this study aims to provide a review regarding the integration of social robots in education through the analysis of the existing literature to present the state of the art and to identify future research directions. Additionally, the main characteristics and properties of social robots are defined and the benefits they can bring in education are discussed. Specifically, the study examines 361 documents that derived from Scopus and the Web of Science databases. To analyze the documents, Bibliometrix, VOSviewer, topic modeling through Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), and content analysis are used. An analysis of the basic characteristics of the documents (e.g., publication frequency, citation count, authors, sources, countries, affiliations, etc.) and a more in-depth analysis focusing on identifying the most prominent topics and themes as well as the thematic evolution of the topic were carried out. Finally, through the content analysis, current limitations and challenges were revealed and emerging topics and future research directions were highlighted.

The research into artificial intelligence (AI), the metaverse, and extended reality (XR) technologies, such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR), has been expanding over the recent years. This study aims to provide an overview regarding the combination of AI with XR technologies and the metaverse through the examination of 880 articles using different approaches. The field has experienced a 91.29% increase in its annual growth rate, and although it is still in its infancy, the outcomes of this study highlight the potential of these technologies to be effectively combined and applied in various domains transforming and enriching them. Through content analysis and topic modeling, the main topics and areas in which this combination is mostly being researched and applied are as follows: (1) “Education/Learning/Training”, (2) “Healthcare and Medicine”, (3) “Generative artificial intelligence/Large language models”, (4) “Virtual worlds/Virtual avatars/Virtual assistants”, (5) “Human-computer interaction”, (6) “Machine learning/Deep learning/Neural networks”, (7) “Communication networks”, (8) “Industry”, (9) “Manufacturing”, (10) “E-commerce”, (11) “Entertainment”, (12) “Smart cities”, and (13) “New technologies” (e.g., digital twins, blockchain, internet of things, etc.). The study explores the documents through various dimensions and concludes by presenting the existing limitations, identifying key challenges, and providing suggestions for future research.

Given the advancements in artificial intelligence and extended reality technologies, this study aims to examine the integration of intelligent tutoring systems into augmented reality and virtual reality environments through a systematic literature review. Following the PRISMA framework, 32 related theoretical, showcase, and case studies published during the period of 2015–2024 are examined. Based on the results, this combination of technologies emerged as an effective educational means that can support both students and teachers, promote lifelong learning, and support face-to-face, blended, and online learning across educational levels and in the workplace. These systems offered immersive, realistic, and interactive learning environments and personalized learning experiences. Additionally, they could identify, monitor, and analyze students’ characteristics, performance, preferences, and motivational, cognitive, and psychological states. These systems could also adapt the learning content, resources, activities, and assessment according to students’ needs and make suitable recommendations. Their ability to offer tailored and real-time feedback, guidance, analytics, and evaluation was highlighted. Additionally, it was revealed that these systems offer meaningful learning experiences and enhance cognitive, affective, psychomotor, and embodied learning through self-directed learning, collaborative learning, personalized learning, and experiential learning approaches. Regarding learning benefits, students who learnt using this combination demonstrated increased engagement, motivation, confidence, immersion, and enjoyment. The students also reported better learning outcomes and academic performance, enhanced knowledge and skills, and improved information understanding and recall. This study also presents the main topics and areas examined, goes over the existing challenges, and suggests future research directions. Finally, the study emphasizes the importance of capitalizing on both human intelligence and machine intelligence to support students, meet their needs, and provide them with quality education and lifelong learning opportunities.

This study scrutinizes the existing literature regarding the use of augmented reality and gamification in education to establish its theoretical basis. A systematic literature review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement was conducted. To provide complete and valid information, all types of related studies for all educational stages and subjects throughout the years were investigated. In total, 670 articles from 5 databases (Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, IEEE, and ERIC) were examined. Based on the results, using augmented reality and gamification in education can yield several benefits for students, assist educators, improve the educational process, and facilitate the transition toward technology-enhanced learning when used in a student-centered manner, following proper educational approaches and strategies and taking students’ knowledge, interests, unique characteristics, and personality traits into consideration. Students demonstrated positive behavioral, attitudinal, and psychological changes and increased engagement, motivation, active participation, knowledge acquisition, focus, curiosity, interest, enjoyment, academic performance, and learning outcomes. Teachers also assessed them positively. Virtual rewards were crucial for improving learning motivation. The need to develop appropriate validation tools, design techniques, and theories was apparent. Finally, their potential to create collaborative and personalized learning experiences and to promote and enhance students’ cognitive and social–emotional development was evident.

This study aims to examine the influence of gamification in students’ learning outcomes and academic performance. A longitudinal study was conducted to compare students’ academic performance in online learning (2020–2021), traditional learning (2021–2022), and gamified learning (2022–2023). The longitudinal study lasted 3 years and a total of 1001 higher education students were involved. Three research questions were set to be explored and students’ viewpoints and experiences were also examined through a questionnaire of 20 questions. This study follows a quantitative research approach. The data refers to students’ academic performance, success rate, excellence rate, withdrawal rate, engagement, motivation, and perspectives. In the laboratory part of the course, gamified learning yielded better outcomes over online learning and traditional learning in success rate (39% and 13%), excellence rate (130% and 23%), average grade (24% and 11%), and retention rate (42% and 36%) respectively. In the theoretical part of the course, gamified learning resulted in better outcomes over online learning and traditional learning in success rate (19% and 14%), in excellence rate (125% and 79%), and in average grade (25% and 12%) respectively. In the overall course, gamified learning yielded better outcomes over online learning and traditional learning in success rate (14% and 14%), in excellence rate (122% and 70%), and in average grade (25% and 17%) respectively. The highest increase was observed in students’ excellence rate. Students highly regarded gamification as an effective educational approach that can increase their learning outcomes, engagement, productivity, and motivation and trigger both their both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The learning experience become more enjoyable and students’ basic needs in terms of autonomy, competence and sufficiency, and relatedness and sense of belonging were met. Traditional learning also resulted in better learning outcomes when compared to online learning. Gamification emerged as an effective learning approach which leads to improved learning outcomes and academic performance, learning motivation, engagement, and retention rate over online learning and traditional learning in both theoretical and applied course settings.

To achieve sustainability and fulfill sustainable development goals, the digitalization of the power sector is vital. This study aims to examine how blockchain can be integrated into and enrich smart grids. In total, 10 research questions are explored. Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) were used to identify documents related to the topic. The study involves the analysis of 1041 scientific documents over the period 2015–2022. The related studies are analyzed from different dimensions including descriptive statistics, identification of the most common keywords and most widely used outlets, examination of the annual scientific production, the analysis of the most impactful and productive authors, countries, and affiliations. The advancement of the research focus and the most popular topics are also examined. Additionally, the results are analyzed, the main findings are discussed, open issues and challenges are presented, and suggestions for new research directions are provided. Based on the results, it was evident that blockchain plays a vital role in securing smart grids and realizing power sector digitalization, as well as in achieving sustainability and successfully meeting sustainable development goals.

This study aims to evaluate the impact of using augmented reality, gamification, and serious games in computer science education. The study presents the development process of an educational mobile application, describes an experiment that was conducted and involved 117 higher education students, and analyzes the results of a 49-item paper-based questionnaire. In total, 8 research questions were explored. The results of the study revealed that several educational benefits can be yielded when integrating such applications in teaching and learning activities and actively involving students in the design and development process. In particular, the application was assessed as an effective learning tool that could enrich and improve the educational process and create interactive, inclusive, and student-centered learning environments. Its use led mostly to positive effects and experiences while maintaining the negative ones to a minimum and most students expressed positive emotions. Students were able to learn in a more enjoyable and interesting manner, and their motivation, engagement, self-efficacy, and immersion were greatly increased. Students’ innate need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness was satisfactorily met and both their intrinsic and extrinsic learning motivations were triggered. They felt a sense of belonging and cultivated their social skills. The potential of the application to improve students’ knowledge acquisition and academic achievements was also observed. The application also enabled students to improve their computational thinking and critical thinking skills. Therefore, the potential of combining augmented reality, gamification, and serious games to enhance students’ cognitive and social–emotional development was highlighted.

This study aims to examine the combination of educational data mining and learning analytics with virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and the metaverse, its role in education, and its impact on teaching and learning. Therefore, a systematic literature review, a bibliometric and scientific mapping analysis, and a content analysis are carried out based on 70 relevant documents identified from six databases, namely, ACM, ERIC, IEEE, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Web of Science (WoS) following the PRISMA framework. The documents were separated into the following three categories, (i) Theoretical and Review studies, (ii) Proposal and Showcase studies, and (iii) Experimental and Case studies and were examined from different dimensions through an in-depth content analysis using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The documents were further analyzed using scientometric tools, such as Bibliometrix and VOSviewer and topic modeling through Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). The most prominent topics, areas, and themes were revealed and the outcomes regarding the influence of this combination on learning and teaching were summarized. Based on the results, this combination can effectively enrich education, positively affect learning and teaching, offer deep and meaningful learning, and support both students and teachers. Additionally, it can support different educational approaches and strategies, various learning styles, and special education and be utilized in both formal and informal learning environments. The real-time identification, tracking, monitoring, analysis, and visualization of multimodal learning data of students’ behavior, emotions, cognitive and affective states and the overall learning and teaching processes emerged as a significant benefit that contributes greatly to the realization of adaptive and personalized learning. Finally, it was revealed that the combination of extended reality technologies with learning analytics and educational data mining can support collaborative learning and social learning, improve students’ self-efficacy and self-regulated learning, and increase students’ learning gains, academic achievements, knowledge retention, motivation, and engagement.

This study aims to understand the public’s perspectives, sentiments, attitudes, and discourses regarding the adoption, integration, and use of augmented reality and virtual reality in education and in general by analyzing social media data. Due to its nature, Twitter was the selected platform. Over 17 million tweets were retrieved from January 2010 to December 2020 and four datasets were created. Two of them referred to the general use of these technologies and two to their educational use. The data was analyzed using text mining, sentiment analysis (e.g., polarity and emotion detection), and topic modeling methods. TextBlob, Word-Emotion Association Lexicon (EmoLex), Valence Aware Dictionary for Sentiment Reasoning (VADER), and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) were some of the tools used. Based on the results, the majority of the public were positively disposed toward the general and the educational use of both augmented reality and virtual reality and mostly expressed positive emotions (e.g., anticipation, trust, and joy) when referring to them. In total, 11 topics emerged that were related to education, new technologies, digital and social media use, marketing and advertising, the industrial domain, the health domain, gaming, fitness and exercising, devices, the travel and tourism domain, and software development kits. The educational benefits of augmented reality and virtual reality, their ability to enrich both teaching and learning activities, and their role as effective educational means were evident.