Adoption of 3-D Virtual Worlds for Education

As an emerging phenomenon, virtual world education is rarely researched in MIS literature. With stiff competition among institutions using virtual worlds for education, a legitimate research question is: What factors influence students’ intention to adopt 3-D virtual world environment for their education needs? Drawing on existing technology acceptance models and studies in other IS contexts, we developed a model to predict students’ acceptance of a 3-D virtual world education environment and plan to empirically test the model using survey data collected from college students. From the academic research perspective, studies on the use of the new technology for education will provide insights on how virtual world environment contributes to virtual education that is now part of the mainstream of education. From the practitioner perspective, the study provides useful insights to educational institutions and assists institutions in evaluating whether investing in virtual world education is a sound strategy.