Design of 3D environment to develop pre-service teachers' digital competence: usability, adequacy and perceived usefulness

One of the most important conditions for the development of pre-service teachers' digital competence is to provide them with learning experiences to put in action such skills, knowledge and attitudes in similar contexts to their future professional reality. 3D virtual environments are an immersive and interactive promising technology that allow to simulate real scenarios and provide these learning opportunities. The aim of this reserach is to show the design of a 3D environment for the development of teachers' digital competence, focusing to the analysis of: (1) technical and graphical usability; (2) content adequacy of the activities; and (3) practicity and pedagogical usability of the environment. For this purpose, following design-based research method, we conducted a validity process with different key informants groups: technology experts, teachers related to educational technology, and students-teachers who also answered a pedagogical usability questionnaire ( Code et al., 2013). From a technological view, the results show that the environment worked fluently, but the graphics were limited. From a educational point of view, the activities were appropriate, realistic and current. the activities were appropriate, realistic and current. Despite the initial complexity in the avatars control, they emphasized its high motivation due to the similarity of 3D environment with their future professional work. The main conclusion of this work was that 3D environments are useful technology for developing educational activities that promote the acquisition of teachers' digital competence.