Prof. Dr. Tuğba Tokel received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology at METU, her doctoral degree from the Department of Educational Psychology and Technology at Texas A&M University. She was awarded the Dissertation of the Year Award by the department for her doctoral thesis in 2008 and she received the Young Researcher Achievement Award from the METU Development Foundation in 2013. As a research scholar, she participated in virtual reality projects at the Institute for Creative Technologies at University of Southern California in 2017.

Dr. Tugba Tokel serves as a faculty member and head of the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology at METU. Additionally, she is the founder of Metaverse Software, established in 2013 and located in METU Technopark, which develops virtual world and virtual reality applications for education, healthcare, and corporate sector. Dr. Tokel is also the head of the METU Virtual Worlds Research Group, and her research interests include virtual reality, three-dimensional virtual worlds, simulations, serious games, and distance education.