Metaversity: Beyond Emerging Educational Technology

Abstract

The pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus forced the virtualization of educational processes worldwide, which has generated a series of challenges in terms of teaching quality due to the improvisation of its implementation. However, the emergence of the metaverse as a new social scenario has opened new opportunities to overcome the problems inherited by education during this pandemic. The main objective is to explore the use of the metaverse in universities through the new concept of the metaversity. A methodology based on the socio-critical paradigm was applied. The theoretical bases around the metaverse are presented, and it is linked to the current university educational ecosystem through the metaversity. The main characteristics and scope of the metaversity are identified as well as the gaps present for the creation of the new learning ecosystem based on virtuality. The incipient character of the implementation of the metaversity was evidenced, as well as its main potentialities. The virtualization of all processes associated with higher education, caused by pandemic education, makes the implementation of the metaversity feasible, and it should therefore be part of the future research agenda.