eprintid: 1729 rev_number: 10 eprint_status: archive userid: 4 dir: disk0/00/00/17/29 datestamp: 2026-08-25 23:46:06 lastmod: 2026-08-25 23:46:06 status_changed: 2026-08-25 23:46:06 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Kimmons, Royce creators_name: M. Rosenberg, Joshua creators_name: Farhan, Ali creators_name: E. West, Richard corp_creators: Royce Kimmons corp_creators: Joshua M. Rosenberg corp_creators: Farhan Ali corp_creators: Richard E. West1 title: Trends and Topics in Educational Technology, 2026 Edition ispublished: pub subjects: L1 subjects: T1 subjects: T201 divisions: JPS full_text_status: public keywords: Perhaps not surprising, educational applications of artificial intelligence and large language models dwarfed other major topics in the research literature in 2025. Virtual, augmented reality, and metaverse were also major topics, as were online learning and more generic topics such as education and educational technology. Motivation (or engagement in some cases), self-efficacy, self-regulation, and cognitive load were the most frequently cited theoretical constructs being studied. Also of note is that more “niche” topics such as computational thinking and gamification/game-based learning were strongly represented. It is also interesting that over two-and-a-half years after the World Health Organization officially declared the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, it still remained a major topic in the research literature. Human-computer interaction and user experience were also well-represented, perhaps representing a recent focus in Learner Experience Design (Tawfik et al., 2022). It is also noteworthy that the only research methodologies mentioned among the leading keywords were structural equation modeling and machine learning. abstract: In this continuation of a series, we provide an analysis of scholarship trends over the last five years in the field of educational technology, drawing from the Scopus and ERIC databases. We report an analysis of the keywords reported for articles during this timeframe, including trends about which keywords are rising or falling in importance. We also report the top-cited papers, scholars, and institutions. Finally, we share findings about the impact of open access on the field. We interpret these results, including the seismic impact that generative artificial intelligence has had on the scholarship of the field, and conclude with recommendations for future research. date: 2026-05-27 date_type: published publication: Trends and Topics in Educational Technology, 2026 Edition refereed: TRUE related_url_url: https://rdcu.be/fzOPA referencetext: Allison, J. (2026). Stewardship, Standards, and Scholarly Responsibility at the Turn of a New Year. Journal of Education Computing Research, 64(3), 531–538. Allman, B., Kimmons, R., Rosenberg, J., & Dash, M. (2023). Trends and Topics in Educational Technology, 2023 Edition. TechTrends, 67(3), 583–591. Article Google Scholar Allman, B., Kimmons, R., Wang, W., Bao, H., Rosenberg, J. M., & Koehler, M. J. (2024). Trends and Topics in Educational Technology, 2024 Edition. TechTrends, 68(3), 402–410. Article Google Scholar Education Resources Information Center (ERIC). (2026). FAQs. https://eric.ed.gov/?faq. Accessed 24 Feb 2026. Fragile States Index. (2024). The Fragile States Index. https://fragilestatesindex.org/global-data/. Accessed 16 Apr 2026. Ginsberg, R., & Zhao, Y. (2025). Can artificial intelligence spark an education Renaissance? Phi Delta Kappan, 107(3–4), 10–13. Article Google Scholar Grootendorst, M. (2022). BERTopic: Neural topic modeling with a class-based TF-IDF procedure. arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.05794. Kim, H., Kim, S. H., Kim, J., Kim, E. H., Gu, J. H., & Lee, D. (2025). A keyword-based approach to analyzing scientific research trends: ReRAM present and future. Scientific Reports, 15(1), 12011. Article Google Scholar Kimmons, R. (2020). Current trends (and missing links) in educational technology research and practice. TechTrends, 64(6), 803–809. Kimmons, R. (2025). Journal List. Trends and Topics in Educational Technology Supplemental Materials. https://edtechbooks.org/trends_supplements/list. Accessed 30 Jan 2026. Kimmons, R., McDonald, E., & Rosenberg, J. M. (2025). Trends and Topics in Educational Technology, 2025 Edition. TechTrends, 69, 859–863. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-025-01085-x Article Google Scholar Kimmons, R., & Rosenberg, J. (2022). Trends and topics in educational technology, 2022 Edition. TechTrends, 66, 134–140. Article Google Scholar Kimmons, R., Rosenberg, J., & Allman, B. (2021). Trends in educational technology: What Facebook, Twitter, and Scopus can tell us about current research and practice. TechTrends, 65, 125–136. Article Google Scholar Lewin, C., Cukurova, M., Mavrikis, M., Outhwaite, L., Major, L., & Rubegni, E. (2025). BJET editorial 2026: The changing landscape of EdTech and AI scholarship. British Journal of Educational Technology, 57(1), 5–8. Perkins, R., & Lowenthal, P. (2016). EdTech Journals: A listing of journals in the area of educational technology, instructional design, and distance learning. EdTech Journals. https://www.edtechjournals.org/. Accessed 30 Jan 2026. Piwowar, H., Priem, J., Larivière, V., Alperin, J. P., Matthias, L., Norlander, B., Farley, A., West, J., & Haustein, S. (2018). The state of OA: A large-scale analysis of the prevalence and impact of open access articles. PeerJ, 6, e4375. Article Google Scholar Roehrig, A. D., Soper, D., Cox, B. E., & Colvin, G. P. (2018). Changing the default to support open access to education research. Educational Researcher, 47(7), 465–473. Article Google Scholar Sezgin, A., Orbay, K., & Orbay, M. (2022). Educational research review from diverse perspectives: A bibliometric analysis of Web of Science (2011–2020). SAGE Open, 12(4), 1–13. Tawfik, A. A., Gatewood, J., Gish-Lieberman, J. J., & Hampton, A. J. (2022). Toward a definition of learning experience design. Technology Knowledge and Learning, 27(1), 309–334. Article Google Scholar Van Eck, N., & Waltman, L. (2010). Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. Scientometrics, 84(2), 523–538. Article Google Scholar Veletsianos, G., & Kimmons, R. (2012a). Assumptions and challenges of open scholarship. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 13(4), 166–189. Article Google Scholar Veletsianos, G., & Kimmons, R. (2012b). Networked participatory scholarship: Emergent techno-cultural pressures toward open and digital scholarship in online networks. Computers & Education, 58(2), 766–774. Article Google Scholar West, R. E., Francis, S. W., & Snow, A. (2025). The 2024 Scholarship Rankings. In H. Lee, J. Stefaniak, & R. M. Branch (Eds.), Educational Media and Technology Yearbook (vol. 45). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-95028-5_1 citation: Kimmons, Royce and M. Rosenberg, Joshua and Farhan, Ali and E. West, Richard (2026) Trends and Topics in Educational Technology, 2026 Edition. Trends and Topics in Educational Technology, 2026 Edition. document_url: http://eprints.iab.edu.my/v2/1729/1/Trends%20and%20Topics%20in%20Educational%20Technology%2C%202026%20Edition.pdf