Metaverse or Not Metaverse

Abstract

This chapter examines how Turkish educational researchers used the Metaverse concept during the Covid-19 pandemic. A thorough examination of the term metaverse is conducted from its emergence, evolution, past and current usage within the academic circles, along with the terms edufication and gamification. Document analysis method is chosen to do a systematic literature review on academic journals. Search was conducted with added keywords to the Metaverse within the literature in Turkish and English. Although the term is a relatively new entrant to the academic research, it is continuously evolving along with the technological advancements its applications to the industry and social life; hence, the concept and its usage will be a continuous subject of further research. The result of the analysis showed that Turkish researchers mainly prefer ‘three-dimensional virtual world' instead of the term Metaverse, and the ones found to use Metaverse mainly misuse the term out of its internationally accepted definition.