Towards Effective Collaborative Learning in Edu-Metaverse: A Study on Learners’ Anxiety, Perception, and Behaviour

In the evolving landscape of educational technology, EduMetaverse presents a unique technological platform for collaborative learning (CL), which can be especially useful in distance learning settings. Researchers have taken a keen interest in the potential of Edu-Metaverse for enabling and improving CL; however, the effects of various factors on CL behaviours and performance still need to be fully understood. This study used a within-subjects design involving 32 participants (16 females and 16 males) to investigate how learners’ attributes and environmental attributes affect CL in Edu-Metaverse. The participants were randomly assigned to groups of four for a CL session in Edu-Metaverse. The confirmatory factor analysis revealed that various behavioural metrics in Edu-Metaverse mediated the effects of trait anxiety and virtual space satisfaction on CL performance; perceived understanding of messages, under the umbrella of social presence, also had a direct effect on CL performance. These insights underscore the importance of optimising interactive, perceptual, and social components to make CL more effective in Edu-Metaverse.