Tracing Spatial Interaction and Collaborative Inquiry Learning in a Metaverse: A Log-Based Comparison Study of Gather Town and a Web-Based Environment

Spatial virtual environments enable proximity-based communication and continuous awareness of others’ locations, potentially reshaping how learners coordinate collaborative inquiry. This study compared a spatial metaverse environment with a functionally comparable web-based system during a collaborative physics inquiry activity with simulations. We analyzed activity performance, individual learning performance, interest in science learning, system operation logs, and spatial traces. After controlling for pretest scores, students in the metaverse environment showed higher individual learning performance, whereas activity performance did not differ between conditions. System logs suggested different patterns of engagement across environments. Guided by affordance theory, spatial trace analysis identified three patterns of perceived spatial affordance: shared visual orientation, cross-group interaction, and peer awareness. These patterns indicate that students utilized visibility, proximity, and movement to enhance shared attention, cross-group interaction, and awareness of peers’ activities during collaborative inquiry.