---
title: "Student engagement research: papers and trends"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “student engagement” appeared in 589 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in higher education and research (369), management (112) and AI (26)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/student-engagement
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/student-engagement.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “student engagement” appeared in 589 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in higher education and research (369), management (112) and AI (26). (as of 2026-11-03)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-03T18:03:37+09:00
window: 2026-10-05 to 2026-11-03
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “student engagement”

Research on “student engagement” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “student engagement” appeared in 589 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in higher education and research (369), management (112) and AI (26).
- 100 of them were published in 2025, against 45 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Hong Kong Polytechnic University (8), Education University of Hong Kong (7) and Chinese University of Hong Kong (6).
- The journals publishing most of them were The International Journal of Management Education (57), Computers and Education Artificial Intelligence (44) and International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education (36).
- The most-cited of them is “Gamifying education: what is known, what is believed and what remains uncertain: a critical review” (International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 2017), with 1,452 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 27 | 29 | 25 | 15 | 32 | 56 | 38 | 42 | 64 | 41 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 6 | 6 | 10 | 4 | 10 | 11 | 15 | 13 | 18 | 19 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 1 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 2 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| [Health Economics and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/health-economics-and-policy.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| All categories | 45 | 43 | 44 | 29 | 47 | 76 | 71 | 67 | 100 | 67 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [The International Journal of Management Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/the-international-journal-of-management-education.md) | 57 |
| 2 | [Computers and Education Artificial Intelligence](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/computers-and-education-artificial-intelligence.md) | 44 |
| 3 | [International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-educational-technology-in-higher-education.md) | 36 |
| 4 | [Journal of Computing in Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-computing-in-higher-education.md) | 21 |
| 5 | [The Internet and Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/the-internet-and-higher-education.md) | 17 |
| 6 | [Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/higher-education.md) | 14 |
| 7 | [Studies In Educational Evaluation](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/studies-in-educational-evaluation.md) | 13 |
| 8 | [Innovative Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/innovative-higher-education.md) | 12 |
| 9 | [International Journal of Educational Development](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-educational-development.md) | 11 |
| 10 | [Research in Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/research-in-higher-education.md) | 10 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Hong Kong Polytechnic University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/hong-kong-polytechnic-university.md) | 8 |
| 2 | [Education University of Hong Kong](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/education-university-of-hong-kong.md) | 7 |
| 3 | [Chinese University of Hong Kong](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/chinese-university-of-hong-kong.md) | 6 |
| 4 | [Beijing Normal University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/beijing-normal-university.md) | 5 |
| 5 | [Central China Normal University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/central-china-normal-university.md) | 5 |
| 6 | [University of Hong Kong](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-hong-kong.md) | 5 |
| 7 | Hong Kong Metropolitan University | 4 |
| 8 | [North Carolina State University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/north-carolina-state-university.md) | 4 |
| 9 | [Texas A&M University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/texas-a-m-university.md) | 4 |
| 10 | [The University of Texas at Austin](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/the-university-of-texas-at-austin.md) | 4 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | United States | 71 |
| 2 | China | 53 |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 28 |
| 4 | Australia | 24 |
| 5 | Hong Kong | 23 |
| 6 | Spain | 21 |
| 7 | Canada | 19 |
| 8 | India | 14 |
| 9 | Germany | 13 |
| 10 | Netherlands | 11 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [online learning](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/online-learning.md) | 37 |
| 2 | [academic performance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/academic-performance.md) | 33 |
| 3 | student motivation | 31 |
| 4 | [higher education](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/higher-education.md) | 27 |
| 5 | learning outcomes | 22 |
| 6 | student self-regulation | 22 |
| 7 | [university students](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/university-students.md) | 21 |
| 8 | gamification | 17 |
| 9 | virtual learning environments | 17 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,452 | 12.5 | [Gamifying education: what is known, what is believed and what remains uncertain: a critical review](https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-017-0042-5) | [International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-educational-technology-in-higher-education.md) | 2017-02-20 | Christo Dichev, Darina Dicheva |
| 2 | 1,089 | 13.4 | [Mapping research in student engagement and educational technology in higher education: a systematic evidence map](https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-019-0176-8) | [International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-educational-technology-in-higher-education.md) | 2020-01-21 | Melissa Bond, Katja Buntins, Svenja Bedenlier et al. |
| 3 | 963 | 9.3 | [Online learning in higher education: exploring advantages and disadvantages for engagement](https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-018-9179-z) | [Journal of Computing in Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-computing-in-higher-education.md) | 2018-04-02 | Amber D. Dumford, Angie L. Miller |
| 4 | 607 | 6.0 | [Online learning: Adoption, continuance, and learning outcome—A review of literature](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.05.005) | [International Journal of Information Management](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-information-management.md) | 2018-05-29 | Ritanjali Panigrahi, Praveen Ranjan Srivastava, Dheeraj Sharma |
| 5 | 566 | 9.3 | [Adaptive e-learning environment based on learning styles and its impact on development students' engagement](https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-021-00289-4) | [International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-educational-technology-in-higher-education.md) | 2021-09-30 | Hassan A. El-Sabagh |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “student engagement”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/student-engagement

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-student-engagement,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “student engagement”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/student-engagement}},
  urldate = {2026-11-03},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).