Teachers' Attitude Scale Towards Metaverse Use: A Scale Development Study

The metaverse, or virtual universe, is a hypothetical iteration of the internet that supports persistent online 3D virtual environments through traditional personal computers as well as virtual and augmented reality devices. The "metaverse", which has been on the agenda in recent days, had a great impact both in Turkey and in the world. In other words, a virtual world, represented by a metaverse avatar, where users can shop, socialize, participate in leisure activities and learn. The concept of metaverse, which came to the fore with billions of dollars of investment plans by companies such as Facebook, Microsoft, Roblox and Epic, is seen as the next stage in the development of the internet. It is possible to access this virtual reality universe using VR headsets, augmented reality (AR), smart watches and smart glasses. With the increasing popularity of online learning, educators, trainers, institutions are looking for ways to make distance learning more interesting and interactive. There are 4 important ways that the metadata store can help with this; creating an engaging and life-like online classroom, encourage communication, supporting immersive learning and enriching gamification. Due to the effect of the pandemic on digitalization, many different models have been developed in education methods and three-dimensional models have been focused on, where students' readiness levels and interaction with each other are higher. Metaverse is one of these methods. In this sense, it is important to get opinions from teachers and students, who are the most important stakeholders of education, in the use of metaverse technologies, which make a quick introduction to learning and teaching processes, in educational environments. It is important to determine the readiness levels of students and teachers, especially for the use of metaverse technologies in teaching environments. In the light of all these, this study was based on evaluating the teachers' attitudes towards metaverse technologies by considering the teacher dimension. It is aimed to present a valid and reliable scale that can be developed for the relevant subject. The validity and reliability studies of the scale were carried out on a total of 301 computers teachers working as permanent teachers in a city in Türkiye. The three-factor structure (perceived benefit, readiness and satisfaction) of the scale with an eigenvalue greater than 1 explains 78.42% of the total variance. A scale whose validity and reliability have been proven according to the results of EFA and CFA has been added to the literature. Moreover it is foreseen that the research will be important since it is the first scale developed in Türkiye on the metaverse.