Samenvatting

The last trend in technology is the upcoming Metaverse [1]. Metaverse represents a combination of virtual and augmented technology. With this technology, users will be able to immerse into a fully digital environment by obtaining a virtual identity through a digital avatar and acting as this was the real world. They can meet other users, shop, buy real estate, visit bars and restaurants, even flirt. Metaverse can be applied in several aspects of life such as (among others): Economy (Metaverse is entering into the cryptocurrency field), finance [2], social life, working environment, healthcare, real estate [3], and education [4]. In the last 2 and a half years, during the COVID-19 pandemic, universities made immediate use of e-learning technologies, providing students with access to online learning content and platforms. Previous considerations on how to better integrate the technology to universities or how the institutions can be better prepared in terms of infrastructures were vanished almost immediately due to the necessity of immediate actions towards the need for social distance and global health [5]. The present study proposes a framework for university students’ metaverse technologies in education acceptance and intention to use. The study is based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) [6, 7]. The objectives of the study are to analyze the relationship of students’ intention to use metaverse in education technologies (hereafter named MetaEducation) in correlation with selected constructs of TAM such as: Attitude (ATT), Perceived Usefulness (PU), Perceived Ease of Use (PE), Self-efficacy (SE) of the metaverse technologies in education, and Subjective Norm (SN). The present study develops a structural model of MetaEducation acceptance. This model will be useful to universities’ managers, policymakers and professors to better incorporate the upcoming metaverse technology. The present study tests (if supported) the correlations among the aforementioned constructs. Preliminary results show a hesitance to use MetaEducation technologies from university students. Self-efficacy and Subjective Norm affect Attitude and Perceived Usefulness positively, but on the other side, there is no strong correlation between Perceived Ease of Use and Attitude or Perceived Usefulness and Attitude. Authors believe that the weak ties among the studies constructs have to do with the lack of knowledge of what really MetaEducation really is, and which are its advantages of use.