Learning in the Metaverse: Pedagogical Implications from the Student Experience

The metaverse has emerged as a technology with great potential to transform educational processes, generating immersive environments that invite us to rethink the way students learn and engage with knowledge. However, despite its growing adoption, a gap persists in our in-depth understanding of how students experience these experiences and the pedagogical implications they provide. This article aimed to analyze, through a narrative review, the pedagogical implications derived from empirical studies on student experiences in metaverse-mediated educational environments, to identify patterns, challenges, and recommendations for instructional design. An exploratory narrative review was conducted of 50 original studies published between 2022 and 2024 in English and Spanish, using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed approaches. The analysis was organized around three research questions. The results show that the metaverse can increase student motivation, engagement, and collaboration, but it also presents technical, emotional, and pedagogical challenges that hinder its effective implementation. It is concluded that the use of the metaverse in education requires a profound pedagogical redesign, accompanied by teacher training, digital inclusion, and a student-centered ethical approach.