The impact of metaverse use on media college students’ understanding and recalling of cultural content: a quasi-experimental study

Despite the growing interest in studying metaverse in educational and media contexts, the experimental studies that measure its impact on understanding and recalling cultural content are still limited. Therefore, this study aims to examine changes in media students’ understanding and recalling of cultural content following participation in a metaverse-based learning experience, in light of the rapid digital transformations that have imposed new types of immersive and interactive learning environments. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design based on two non-random groups, with the application of a pre-test and a post-test on a sample consisting of one hundred and forty-two students from the media students. The same cultural content was presented to the participants through the Metaverse environment, while the means of accessing it differed between a group that used virtual reality (VR) headset and a group that used a mobile phone. The differences were also studied in light of the gender variable. The achievement test consisted of nine content-related items; five items were allocated to measure recalling, and four items to measure understanding. To analyze the data, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare the pre- and post-tests, and the Mann–Whitney test to compare independent groups, along with gain score analysis and covariance analysis to adjust for pre-test differences, with effect sizes being calculated. The results showed a statistically significant improvement between the pre- and post-tests in both recalling and understanding, with large effect sizes that warrant careful interpretation. Furthermore, the post-test scores and achievement scores were higher for the virtual reality group compared to the mobile phone group, and this difference remained significant even after adjusting for pre-test performance. The gender variable had no effect on recalling, while a difference in understanding was observed, favoring the female students. The study recommends employing metaverse environments in teaching cultural and media content and conducting follow-up studies on larger samples and other learning variables.