Mapping microlearning development and trends across diverse contexts: a bibliometric analysis (2007–2023)

Microlearning, an emerging educational approach, has gained increasing attention across various fields in recent years, leading to extensive scientific literature. However, it remains underexplored in terms of a comprehensive quantitative analysis, posing challenges for researchers in tracking the overall development of specific themes. Therefore, this study presents a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the evolving landscape of microlearning publications from 2007 to 2023 extracted from Scopus database while employing VOSviewer, Biblioshiny, and ATLAS.ti. Leveraging quantitative and qualitative approaches, the analysis encompasses 256 documents from 206 sources, identifying key trends and themes prevalent in the selected publications. The findings revealed a 19.37% annual growth, highlighting the rising prominence of microlearning research. In addition, the findings uncovered influential articles, prolific authors, the most productive institutions, and countries, primary sources, and distinct subject areas. In terms of trending themes, the findings indicated that most studies focused on four primary areas within microlearning – (1) design and tools, (2) efficacy and impact, (3) implementation and utilization, and (4) advantages and disadvantages. These findings offer vauable insights into the trajectory of microlearning research and suggest promising directions for future scholarly inquiry in this rapidly developing field.