Health sciences students' perspectives on metaverse and digital technology use: cross-sectional descriptive study.

Background: Students' attitudes towards digital technologies affect their use of innovations in digital education. In the study, it was aimed to determine undergraduate health sciences students' views about the Metaverse and digital technology.

Methods: This study was a cross-sectional descriptive study. In the study sample, 289 health sciences students who voluntarily agreed to participate in the research and filled out the online data collection form were included. The Independent Samples T-Test, Multivariate ANOVA analysis of variance (MANOVA) and Pearson correlation analysis were used. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

Results: The mean score the participants obtained from the Metaverse Scale was 53.54 ± 9.00, indicating that their levels of knowledge and awareness about the Metaverse were high. The mean score they obtained from the Attitude Scale for Digital Technology was 135.98 ± 21.28, which indicated that displayed positive attitudes towards digital technology. There was no significant difference between the mean scores the participants obtained from the Attitude Scale for Digital Technology and the Metaverse Scale according to their departments and years in school. There was a positive and weak relationship between the Metaverse Scale scores and Attitude Scale for Digital Technology scores.

Conclusions: The participants' knowledge and awareness levels about the Metaverse were high and they displayed positive attitudes towards digital technology. It is recommended that digital technologies should be used in planning undergraduate education and Metaverse platforms or applications in virtual classroom settings.