Metaverse-assisted teaching in occupational safety and health (MATOSH) programme and its effectiveness in improving interest, understanding, and engagement in the occupational health subject among generation Z medical Students - a design and development research

• Published in: BMC medical education Vol. 25; no. 1; pp. 1009 - 13
• Main Authors: Yew, Sheng Qian, Ismail, Mohd Firdaus
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 06.07.2025; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Collaboration; College Faculty; Computer science; Curriculum; Distance learning; Education; Education, Medical, Undergraduate - methods; Educational aspects; Educational Technology; Electronic Learning; Experiential Learning; Female; Generation Z; Group Discussion; Hospitals; Humans; Interpersonal Relationship; Learner Engagement; Lecture Method; Literature Reviews; Male; Medical education; Medical Evaluation; Medical students; Metaverse; Methods; Occupational health; Occupational Health - education; Occupational health and safety; Occupational safety; Occupational Safety and Health; Online instruction; Participant Satisfaction; Program Development; Program Evaluation; Program Implementation; Psychological aspects; Public health; Public speaking; Retention (Psychology); Sampling; Software; Student Participation; Students, Medical - psychology; Study and teaching; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Technology application; Virtual worlds; Work Environment; Malaysia; Medical education; Occupational health; Metaverse
• ISSN: 1472-6920; 1472-6920
• DOI: 10.1186/s12909-025-07618-5

The conventional lecture-based approach used in occupational health teaching has several limitations, causing low levels of interest, understanding, and engagement toward this discipline among Generation Z medical students. Leveraging metaverse technology and its benefits, the current study aims to design and develop a metaverse programme known as MATOSH (Metaverse-Assisted Teaching in Occupational Health). Subsequently, the MATOSH programme was implemented and evaluated for its effectiveness in improving the levels of interest, understanding, and engagement in the occupational health subject among Generation Z medical students. This study used a DDR framework with three key phases: (1) need analysis, (2) design and development, and (3) implementation and evaluation. However, this study article discusses phases 2 and 3 only. Phase 2 (design and development) involved a nominal group technique (n = 15) to design the content of the MATOSH programme, which subsequently developed using Spatial.io. Phase 3 (implementation and evaluation) consisted of a cognitive debriefing (n = 15) approach to validate the MATOSH programme. Then, a quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the MATOSH programme among 172 medical students (88 intervention vs. 84 control) from the National University of Malaysia. A pre-post intervention was used to implement the MATOSH programme and evaluate its effectiveness. Outcomes measured included interest (SIQ), understanding (OH-EOM), and engagement (SCEQ). Paired t-tests were used to assess within-group changes from pre- to post-interventions, while independent t-tests compared differences between the two groups. Generally, participants who took part in the MATOSH programme (i.e., intervention group) showed significant improvement in understanding level (p < 0.001) from pre-intervention to post-intervention but not in interest and engagement levels. When stratified according to gender, female participants demonstrated additional improvement in engagement level (p = 0.025) after undergoing the MATOSH programme. All participants in the intervention group showed improvement in understanding level, but not the control group. MATOSH seems to improve the understanding of occupational health subject among Generation Z medical students but particularly useful in improving engagement level among female medical students only. No improvement was observed in the interest level. To enhance the overall impact of the MATOSH programme, there is a need to further develop its interactive and immersive elements. Efforts should be targeted to increase interest and engagement levels by incorporating gamified learning scenarios, real-life case simulations, and collaborative virtual activities. Not applicable.