Metaverse in Education: Current Status, Challenges and Future Insights (King Abdulaziz University Model)

The study aimed to identify the current status of using metaverse in education and the main opportunities and challenges of using metaverse, as well as highlight the trends of future directions for research and innovation in metaverse technologies in education. To achieve this, the study followed the descriptive approach by surveying the opinions of the study sample, which consisted of 185 faculty members at King Abdul Aziz University, where a questionnaire was prepared for data collection and analysis. The results revealed that a high percentage of 65.4% of participants have knowledge of the metaverse and desire to use it in education, whereas 34.1% of participants have no knowledge and desire to use the metaverse in education. Additionally, 94.8% of the study sample agreed that there are opportunities for the use of metaverse in education. Also, the result revealed that 82.8% of the study sample agreed that there are challenges that hinder the use of metaverse in education. In light of these results, a number of recommendations and proposals were presented, most notably the need to create infrastructure and draw strategies for educational metaverse environments. Furthermore, it is recommended that we take advantage of the opportunities and possibilities for the use of metaverses as well as overcome the challenges that hinder the use of metaverses in education.