Technologies for teaching during a pandemic

Systematic literature review: The adaptation of distance learning process during the COVID-19 pandemic using virtual educational spaces in metaverse

Virtual education has started to grab interest since technology emerges in everything in our life. Metaverse is one of the technologies that has been conceived since the late 90s and is currently being renewed and renovated to suit current changes. Yet, many teachers and students still do not know how to utilize Metaverse to create a new atmosphere in the learning process. Therefore, this study aims to show the results of using Metaverse in the form of virtual space in the educational field and how teachers and students respond to the process. In this study, the authors would like to conduct a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) on the advantages and disadvantages of virtual educational spaces in Metaverse based on many previous studies related to this topic. Survey results conducted by previous studies show that students mostly enjoy using Metaverse as their learning method and can comprehend several lessons better when using Metaverse than traditional learning- textbook-based and face-to-face learning. Unfortunately, only several studies focus on finding preferred subjects to teach using the Metaverse and for which educational level this method suits best. In general, the authors conclude that Metaverse has excellent potential in the future to be explored profoundly in the education field due to the development of skills in the use of technology and a significant increase in student practice scores. However, the guidance of teachers and parents is still needed so that students can avoid the disadvantages.

Chasing Metaverses: Reflecting on Existing Literature to Understand the Business Value of Metaverses

Metaverses refer to immersive virtual worlds in which people, places, and things of the physical world are represented by their digital representations. The wide adoption of metaverses is expected to widely disrupt the way we interact in the virtual world by elevating our online interactive experiences and bringing a plethora of implications for businesses. Following a structured literature review of related research published in the last decade, we shed light on our current understanding of metaverses and reflect on the potentially transformative value of metaverses for businesses in the near future. We draw on an established research framework to organize the insights of existing literature across different levels of analysis and activities' purpose. Through this analysis, we reveal eight propositions on the changes brought by the use of metaverses and identify a number of open questions which could serve as future research avenues.

Assessment of Virtual Peer Learning by Peer Feedback: A Pilot Project

Introduction Virtual learning has become the preferred modality for health education during and after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Peer learning is gaining a lot of significance lately and has been successfully tested in various settings. We combined virtual delivery of health education with peer-assisted learning and evaluated the effectiveness using peer-generated feedback and tested the effectiveness of the model for different cohorts. Methods We performed this study as part of a formal educational course on Health Professions Education. The educators were volunteers from different informal multi-disciplinary groups, working in varied healthcare settings, globally. This involved eight teaching sessions which were delivered virtually and the feedback was recorded as responses to six items (questions), which the learners graded on the Likert scale. The average for each item and the larger domains was then calculated and analyzed.  Results The feedback was provided by all the participants (53/53). In the feedback received item-wise, the best average rating was for legibility of the slides (4.8). The least rating was for adequate checking and assessment of prior knowledge (4.2). In terms of the broader domains, the best feedback was for the teaching material (4.6) and the lowest was for the planning of the sessions (4.4). Overall, the ratings for the domains and the items were above 3 on a scale of 1-5. Conclusions Virtual delivery of healthcare education, facilitated by peer-assisted learning, is an effective model for health education when delivered for a small group, as evidenced by the overall peer feedback. This model can be tested for larger cohorts in the future.