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Analysis of institutional authors

Vos, Tanja E JAuthor

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May 23, 2025
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Chatbots in education: A systematic review of objectives, underlying technology and theory, evaluation criteria, and impacts

Publicated to: COMPUTERS & EDUCATION. 234 105323- - 2025-09-01 234(), DOI: 10.1016/j.compedu.2025.105323

Authors:

Debets, T; Banihashem, SK; Brinke, DJT; Vos, TEJ; Wenniger, GMD; Camp, G
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Affiliations

Maastricht Univ, Sch Hlth Profess Educ, Universiteitssingel 60, NL-6229 Maastricht, ER, Netherlands - Author
Open Univ, Fac Educ Sci, Valkenburgerweg 177, NL-6419 Heerlen, AT, Netherlands - Author
Open Univ, Fac Sci, Valkenburgerweg 177, NL-6419 Heerlen, AT, Netherlands - Author
Univ Politecn Valencia, Escuela Tecn Super Ingn Informat, Camino Vera, s-n, Valencia 46022, Spain - Author
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Abstract

There is a growing body of literature on the development and use of chatbots in education. However, insights into the objectives, underlying technologies, theories, and criteria for developing and evaluating chatbots in education are lacking. This study presents a systematic review of 71 papers, identified through a thorough search in Web of Science and Scopus in October 2023, to understand, compare, and create a comprehensive overview of these elements. Papers were selected through a step-by-step procedure based on the guidelines of the PRISMA framework. The main results indicate that most chatbots in education are teaching-oriented and have increasingly been developed using chatbot builder platforms. However, many of these chatbots are integrated into educational settings without a solid theoretical foundation. Despite this, they are primarily evaluated based on perceptual factors and, in most cases, prove effective for their intended objectives. This review also identified a few limitations of the included studies, such as heterogeneity, publication bias, and focus on short-term impact. Overall, this review enhances our understanding of chatbots in education and provides valuable insight and guidance for educators, practitioners, and researchers.
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Keywords

AgentArtificial intelligenceChatbots in educationConstructivismConversational agenDesignEducational botIntegrationLiterature reviewMode

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal COMPUTERS & EDUCATION due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2025, it was in position 5/762, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Education & Educational Research. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

Independientemente del impacto esperado determinado por el canal de difusión, es importante destacar el impacto real observado de la propia aportación.

Según las diferentes agencias de indexación, el número de citas acumuladas por esta publicación hasta la fecha 2026-04-06:

  • WoS: 14
  • Scopus: 19
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-06:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 284.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 284 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 10.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 3 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Netherlands.

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