Design of the Architecture of the Virtual Learning Community: VLC via Metaverse to Promote Digital Teacher’s Competency

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Introduction
The policy of Thailand 4.0 is becoming such a social trend that it has received wide attention from all sectors.This is because this policy is expected to transform Thailand's traditional agricultural economy into the so-called innovation-driven economy.The government, therefore, has emphasized the policy of Thailand 4.0 and set it as the main policy for national reform, aiming to enhance Thailand's economy, society and culture to be on par with those of other countries.The development of human potential and capacity building in terms of digital technology, including the improvement of the quality of education by means of information technology and learning media, has been provided in the National Strategic Plan.Thereby, the policies relevant to these issues have been assigned to the government agencies with an expectation for efficient implementation.For instance, Ministry of Digital Economy and Society has been giving precedence to the development of "digital literacy" for citizens and the enhancement of the country's information technology system (Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, 2016).
The 21 st century learning management is education management intended to equip human beings with life skills, and this kind of learning management is also aimed to elevate the quality of Thai youths to be in line with such skills.Thus, teachers must be able to prepare the learning management with the aid of a variety of media technologies, which will allow learners to access information in a quick and efficient manner.Accordingly, learners can use technologies to search for information, perform self-learning, analyze data, and manage data systematically (Silaphon & Kongmanat, 2016).
The advancement of technology and the significance of knowledge sharing have brought about the so-called "virtual learning environment", which concerns the use of technology to assist in teaching.The virtual learning environment is considered one of the most important factors that affect Thailand 4.0, especially in terms of learning designs and digital learning platforms (Chookusol & Wannapiroon, 2021).This is because a virtual learning environment will allow learners to learn anywhere and anytime, while teachers are responsible for providing appropriate environments for students (Chatwattana, 2022).
A learning community refers to a group of people who are aware of the importance and necessity of learning that shall lead to the development of skills about the thinking process, analysis, problem solving, and utilization of knowledge.Everyone in the community thinks and acts together as partners, sharing the same targets.These people live their life while learning, accumulating knowledge, and creating new bodies of knowledge in order to develop themselves and their community at the same time (Lohitwiset, 2016).For this reason, a virtual learning community is seen as a community established through a network system, in which everyone therein works together to study and learn what they are interested in, using different technologies as channels for communication and learning (Nuchmee, 2011).
The principles of VLC mostly refer to the contexts of social media, or the collaborative processes of community learning and collaboration, which are conducted by means of web-based collaboration platforms.The core of such a community has a great impact on the learning behaviors of users.This refers to the ability of such a community to continually attract and protect users at the same time, with an intention to promote the development and the relationships across social networks.The communities of this kind have provided good opportunities for education and online learning, and in the meantime, it is thought to improve collaboration and communication skills (Areepong, Nilsook, & Wannapiroon, 2022).
The term metaverse comes from the word META, which means great, and the word Universe.Therefore, "metaverse" means a great universe (Bunlue, 2022) that is a virtual world created by humans.In the metaverse, users can do various activities through their avatars with the aid of technologies and devices that enable them to access such a virtual world (Moy & Gadgil, 2022).Once participating and interacting with others in the metaverse, users can share their learning experiences with others in the immersive digital environments (Kye et al., 2021).
As to the education policies assigned by the Minister of Education, the Office of the Basic Education Commission has determined that digital competency (DC) is indispensable for teachers and educational personnel.The said quality policies focus mainly on the development of teachers and educational personnel so that they can become the modern and competent teachers who are able to facilitate the learning management in line with the competency-based curriculum.Meanwhile, these teachers and educational personnel are expected to possess skills that enable them to perform effective duties, have knowledge and ability to use digital technology, achieve professional development, and acquire the spirit of teacher (Office of the Basic Education Commission, 2021).Accordingly, digital competency is one of the competencies that are significant to digital literacy among the 21 st century learners.
Digital competence refers to the use of information technology with discretion in working, communication, or daily life.Digital competence is related to basic skills in information and communication technology (ICT), or the use of computers to search, evaluate, store, create, present, and exchange information with an intention to communicate and collaborate via internet.Digital competence is an emerging concept concerning the development of technology as well as the expectation to be the citizen of knowledge society.Digital competence consists of 1) technical skills in using digital technology, 2) ability to use digital technology digital technology, 3) ability to critically evaluate the appropriateness of using digital technology, and 4) the motivation to participate in digital cultures (Ilomäki, Kantosalo, & Lakkala, 2011).
According to the principles and the theories above, the researchers have had an idea to design the architecture of the VLC via metaverse for use as a guideline to promote digital teacher's competency so that these teachers can possess the basic knowledge skills along with ability to use technologies in order to pass on knowledge effectively in the classroom.It is expected that this VLC shall encourage teachers to have step-by-step thinking process and enable them to use information technology media more practically with more understanding and more creativity.

Research Objectives and Hypotheses
1) To synthesize the conceptual framework of the VLC via metaverse to promote digital teacher's competency 2) To design the architecture of the VLC via metaverse to promote digital teacher's competency 3) To study the results of the design of the architecture of the VLC via metaverse to promote digital teacher's competency jel.ccsenet.o

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Results
The result can be sum   • Integration with school systems is the application of this platform to further develop other learning communities of different contexts, which are significant and in demand.In addition, this step is to follow up on the teachers' abilities, which are parts of their professional development and are also beneficial for the development of competency or knowledge in other related fields.
3) Metaverse: It is an element in the digital environment, which consists of assessment, data, digital competency, contents, and the metaverse platform.4) Output: This element refers to digital teacher's competency, which is the use of information technology, by teachers in particular, with discretion in working, communication, or daily life.Digital competence is related to basic skills in information and communication technology (ICT), or the use of computers to search, evaluate, store, create, present, and exchange information with an intention to communicate and collaborate via internet.Digital competence is an emerging concept concerning the development of technology as well as the expectation to be the citizen of the knowledge society.Digital teacher's competency are divided 6 levels, i.e., newcomer, explorer, integrator, expert, leader, and pioneer.

Study the Results of the Design of the Architecture of the VLC via Metaverse to Promote Digital Teacher's Competency
The study results of the design of the architecture of the VLC via metaverse with 7 experts in this research who were derived by means of purposive sampling are shown in Tables 2 and 3.As to Table 2, it is found that the overall suitability of the design of the architecture of the VLC via metaverse (overall elements) is at the highest level (Mean = 4.71, SD. = 0.57).This can be concluded that the architecture of the VLC via metaverse contains all required elements and it can be used as a guideline to further develop other platforms of VLC via metaverse in order to promote digital teacher's competency, especially the competency of the primary school teachers.Thereby, digital competency is considered one of the essential skills that the Office of the Basic Education Commission has provided to develop digital teacher's competency at present.In reference to Table 3, it is evident that the overall suitability of the design of the architecture of the VLC via metaverse is at the highest level (Mean = 4.70, SD. = 0.52).So, it can be summarized that the architecture of the VLC via metaverse contains all necessary elements and it can be employed as a guideline to further develop other platforms of VLC via metaverse in order to promote digital teacher's competency, especially the competency of the primary school teachers.It is believed that digital competency shall lead to new bodies of knowledge that can be applied, with the aid of digital technology and virtual reality technology, in the instruction management in an efficient manner.

Conclusion & Discussion
The architecture of the VLC via metaverse was developed based on the concepts of learning community and virtual world technology with an intention to promote digital teacher's competency today.It is necessary for these teachers to develop and update their digital competency so that they can improve and manage the instruction media as well as the information related to learning through digital devices.
The architecture of the VLC via Metaverse is composed of 4 main elements, i.e., 1) input factor, which includes of stakeholder, user interface, community, and connection; 2) learning process, which consists of 8 steps, i.e., user authentication, pre-assessment, content management, guidance and learning, post-assessment, data analytic and report, community and support, and integration with school systems; 3) metaverse, which consists of assessment, data, digital competency, content, and metaverse platform; and 4) output, which includes digital teacher's competency.
As indicated in the assessment results, it is found that (1) the overall suitability of the design of the architecture of the VLC via metaverse (overall elements) is at the highest level (Mean = 4.71, SD. = 0.57), and (2) the overall suitability of the design of the architecture of the VLC via metaverse is at the highest level (Mean = 4.70, SD. = 0.52).Therefore, it can be summarized that the architecture of the VLC via metaverse covers all appropriate elements and it can be used as a guideline to further develop other platforms of VLC via metaverse in order to promote digital teacher's competency, especially for the primary school teachers.This is in compliance to the research of Antonio et al. (2023), who stated that teachers in the 21 st century should be able to integrate digital technology with daily life and apply the experiences from this in the instruction management that can pave ways to endless learning.It is also consistent with the study of Wannapiroon et al. (2021), who said that the application of learning technologies in the virtual world combined with those of the physical world in learning management is regarded as a new dimension of educational media.Such educational media can make students feel more interested and eager to learn new things, create new experiences, and engage more in learning.In addition, it is in line with the research by Sreejun and Chatwattana (2023), who mentioned that the use of virtual media in the instruction management along with the use of computer technology and information technology enables students to learn and control their work independently, leading to the real-time outcome.

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Table 2 .
Results of evaluation on the suitability of the design of the architecture of the VLC via metaverse (overall elements) The design of the architecture of the VLC via metaverse contains principles and concepts that can be used as the basis for developing the instruction systems.The overall elements of the design of the architecture of the VLC via metaverse is complete and it can be used as a guideline to develop the design of the VLC via metaverse platform to promote digital teacher's competency in the future.

Table 3 .
Results of evaluation on the suitability of the design of the architecture of the VLC via metaverse