## 4 Results  
In the reporting phase, a variety of findings were derived from the extracted data. To facilitate the discussion on DML with SVREs in open and distant education, we compiled the data and reported on the analysis of the included studies to tackle the formulated RQs. RQ1: Which Aspects of DML Have been Studied in the Context of Distance Higher Education with the Use of SVREs? The detailed results are presented in Document S1. The relevant studies were classified as fields of higher education according to the Joint Academic Coding System [65]. The main subject areas under research, as can be seen in Figure 2, were business and economics (\(n=5\)) [66; 67], computer science (\(n=5\)) [68; 69], education (\(n=5\)) [70; 71], languages (\(n=5\)) [72; 73], science (\(n=3\)) [74], and health and medical education (\(n=3\)) [75]. Additionally, a chronological publication diagram of these scientific subjects appears in Figure 3.  
A peak exists in the period 2010-2013 with twenty-one studies, with notable gaps (with no published studies), for instance, during early years (2006-2008). In terms of the studied DML domains, twenty-nine studies focused on the cognitive domain, twenty-eight on the affective domain, and eighteen on the social domain. The most common research design (\(n=15\)) was a cognitive and affective domain combination [70; 72; 73; 74; 75; 76; 77; 78; 79; 80; 81; 82; 83; 84]. These studies researched the effect of SVREs on student learning and also recorded aspects of the learners' emotional states and perceptions. Nine studies researched all three DML dimensions (cognitive, social, and affective) [66; 68; 69; 85; 86; 87; 88; 89], while five studies focused on social-cognitive [71; 90; 91; 92; 93] aspects, and only four studies researched and reported on \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l} \hline \hline
**Degree of DML Support** & **Evidence** \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{High} & Explicit reporting of DML and related aspects (e.g., deeper understanding, skills application, creativity, and critical thinking); positive reported results in all three DML domains (cognitive, social, and affective) \\  & Positive reported results in two DML domains (aggregated) \\ \cline{1-1}  & Positive reported results in one DML domain (aggregated) \\ \cline{1-1}  & None & No positive reported results—not applicable \\ \cline{1-1}  & Negative reported results (aggregated) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Deep and meaningful learning (DML) support rubric. social-affective outcomes [26; 94; 95; 96]. A tabular representation of those studies in the time limits we included in our study is illustrated in Table 4.  
Regarding the studied learning outcomes, most articles in the cognitive domain focused on cognitive knowledge (\(n=15\)) [74; 78], while a significant minority studied procedural knowledge (PK) (\(n=8\)) [77; 83]. The majority of studies with an affective focus researched perceptions (PERC) (\(n=25\)) [79; 80; 88], with motivation (MOT) (\(n=5\)) [72; 81] being the second most studied construct. In the social domain, the qualities and char \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Domains** & **2005** & **2009** & **2010** & **2011** & **2012** & **2013** & **2014** & **2015** & **2016** & **2017** & **2018** & **Total** \\ \hline Cognitive–Affective & & & 3 & 1 & 4 & 3 & & 1 & 1 & 2 & & 15 \\ Cognitive, Social, Affective & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & & 9 \\ Social–Cognitive & & & 3 & 1 & 1 & & & & & & 5 \\ Social–Affective & & 1 & & & 1 & 1 & & & & 1 & 4 \\ Total (Year) & 1 & 2 & 7 & 3 & 6 & 5 & 2 & 2 & 2 & 1 & 33 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 4: Studied domains (affective, cognitive, and social) across time. Figure 3: Chronological publication trend from 2005 to 2018. Figure 2: A summary of scientific subjects in distance higher education. acteristics of collaboration (COLL) (\(n=7\)) [89; 92; 93] along with social presence (SPRES) (\(n=6\)) [87; 95; 96] and connectedness (CONN) (\(n=3\)) [71] were the primary studied outcomes [6].