Leadership in online education involves strategically managing digital learning environments to ensure effective instruction and engagement. This research aims to identify the publication trends and highlight trending research topics and scientific conversations in this field of leadership in online education. Using 947 records from the Scopus database, the evolution of leadership discourse in online education was examined using scientometric analysis to find the trends, most influential authors, institutions, publishing platforms, and countries. The extracted data spanned publications from 1981 to 2023. The trending topics evolved from knowledge management and school administration to e-learning and higher learning, and, after 2020, to challenges faced in imparting education due to COVID-19. The United States, China, and the United Kingdom emerged as leading contributors to this field. Co-authorship analysis highlighted international collaborations, which emphasised the growing global interest in leadership within virtual learning environments. These research findings could be helpful for researchers and managers in the field of education for adapting to the digital age.