Digital Pedagogical Agents on L2 Learning Outcomes: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis

This open data package accompanies the meta-analysis titled “The Impact of Digital Pedagogical Agents on Second Language Acquisition Outcomes: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis Guided by Social Agency Theory.” It provides the complete coding sheet, analysis-ready dataset, reproducibility script, and documentation used to examine the effects of digital pedagogical agents on second language acquisition outcomes. The package synthesizes 112 effect sizes from 31 independent empirical studies published between 2002 and 2026. The analysis-ready dataset includes study-level and effect-level identifiers, Hedges’ g, sampling variance, standard errors, and coded moderator variables, including study design, publication type, cultural context, and learner group. The uploaded files include: DPA_SLA_data_package.xlsx: the complete Excel data package, including the analysis dataset, raw coding sheet, codebook, and validation sheet; DPA_SLA_analysis_dataset.csv: the analysis-ready dataset used for the three-level meta-analysis; DPA_SLA_analysis_script.R: the R script for reproducing the main effect model, moderator analyses, publication bias tests, sensitivity analyses, and forest plot; README.md: documentation describing the dataset structure, key variables, provenance, reproduction instructions, citation information, and license. The dataset was prepared to support transparency, reproducibility, and secondary analysis in research on digital pedagogical agents, second language acquisition, and educational technology. The data package is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). PROSPERO Registration: CRD420261286962.