The blooming of new technologies (such as artificial intelligence and extended reality devices) has allowed their integration into daily life. This change becomes visible through the modification of realised discourses, which entails relational, cultural, and communicative aspects. This contribution aims to outline the methodological path of a study centred on the discourses realised in a situation of integrating immersive and interactive devices (i.e., Meta Quest 2 and 3) into the life domain of higher education. This contribution pertains to Metaversity, a project which aims to foster a deeper understanding of the application of the metaverse in the university context, in particular during didactics. This project was carried out at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano. Showing the methodological path fulfils the necessity of rethinking research approaches related to the study of discourses developed through new technologies. The adopted methodological path was guided by the paradigm of complexity in order to reconstruct the phenomenon in the most complete manner, to the benefit of future readers of the research findings. This approach took into account the competences of the research team to guarantee the highest scientific rigour.

In synthesis, the study included direct observation of discourse realised by stakeholders (i.e., university students of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) during immersive sessions, using Meta Quest, in the metaverse. The sample included four groups of students (N = 18; two groups with n = 4, and two groups with n = 5). Two groups were from master’s degree programs, and two others from bachelor’s degree programs. The requirement for each group was to have attended at least one joint course during their degree programs. The activity (approximately 1:30-hour-long) designed for the groups was to collaboratively imagine and create a teaching experience that addressed their learning needs, drawing on principles of active and experiential learning, as well as critical thinking and problem solving, by using the metaverse. The activity was, practically, conducted using EngageVR and using the tools provided by the platform (e.g., shared whiteboard).

The activity was structured as follows. Students signed the informed consent form and began the introductory phase, during which they completed an initial survey and were familiarised with the use of Meta Quest in the metaverse. After, the students tried to design the above-mentioned teaching experience. The facilitator attempted to maintain a neutral role and provided support to the students. The meetings concluded with a debriefing phase, during which students shared their thoughts and then completed a final questionnaire. The data were produced through video recording from multiple angles, allowing, in this way, for a more in-depth analysis of the discourses realised by the participants.

Regarding data analysis, to adhere to the aim of reconstructing the phenomenon in the most comprehensive manner, the study employs an analytical approach for discourses resulting from analysis of conversation, multimodal (inter)action analysis, and argumentation analysis. The contribution clarifies how these analyses intertwine epistemologically, theoretically, analytically, and practically (including examples).

Keywords: Metaverse, discourse, education, immersive media.