Exploring the Impact of the Metaverse on Promoting Students' Access to Quality Education: A Meta-Analysis

With technological advancements, the Metaverse is being used to enhance learning effects and learning experience to ensure quality education. However, current empirical studies have produced varying results. Therefore, a meta-analysis was executed, leveraging the capabilities of Version 3 of the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software to effectively synthesize the data, drawing insights from 34 studies published prior to October 2024. The goal was to analyze the effects of the Metaverse on quality education, and to investigate the moderating influences of four variables: Metaverse tools, educational stages, subject area, and treatment duration. The results showed that the overall effect sizes for learning effects and learning experience were 0.922 and 1.153, respectively, suggesting that the Metaverse substantially influences educational effects and learning experience. The four moderating variables all play a significant role in shaping the influence of the Metaverse on both learning effects and experience. This meta-analysis highlights a striking trend: the Metaverse's effects were especially pronounced for elementary and secondary school students, but less so for university students. In addition, the Metaverse's effects were most significant in science disciplines.