Students’ social, cognitive, and affective experiences in immersive learning modules (MetaLabs): two descriptive cases in higher education

Extended Reality (XR) technologies offer innovative learning experiences, yet their curricular integration remains challenging due to limited structured frameworks. The MetaLab framework addresses this gap, offering a psycho-pedagogical approach for designing XR-based learning modules (MetaLabs). This study presents the first application of this framework, adopting an exploratory case study design to describe students’ experiences across two MetaLabs conducted within an authentic university course on “Virtual Reality Techniques and Metaverse for Well-Being”. Twenty-seven students enrolled in the course participated and completed post-experience self-report questionnaires assessing social presence, extraneous cognitive load, concentration, and epistemic emotions. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, overlap indices, and individual trend visualizations to capture both group-level patterns and individual variability. Results showed moderate-to-high social presence, low extraneous cognitive load, and strong concentration across both MetaLabs, as well as a predominance of positive emotions like curiosity and enjoyment over negative emotions such as frustration and confusion. These findings suggest that MetaLabs can support socially engaging, cognitively manageable, and emotionally positive XR learning experiences. However, individual variability underscores the need for adaptable XR designs to address diverse learner needs. Future research should explore the long-term impact of MetaLabs and their scalability across educational contexts.