Abstract:

A virtual learning environment (VLE), such as Metaverse, can reduce students’ feelings of isolation. It allows many learners to access it simultaneously and students to feel the social presence of other students. Participants can communicate with each other or pass each other without speaking. It may be possible to compensate for the emotional and social engagement missing in online classes.

This pilot study investigated students' social and emotional engagement in a Metaverse class. Twenty-three students participated, and seventeen completed a survey on engagement, communication, and the Metaverse’s usefulness. First, a virtual campus was built within the Metaverse platform centered on a university's symbolic auditorium, designated as an important cultural property of Japan. All avatars were designed as robots to eliminate the influence of gender and race. Next, a Metaverse class titled "From Online Classes to Virtual Classes" was conducted in the virtual auditorium. Participants were working students taking online degree courses and were informed that participation in virtual classes was optional and had no bearing on obtaining credits. After the virtual class, participants were asked to anonymously answer a questionnaire comprising ten items regarding engagement, two regarding usability, and three regarding usefulness. The questionnaire was responded to using a four-level Likert scale, and one of the following options was chosen: agree, somewhat agree, not really agree, or disagree. A Fisher's exact test was conducted with "agree" and "somewhat agree" as positive answers and "not really agree" and "disagree" as negative answers, and the following points were obtained.

As a result, student engagement in a metaverse class was increased. Regarding the ten items related to engagement, nine items had significantly more positive responses: "Getting to know others gave me a sense of belonging to the university community," "I was able to express my opinions freely," "Having discussions made me feel closer to others," "Getting to know others gave me a sense of participating in the event," "I became interested in the content of the lecture," "Listening to the lecture was fun," "Having discussions was fun," "I became interested in the content of the discussion," and "I participated in the discussion of my own volition." These results suggest that classes in the metaverse have the potential to improve engagement. On the other hand, there was no significant difference in the item "I was able to form an impression of each of the other participants." The reason might be that everyone used the same robot avatar. In addition, students felt that the Metaverse was a useful learning environment for communication and discussion. Regarding usefulness, there were significantly more positive responses to the three items: "The VRE is useful for communication," "The VR environment is useful for discussion," and "The VRE is useful for classes." While Some issues were found regarding operability, there was no significant difference between positive and negative responses for both the items: "Operation in the VRE was easy" and "Self-expression in the VRE was easy." It was revealed that improvement was required for operation in 3D space and self-expression using an avatar.

Keywords:

Metaverse, engagement, social, emotional, Virtual Learning Environment.