키워드 네트워크 분석을 통한 국내 메타버스 연구동향과 교육적 제안

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify research trends, suggest directions and implications for future education through content and keyword network analyses for 105 research articles related to metaverse in Korea. The research procedure was conducted in the stages of 'data collection', 'content analysis', and 'keyword network analysis'. As a result of the analysis, the main contents are as follows. First, the distribution of papers published in academic journals was high in the field of art with the themes of design, content, media, etc. but low in the field of education. Secondly, the most frequent research types were in the order of qualitative, theoretical, quantitative, practical, and mixed research. To add on, research related to metaverse was most actively conducted in the field of social science. Next, as a result of keyword network analysis, metaverse, VR, virtual world, COVID-19, AR, immersion, and storytelling showed high results in both frequency and degree centrality analyses, confirming that they are the main and recent research topics of the metaverse. Finally, digital human, ZEPETO, and motion capture show relatively high results in betweenness centrality compared to degree centrality, confirming the potential for expansion of future research topics. Through the research results, big data that can be used in the future education field must be accumulated, and various experiments are required to prove the effectiveness of education. In addition, the need for expanding research on learning content design strategies that can effectively deliver a sense of immersion through experiential situation of learners was derived. For the pedagogical application of metaverse, collaboration between education and interdisciplinary fields should be conducted, and strategies and methods for future education should be presented through case studies on various metaverse platforms. Finally, it was suggested that continuous user education be required for instructors to alleviate the gap between the understanding and application of metaverse technology in the educational field.