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Strategies and
Opportunities for
Technology in the
Metaverse World
P.C. Lai
University of Malaya, Malaysia
A volume in the Advances in Web Technologies
and Engineering (AWTE) Book Series
Published in the United States of America by
IGI Global
Engineering Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global)
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For electronic access to this publication, please contact: eresources@igi-global.com.
Names: Lai, P. C., 1974- editor.
Title: Strategies and opportunities for technology in the metaverse world /
P.C. Lai, editor.
Description: Hershey, PA : Engineering Science Reference, [2022] | Includes
bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “The rise of metaverse
technologies with social impact will value add to the ecosystem and this
book explores the opportunities and challenges of metaverse enterprises
and outlines possible avenues for the growth of this sector”-- Provided
by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022034136 (print) | LCCN 2022034137 (ebook) | ISBN
9781668457320 (h/c) | ISBN 9781668457337 (s/c) | ISBN 9781668457344
(eISBN)
Subjects: LCSH: Metaverse--Social aspects. | Metaverse--Economic aspects. |
Internet in education.
Classification: LCC QA76.9.M47 S77 2022 (print) | LCC QA76.9.M47 (ebook)
| DDC 005.4/35--dc23/eng/20220825
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022034136
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022034137
This book is published in the IGI Global book series Advances in Web Technologies and Engineering (AWTE) (ISSN:
2328-2762; eISSN: 2328-2754)
Table of Contents
Preface .................................................................................................................................................. xv
Acknowledgment ................................................................................................................................xxi
Chapter 1
Analysis of Metaverse Technology: Is It Real or Virtual? ...................................................................... 1
Ersin Caglar, European University of Lefke, Turkey
Chapter 2
Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain Technology in the 4.0 IR Metaverse Era: Implications,
Opportunities, and Future Directions .................................................................................................... 13
Mohammad Rashed Hasan Polas, Sonargaon University, Bangladesh
Bulbul Ahamed, Sonargaon University, Bangladesh
Md. Masud Rana, Sonargaon University, Bangladesh
Chapter 3
Exploring the Incredible Potential and Opportunity of the Metaverse World ...................................... 34
Mitali Chugh, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India
Sonali Vyas, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India
Chapter 4
The Fourth Illusion: How a New Economy of Consumption Is Being Created in the Metaverse ........ 48
Alexandre Ruco, Institute of Accounting and Administration, Institute Politecnico de
Coimbra, Portugal
Chapter 5
User Acceptance Towards Non-Fungible Token (NFT) as the FinTech for Investment
Management in the Metaverse ..............................................................................................................59
Ree Chan Ho, Taylor’s University, Malaysia
Bee Lian Song, Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation, Malaysia
Chapter 6
Metaverse in Investment Using Sentiment Analysis and Machine Learning ........................................ 78
Eik Den Yeoh, HELP University, Malaysia
Tinfah Chung, HELP University, Malaysia
Yuyang Wang, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Chapter 7
Wonders of the World: Metaverse for Education Delivery .................................................................114
Siti Azreena Binti Mubin, Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation, Malaysia
Vinesh Thiruchelvam, Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation, Malaysia
Chapter 8
Research on Improving the Quality of Talent Training in Higher Vocational Colleges in China ......130
Fengmei Liu, Guangdong Polytechnic of Science and Technology, China & Universiti Tun
Abdul Razak, Malaysia
P. C. Lai, Universiti Tun Abdul Razak, Malaysia
Chapter 9
A Delphi Study on Metaverse Campus Social Perspectives ...............................................................144
Glaret Shirley Sinnappan, Tungku Abdul Rahman University College, Malaysia
Liang Han Tay, Tungku Abdul Rahman University College, Malaysia
Chapter 10
Research on College Students’ Purchasing Using Webcast Platform ................................................. 166
WeiXiang Pan, Universiti Tun Abdul Razak, Malaysia
P. C. Lai, Universiti Tun Abdul Razak, Malaysia
Chapter 11
Classroom Interaction and Second Language Acquisition in the Metaverse World ........................... 186
Han Wang, Universiti Tun Abdul Razak, Malaysia
P. C. Lai, Universiti Tun Abdul Razak, Malaysia
Chapter 12
Adoption of Metaverse in South East Asia: Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia .......................................196
Hock Leong Chan Julian, HELP University, Malaysia
Tinfah Chung, HELP University, Malaysia
Yuyang Wang, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Chapter 13
Metaverse or Not Metaverse: A Content Analysis of Turkish Scholars’ Approaches to Edufication
in the Metaverse .................................................................................................................................. 235
Hatice Büber Kaya, Kırklareli University, Turkey
Tuğba Mutlu, Yozgat Bozok University, Turkey
Chapter 14
Effects of Digital Technologies on Academic Performance of Nigerian Adolescents ....................... 247
Desmond Onyemechi Okocha, Bingham University, Nigeria
Julson Nimat James, Bingham University, Nigeria
Terhile Agaku, Bingham University, Nigeria
Chapter 15
A Hybrid SEM-ANN Approach for Intention to Adopt Metaverse Using C-TAM-TPB and IDT in
China ...................................................................................................................................................263
Yuyang Wang, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Tinfah Chung, HELP University, Malaysia
Eik Den Yeoh, HELP University, Malaysia
Chapter 16
Customer E-Satisfaction Towards Online Grocery Sites in the Metaverse World .............................. 294
Mohamed Salman Faiz B. Mohamed Jahir Hussain, Sunway University, Malaysia
Evelyn Toh Bee Hwa, Sunway University, Malaysia
Chapter 17
The Role of Legal Governance Framework in the Metaverse World .................................................. 321
Chin Chin Sia, Taylor’s University, Malaysia
Compilation of References ............................................................................................................... 331
About the Contributors .................................................................................................................... 383
Index ................................................................................................................................................... 388
235
Copyright © 2023, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
Chapter 13
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5732-0.ch013
ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how Turkish educational researchers used the Metaverse concept during the
Covid-19 pandemic. A thorough examination of the term metaverse is conducted from its emergence,
evolution, past and current usage within the academic circles, along with the terms edufication and gami-
fication. Document analysis method is chosen to do a systematic literature review on academic journals.
Search was conducted with added keywords to the Metaverse within the literature in Turkish and English.
Although the term is a relatively new entrant to the academic research, it is continuously evolving along
with the technological advancements its applications to the industry and social life; hence, the concept
and its usage will be a continuous subject of further research. The result of the analysis showed that
Turkish researchers mainly prefer ‘three-dimensional virtual world’ instead of the term Metaverse, and
the ones found to use Metaverse mainly misuse the term out of its internationally accepted definition.
INTRODUCTION
The term metaverse was first mentioned and described in the novel published in 1992 “Snow Crash” by
Neal Stephonson as a three-dimensional (3D) virtual world (VW) where people existed and interacted
with each other as avatars (Joshua, 2017). Since then, many virtual worlds like CitySpace, Active Worlds,
SecondLife and Roblox were created (Dionisio et al., 2013). Before October 2021 announcement of the
founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, the novel and the movie based on the novel “Ready Player One”
Metaverse or Not Metaverse:
A Content Analysis of Turkish
Scholars’ Approaches to
Education in the Metaverse
Hatice Büber Kaya
Kırklareli University, Turkey
Tuğba Mutlu
Yozgat Bozok University, Turkey
236
Metaverse or Not Metaverse
made great contribution to make the term concrete in people’s brains (Sparkes, 2021). In fall of 2020,
‘Omniverse’ was introduced by Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA as future of the internet (NVIDIA,
2021)and the Roblox company went public with the first metaverse Initial Public Opening (IPO) (Roblox
Corporation, 2020). Finally, but not last, in October 2021 Facebook attracted the crowds’ attention on
the term by renaming itself Meta, while emphasizing that the new era will be under the umbrella term
metaverse, and Meta is intended to be the Player One among the other giant technology companies that
already informed to have been investing in the Metaverse. Before long, South Korea announced that the
City Seoul joined metaverse and some universities mentioned that they are working on their Metaverse
campus (Albawaba, 2021). Thenceforward, the studies dated before October 2021 on metaverse, which
were only a few to be named, became popular like never before and new studies have been produced in
an enormous speed all over the world (Damar, 2021; Narin, 2021).
Covid-19 pandemic has been (and looks like it will continue to be) a universal problem and with
regards to education in the pandemic environment, and many countries addressed this problem almost
in the same way. They all have switched to distance education rapidly, regardless of to what extent and
in what sense their communities were prepared for such a drastic change. While distance education in-
evitably became the new normal globally, issues and advancements about metaverse and the possibilities
it may bring to the education became very popular not only in the society but also in in the academic
community globally. Turkish researchers have a considerable amount of research on the education in
the Metaverse to deliver a gameful experience to users. Therefore, from what perspective scholars who
grew up within Turkish culture have taken this topic worth addressing academically. In this chapter, we
will cover how the term metaverse is used, by investigating content of the articles published by Turkish
scholars on Metaverse with regards to edufication during the Covid-19 pandemic.
BACKGROUND
Metaverse
The Metaverse is a hard to define and a complex concept. The term has extended way beyond Stephenson’s
1992 3D virtual world, by encapsulating physical word ‘things’ that interact with virtual environments.
In the 2007 report of the Acceleration Studies Foundation’s (ASF) project named MetaVerse Roadmap
(MVR) (Smart et al., 2007), the term’s definition was given a good starting point: “The Metaverse is
the convergence of 1) virtually-enhanced physical reality and 2) physically persistent virtual space. It
is a fusion of both, while allowing users to experience it as either.”(p.4).
Gamification and Edufication
Nick Pelling was the first one that mentioned gamification in 2002, however the term was brought to
the literature by Marczewski in 2010 as “The application of gaming metaphors to real life tasks to influ-
ence behavior, improve motivation and enhance engagement.” (Marczewski, 2013, p. 4). Gamification
is simply applying fun factor of games to any tasks including education while edufication is built up
via analogy with education, defined as enriching a non-educational game with educational experiences
(Becker & Parker, 2014; Hans Hwang, 2017; Oranje et al., 2019).
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Metaverse or Not Metaverse
Regarding the Metaverse, it is a space that is not specific to education just like the real world, there
are educational aspects in it with numerous other aspects. The education experts want to take place in
this era as soon as possible while taking advantage of game-factor not by adding games on top of their
educational experience but adding educational experiences into the Metaverse. Therefore ‘edufication’
seems to meet the intended meaning more than ‘gamification’.
Problems of the Meaning of Metaverse
While the term metaverse has already been misused as a synonym of VWs; which are including but
not limited to the above-mentioned VWs (Park & Kim, 2022), it is not only more than one VW but an
embracing term that includes all those VWs, VR and AR technologies and more as a container. Hence,
the key feature of the Metaverse is building a web of interconnected multiuser platforms that allow us-
ers to interact both in real-life and immersive virtual environments at the same time with real-time and
dynamic communication (Mystakidis, 2022). Inevitably, each application plays an important role on
both building the Metaverse and embodying its possibilities (Suzuki et al., 2020).
Converting independent VWs into an integrated verse has its own challenges for each research area.
Complex issues like ethical problems, fintech infrastructure of it, legal regulations, and more are being
and to be discussed in every aspect. Educational researchers have their own discussions as well. Ac-
cording to Dionisio (2013) it has four aspects to be considered: realism, ubiquity, interoperability, and
scalability. These multiple-user platforms need to allow learners to use their own avatar through multiple
technological devices to make their interaction more sensible and realistic while the objects are transitive
between real-world and multiple VWs. Therefore, the learners will feel almost in an additional dimen-
sion of real-life, not in a virtual one.
Regarding the education technology, the Metaverse opens up an almost unlimited number of possibili-
ties adding edutaintment’s advantages on top of it. Similarly, to the term itself, using the term metaverse
in edufication was stuck around SecondLife in earlier studies (Kemp & Livingstone, 2006; Park & Kim,
2022). On the contrary, it is now used as a substitution of almost every technology (AR, VR, VW etc.)
used in education. Due to wide scope of the Metaverse, all those technologies take part in it however
none of them is enough on its own, moreover it is not essential to use AR or VR to make a metaverse
application (Kemp & Livingstone, 2006).
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY FOR THIS STUDY
Research Questions
In conducting this research, the following questions were used to guide the systematic analysis of the
literature.
1. How Turkish educational researchers used metaverse concept during the Covid-19 pandemic?
2. Is the term Metaverse being misused by Turkish educational researchers as specified within the
international literature?
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Metaverse or Not Metaverse
Literature Search and Evaluation
Materials and Procedure
In order to obtain an insight about the Turkish scholar’s point of view about the term ‘Metaverse’, it was
decided to make a systematic literature review by using document analysis method which is a procedure
for both data collection and analysis. Document analysis method involves collecting the data from the
documents and evaluating them systematically. The method uses interrelated stages to be followed for
raising the data to a conceptual level in order to find an answer in scientific research (Corbin & Strauss,
2008; Lune & Berg, 2017). In this case the data is not a raw data but a list of documents that meet the
criteria of this research, documents to be appraised from a specific point of view within a specific period
of time.
Inclusion Criterion
To be able to obtain more concise view of the Turkish educational researchers’ perception of the term, it
was decided to base this research on academic journals. It may seem as excluding those other valuable
researches; like theses, conference proceedings, books and book chapters, but keeping an intensive focus
on the most current research as they often considered to be.
Time period
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic
of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
(SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified from an outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December
2019. (Wikipedia, n.d.)
On January 30, 2020; The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 as a Public Health
Emergency of International Concern and pandemic on March 11, 2020 (World Health Organization,
n.d.). As of April 2022, the world is in the third year of pandemic and according to the WHO’s statement
dated on March 11, 2022; the pandemic is not over yet (Rocel Ann Junio, 2022).
The Covid-19 pandemic radically changed our lives in all manners: socially, psychologically, and
economically. While the world has been expecting educational technologies and gamification to be
the remedy for the limitations of both traditional education methods and distance learning within two-
dimensional web; the pandemic threw all word in distance learning environments without examining who
is ready for it. After the first surprise, scholars had turned their eyes to metaverse and its possibilities to
see how it may be used to make distance learning more realistic, to be able to increase its effectiveness
and accessibility. Moreover, Lee (2021), expressed that the increasing popularity of the Metaverse is
also caused by the lack of socialization of people due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Therefore, the main goal of this study was to analyze the research articles published by Turkish
researchers in the field of edufication to be able to explore how they use the term Metaverse in their
research during the Covid-19 pandemic period. Although the pandemic is not over yet, this study was
239
Metaverse or Not Metaverse
made in April 2022 and therefore, the research articles that were published between March 2020 and
April 2022 was included in this research.
The Point of View
Throughout the history, adapting to a new situation was a challenge for people and finding solutions
to the problems faced on this way differs by culture. Matsumoto (2006) on the other hand, explains
how cultures were shaped at first, examining how the universal problems are being solved differently
by different groups of people, and then these solutions evolve to become the cultures of these groups
themselves. Although many different definitions might be found, a shared system of how people behave
when encountered with a universal problem, shapes the culture. Moreover, behavior of the individual
members of the group are also shaped by people’s ways of life and living conditions, which may not
always be their personal choice but depending on the group they were born in.
As it was mentioned earlier; the emergence of distance education and the Metaverse coming into the
spotlight occurred close to each other. Exactly similar to the case in the other parts of the world, Turkish
scholars got excited by the possibilities of the Metaverse’s in the field of education. Consequently, in this
research, content of the articles published by Turkish scholars on Metaverse with regards to edufication
was investigated and analyzed.
Literature Identification
To identify the literature, a literature search was made by using the following keywords to be added to
“metaverse” in both Turkish and English: “education”, “game”, “gamification”, “edutaintment”, “edu-
fication”, “game-based learning”, “educational games” in April 2022. TR Dizin, DergiPark and Tubitak
Harman databases were searched, using both English and Turkish keywords because these databases
only include the researches published in Turkey. Google Scholar web page was searched, using only
Turkish keywords and only in Turkish pages. The searches yielded a total of 531 results which were
given in Table 1. Search results.
240
Metaverse or Not Metaverse
After the duplicates and the non-journal articles that could not be filtered on Google Scholar search
were eliminated, 59 articles were identified.
The 59 articles’ titles, abstracts and keywords were read to identify which may be classified as
educational research. After carefully resolving of the manuscripts, computer science (3), sociology and
psychology (8), law (1), business (23), philosophy (3), e-sports (1), arts (5), and architecture (1) articles
were excluded; 15 articles were deemed relevant to educational research and their full-text were obtained
for quality assessment.
The full-text articles were skimmed for further assessment, four of the articles were excluded because
they were reviews of international research, included the education field however, they were not show-
ing the Turkish scholar’s point of view. One of the articles was excluded because, it was a social media
posts’ classification which included educational posts. Although the authors put ‘education’ in their
keywords list, it is only one of their classifications, it could not be classified as educational research as
a whole. Two of the articles were excluded because they were published in magazines instead of a peer
reviewed journal. The reason that these articles got to this stage is because the magazines were pub-
lished by universities in Turkey, and they were classified as a journal in google scholar database. After
Table 1. Search results
Keyword TR Dizin DergiPark Tubitak Harman Google Scholar
Metaverse 1 18 21 110
Metaverse + Education (Turkish Eğitim) 0 5 0 88
Metaverse + Education (English) 0 7 4 40
Metaverse + Learning (Turkish
Öğrenme) 0 0 0 39
Metaverse + Learning (English) 0 9 0 35
Metaverse + Gamification (Turkish
Oyunlaştırma) 0 0 0 5
Metaverse + Gamification (English) 0 1 0 2
Metaverse + Edutaintment (English) 0 0 0 0
Metaverse + Edufication (English) 0 0 0 0
Metaverse + Game+ Education (Turkish
oyun + eğitim) 0 1 0 65
Metaverse + Game + Learning (Turkish
Oyun + öğrenme) 0 0 0 32
Metaverse + Game+ Education
(English) 0 2 0 18
Metaverse + Game + Learning (English) 0 1 0 17
Metaverse + Game-based Learning
(English) 0 2 0 2
Metaverse + Educational Games
(Turkish Eğitsel oyunlar) 0 0 0 3
Metaverse + Educational Games
(English) 0 3 0 0
TOTAL 1 49 25 456
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Metaverse or Not Metaverse
the quality assessment stage had ended, 7 articles were deemed relevant to this research, and they were
examined deeply for coding. It is important to note that there was one article that the main discipline of
the research seems different than educational research, however it was classified as educational research
by both authors of this research only because it is about the perceptions of the students of their discipline
about the Metaverse era.
DATA EXTRACTION AND ANALYSIS
The following analysis consists mainly of coding, held in its most common description as analyzing raw
data and putting into a conceptual understanding. The act associated with the study is coding and concepts
created through this act are called codes. It should be emphasized clearly that coding is a thorough and
in-depth study that includes analysis of the data utilizing techniques i.e. questioning the data, comparing
and contrasting the data in order to be able to develop the concepts from the data (Corbin & Strauss,
2008). Coding can be described as mining of the data similar to a mineral mine where one needs to dig
deep into the ground to get the real value of the resources. The act of digging in the metaphor of data
versus mine can consist of reviewing transcribed fieldnotes and dividing and disassembling them while
taking their connections into account. The next stage of the analysis is set upon how the collected data
is differentiated and then combined based on its properties and dimensions (Miles & Huberman, 1994).
How the Metaverse was Defined in the Chosen Articles
The articles were examined in terms of the definitions they provided for the term Metaverse within
their concept and following codes were driven from the articles (7) to provide a projection of the term:
imitation of real world (2), synonym of Virtual World (3), 3D- AR and VR services (2), digital era (2),
and universe of many VWs (1). This section briefly introduces the definitions of the term Metaverse in
the full text of selected articles. The articles were presented chronologically.
The first article included in this research, which was published by Demirbağ (2020), used the term
Metaverse as an inspirational concept of 3D virtual worlds and defined as: ‘Interactive and multiuser
environments, where the real world is imitated with 3D VR technology’. This definition is consistent
with their inference from review of literature, that is the advancement of VWs was ruled by the develop-
ments in both sci-fi literature and game industry, and these advancements led the researchers to define
Metaverse – 3D VW as above mentioned since it is very similar to Stephenson’s definition.
Damar (2021) conducted a bibliometric study on Metaverse, and defined Metaverse as a 3D virtual
shared world. His definition depends on the AR and VR services and equipment, which are introduced
as essential peripherals of this technology. Although the definition seems to be quite narrow at first
glance, the article was concluded with the acceptance that the term is complex and will take many years
to develop and understand thoroughly.
Sağlık and Yıldız (2021), conducted a study on Web 2.0 tools in education. Although they use Meta-
verse and its components (VR, AR, VWs and so.) often in the study, they did not define Metaverse as a
part of their research. Therefore, this study was not included in the coding process.
Dursun and Yetimova (2022), stated that the Metaverse era and obligatory distance education period
during the pandemic, caused Turkish students’ perceptions about their future work to shift towards
digital business areas from the traditional ones. They used the Metaverse as a synonym to ‘internet of
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Metaverse or Not Metaverse
the World’ in the Industry 4.0 era. This definition seems vague since it might stand either for ‘a net of
Virtual Worlds’ or ‘a World similar to internet’. Apart from this vagueness, other meanings might have
been meant. The reason could be the translation problems, since Dursun and Yetimova’s article is written
in Turkish. It might have been translated not accurately while the international literature was synthesized.
The same situation appears also for Altan and Özmusul’s article (2022), in which the Metaverse term
was used as a synonym to Digital era, telecommunications era and artificial intelligence. In this article,
accompanying the previously mentioned situation, there might be a desire to use a new and popular
world in the article for SEO (search engine optimization) purposes.
Çelik (2022), stated in his article that the new fictional universes had drawn the digital era population
in with new communication technologies. The metaverse was defined as a VW in which all worlds are
gathered where all digital elements are combined, and hence a virtual living space was created. Çelik
also suggested that Web 3.0 technologies including AR and VR will be existed without intermediaries
on the metaverse-based digital environments. This definition seems to be the closest to the definition
that was given on MVR (Smart et al., 2007).
While Türk and Darı’s article (2022) is about sociology of communication, it was included into the
coding process of this research because Türk and Darı stated that socialization is shaped by educational
institutions along with other institutions. Educational institutions, unlike many other units of society,
subject individuals to the modern formation process by using the innovations in communication tools. In
this way, the experiences of the individual outside the educational institutions (i.e. to have fun, work, relax)
also pass through this formation filter. Moreover, they defined the Metaverse as a special 3D universe
where all the actions of socialization including but not limited to shopping, education, entertainment
and working, are carried out through special clothes and apparatus. Hence it is a new and developing
concept, as they suggested, its definition is being built day by day.
LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS
This research is limited with:
• The date of literature search 26.04.2022,
• The TR Dizin, DergiPark and Tubitak Harman ana Google Scholar web databases of search,
• The keywords that authors chose,
• The search result of 59 research in which 10 of them included in the study.
Possible future studies may include the theses, proceedings, and book chapters in the field for deeper
understanding.
CONCLUSION
The metaverse is considered as a new and complex concept containing all aspects of real life since it is
a hybrid reality in which people are expected to be confused about the boundaries between real life and
Metaverse. As a natural consequence of this situation, it offers almost endless possibilities of research in
all fields. This review article is conducted to throw a light to the misuse of Metaverse within the Turkish
243
Metaverse or Not Metaverse
educational academic literature, which seems to be affected from colloquial misuse of the term. With
the Covid-19 pandemic, people had to do practice many activities in the virtual environment i.e. social-
ization with friends, taking courses, attending concerts, working from home, having distant education,
most of which had to happen in two dimensions online. This obligatory situation made the Metaverse
concept in people’s heads more concrete than ever before and a spark went off for the new dimension of
the internet. The giant technology companies invested in this idea to support people to be a part of this
hybrid reality that allows them to switch between VWs easily. When this idea is brought to life, most of
the daily activities can be performed within itself.
To return to the research questions of this study, Turkish educational researchers mostly used meta-
verse concept during the Covid-19 pandemic as suggested in international research, synonymously with
virtual worlds and/or imitation of real world. Also, some of the researchers defined the components of
Metaverse (AR, VR etc.) instead of the term itself.
Although the journal articles were chosen because it was suggested as the most current research
indicator in international research (Alasuutari, 2010; Hargens, 2000), it was concluded that this is not
the case for edufication researchers in Turkey. While screening the first 531 research for inclusion, both
authors noted that edufication researchers in Turkey are more likely to share their research as books and
book chapters. This may be because edufication researchers produce publications on the interaction of
different disciplines, as Clemens et al. (1995) suggested “…Books generate conversations across sub-
fields and disciplines…”(Clemens et al., 1995, p. 433).
Regarding the edufication researchers, it is important to note that, Turkish edufication researchers
were observed to use the term “Three-dimensional virtual world” in Turkish instead of the term Meta-
verse, which explains the narrow search results.
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KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
Augmented Reality (AR): A computer-generated synchronous or asynchronous enhanced appear-
ance of real-life spaces with sounds, graphics.
Avatar: An image that was created by user electronically, it may be realistic or manipulated, depend-
ing on the user’s wishes.
Edufication: Enriching a non-educational game with educational experiences.
Gamification: Applying fun factor of the games into any real-life tasks to transfer advantage of
gameful experiences ie. motivation to engage.
Metaverse: A web of interconnected multiuser platforms that allow users to interact both in real-
life and immersive virtual environments at the same time with real-time and dynamic communication.
Three-dimensional Virtual World (3D VW): A three-dimensional digital space that represents a
world with some realistic or figmentive characteristics.
Virtual Reality (VR): An immersive hybrid reality that contains fictions and imagination which
was created using technology.
