Self-regulated learning has been the subject of scientific discourse in the last two decades, exceptional theoretical and conceptual developments have occurred (Boekaerts et al., 2000; Zimmerman & Schunk, 2011). In general, self-regulated learning can be described as a learning process that is composed of cognitive strategies, motivation, and metacognition and based on the independence and responsibility of each student over their own way of learning (Carneiro et al., 2011). Self-regulated learning is a cyclical process divided into three main phases, which include the preparatory phase, the performance phase, and the reflective phase (Zimmerman, 2000). Within these phases, specific processes such as selection, strategic planning, time management, and more take place, which shape the overall approach to learning (Panadero, 2017).

Students’ ability to regulate their own learning is particularly important in the context of online learning and online educational systems. The main reason is the lower teacher presence and therefore higher demands on the students’ autonomy and their ability to study actively and independently, or in other words, to regulate their own learning (Wong et al., 2019). This explains why it is important to study learning materials from which the students learn within an online educational system. The form and the content of the learning materials can enhance or hinder self-regulation and the above-mentioned metacognitive processes and thus lead to better or worse learning outcomes.

One way to study students’ learning from different types of learning materials is to focus on the learning strategies, which they employ while learning from presented materials. These learning strategies are reflected in where and in what sequence the student is looking. Thus, students’ gaze can be recorded using an eye-tracking device, which can provide us with rich information about different learning strategies employed while studying from various types of learning materials (Alemdag & Cagiltay, 2018). Analysis of eye movements while learning from different types of learning materials can bring new information to self-regulated learning research.

The goal of this paper is to present the results of an integrative review in which we analysed and summarized empirical studies that were focused on an analysis of university students’ eye movements to study their metacognitive processes and self-regulation while learning from multimedia learning materials.

This paper presents an integrative review of selected empirical studies that focus on the use of eye-tracking technology to study self-regulated learning from multimedia materials among university students. The Web of Science, Scopus, and Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) were the main databases used to collect the empirical studies for the presented review. The search query contained keywords such as self-regulation, self-regulated learning, eye-tracking, eye movement, gaze tracking, learning materials, multimedia, and others. All the included research papers were selected from the above-mentioned databases based on the following criteria: study objectives, methodology, research approach used in the study, and study results and conclusions. Only studies published in peer-reviewed journals were included in the review. Moreover, only studies with the year of publishing not exceeding 10 years (i.e., from 2011 to 2021) were included.

This paper will provide an integrative review of current trends in eye tracking research in the domain of self-regulated learning from multimedia learning materials. In particular, the presented results of the review will focus on 1) which meta-cognitive and self-regulatory processes in learning from multimedia materials are studied, 2) which eye movement measures are used to provide inference about the meta-cognitive and self-regulatory processes, and 3) what are the main findings of the available studies dealing with university students’ self-regulation during learning from different types of multimedia materials. Moreover, existing gaps in the current research literature and implications of research findings on self-regulated learning from multimedia materials will be presented to offer suggestions for future research and practices.

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