LEARN-BY-DOING VIRTUALLY; A GAMIFIED AND METAVERSE DESIGN FOR GROUP PROJECTS AIMING AT ENHANCING CONSTRUCTIVIST AND COLLABORATIVE LEARNING

Probably the most challenging part of delivering a course is to engage the students in the learning process; to capture their interest to the extent that they will want to contribute to the on-going delivery of the course. Academics, try to achieve this in every possible way. Among other practices, educators plan their courses to include a variety of activities, utilize Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), reward the students for their contribution, show interest and offer prompt and honest support and feedback, act their role or use other appropriate means to make learning fun. Many times, courses include group activities and projects. The students’ experience with a group project is sometimes positive and is described by students as, “The project was great since it allowed us to understand the content better.” and at other times it is described as a nightmare, “It was very hard to get everyone involved and I therefore ended up doing most of the work.”. Group projects may offer the students a practical view of the course content by allowing them to play the role of the developer, engineer, manager, or other. Additionally, such projects benefit the student by giving them an experience closer to a real business operation. Group projects are supported by both the Social Constructivist Learning (SCL) and the Collaborative Learning (CL) theories. The benefits of deploying both theories are great but the challenges to make group projects work are persisting, with the biggest challenge being to get all group members engaged with the project’s activities. This study begins by taking a step back to understand how the two learning theories are used in the design of group projects, to then take a step forward to examine how the students’ experience in doing group projects may be enriched by incorporating gamification and virtual reality features in the project design.