iTREDS: Examining Collaboration in the Metaverse
The metaverse, a social virtual world enabled by immersive 3D technologies, promises to change our social interactions and workplaces. Initiatives led by big tech companies like Meta and Microsoft together with decentralized crypto-platforms (e.g. Voxel, Decentraland, Roblox) already enable people living in different parts of the world to interact and learn from each other in unprecedented ways. The metaverse is real, it’s now, and it’s with us.
The deeper question is whether the metaverse is for us.
This proposal for the Lucy Institute's iTREDS Capstone Projects invites Lucy undergraduate student fellows into a broad two-year exploration of these socio-collaborative metaverse platforms and applications, which are likely to impact the Education and Business sectors in the next ten years. This project asks whether and to what extent the metaverse’s technological affordances will enhance and encourage collaboration and coordination among groups and communities.
Studying Collaboration, Coordination, and Team Efficiency in the Metaverse
The team will work with the co-mentors – Dr. Diego Gómez-Zará and Dr. Arnaud Zimmern – on conducting user case studies. This work includes:
(a) designing tasks on the metaverse
(b) developing experimental design, surveys, and interviews
(c) recruiting participants
(d) conducting experimental sessions, and
(e) analyzing the collected data.
The results and insights of this study will shed light on how the metaverse’s environment and design influence groups’ outcomes and collaboration.
Examining Collaboration in Metaverse Communities
The second part of this project is devoted to interviewing users from existing metaverse platforms. This work is grounded on ethnographic research methods, including interviews and polls with metaverse users.
The team will connect to these platforms, conduct observational analysis, take notes, and interview metaverse users. The Capstone team will analyze the collected data and conduct an affinity diagramming analysis to identify the main themes.
Together, these two studies will contribute to understanding how the metaverse is shaping individuals’ lives and relationships in online environments. The mentors support the Capstone team with the necessary tools and equipment to conduct these studies. The expected deliverables include research papers, presentations, and documentation.
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Prospect Research Analyst, Prospect Management
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