Abstract:

The digital transformation in education has been accelerated with the new generations of students who are digital natives. Online learning has become an essential part of the learning experience, especially in higher education. Using the Metaverse in the educational context is gaining more strength because it allows the creation of 3D virtual spaces where students interact with others through avatars and frees education from limitations of time, space, and training. Moreover, it allows individual, asynchronous learning and self-directed that makes it attractive for students. Re-imaging the teaching-learning process by implementing virtual spaces for students to learn Science, Technology, and Engineering (STE) has been challenging for the professors. In this paper, a virtual lab built in the Metaverse is used to teach the Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) course at the Department of Industrial and System Engineering (ISE). This virtual space includes videos that explain how to create simulation models and several practices that enhance the use of DES through self-directed learning. We had a control group formed of 28 students with a traditional teaching-learning process and a group formed of 25 students where the virtual lab was implemented as the main teaching-learning tool. To measure the impact of this educational innovation, we use two evaluation instruments. The first instrument was an exam to evaluate the learning level through a comparative statistical analysis, where we used a Mann-Whitney test to compare the medians between groups. The second instrument was the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) which measures five dimensions: perceived usefulness (UP), perceived ease of use (FUP), perceived enjoyment (DP), attitude towards use (AU), and intention to use it (UI), using a 7-point Likert-type scale. Also, TAM evaluates three dimensions of the technical quality of the produced object: technical and aesthetic aspects, ease of use and program guide/tutorial, using a 6-point Likert-type scale. The results show two advantages of the virtual lab, one is that students accepted the use of a virtual lab to learn how to develop simulation models; besides that, it improves the student’s learning experiences.

Keywords:

Metaverse, Virtual Lab, Discrete-Event Simulation, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Higher Education, Innovation Education.