TY  - JOUR
T1  - Problem-based Learning in the Metaverse Environment: Evaluation of Virtual Reality Applications in Medical Education
AU  - Gencer, Gülcan
AU  - Şensoy, Nazlı
AU  - Gencer, Kerem
PY  - 2025
DA  - July
Y2  - 2025
DO  - 10.53850/joltida.1521626
JF  - Journal of Learning and Teaching in Digital Age
JO  - JOLTIDA
PB  - Mehmet Akif OCAK
WT  - DergiPark
SN  - 2458-8350
SP  - 109
EP  - 121
VL  - 10
IS  - 2
LA  - en
AB  - The metaverse is defined as an inevitable evolution of the internet and holds great potential as a new medium for social interaction. Its integration into educational environments has been increasingly recommended. This study aimed to explore a technology-supported solution for the challenges experienced in the problem-based learning (PBL) process used in medical faculties, taking into account the characteristics of the current digitally native generation. Twelve medical students who had previously received face-to-face PBL training participated in the study. They were asked to evaluate both virtual and face-to-face PBL sessions in terms of the educational facilitator, physical infrastructure, educational process, and scenario. Descriptive statistics, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and the Mann–Whitney U test were used to compare the groups. All participants reported higher satisfaction with virtual PBL across all sub-dimensions. The overall score comparison revealed a statistically significant difference in favor of virtual PBL (p  < 0.05). A significant difference was also found among female participants (p  < 0.05), whereas no significant difference was observed among male participants (p > 0.05). Gender-based comparisons showed no statistically significant difference in satisfaction (p > 0.05). In conclusion, virtual PBL sessions can effectively enhance medical students' clinical reasoning, problem-solving, and communication skills while providing a flexible and engaging learning environment with high levels of satisfaction.
KW  - Problem-based learning
KW  - Medical Education
KW  - Metaverse
KW  - Virtual
KW  - VR
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UR  - https://doi.org/10.53850/joltida.1521626
L1  - https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/4094329
ER  -