University membership through immersive virtual environments and a sense of belongingness

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this work, we study the feeling of membership in undergraduate students who interact with their higher education institution through a virtual environment. We explore the Centro de Investigaciones en Diseño Industrial (CIDI) case, in which a virtual environment was built using the Roblox platform to enhance the online experience that students were having during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the application of the Psychological Sense of School Membership scale, we show that it is possible to evoke a sense of belonging in a physical space with a virtual representation. We achieved this by virtually replicating the physicality of the original CIDI and by promoting social behaviors using three modalities of social interaction.