What Does Metaverse Education Have in Store for Humanity?

The world has already learned that metaverses can be used for business, social media, and entertainment purposes. What about education in the metaverse? Considering the pace of technological advancement, big tech leaders are elaborating on new means of how the metaverse can be transformed into an educational institution for remote studying.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, humanity has gotten used to teleworking, telemedicine, and multiple other remote types of social interaction. Conceptually, the metaverse notion is what will eventually revolutionize the way educational institutions promote e-learning. That’s why so many modern businesses are incredibly interested in investing in XR technology.

Whenever it comes to creating or implementing innovations, each metaverse development company and business taking advantage of its services must swiftly identify whether they enter the game. Well, the other option is to let others seize the opportunity. This article will reveal how heavily the industry is betting on the creation of metaverse education platforms.

Impact Of The Metaverse On Education

Prior to defining what the metaverse is, we need to find out why education needs a digital transformation at all. What does it all imply for students and businesses supporting such projects? Mainly, e-learning is undoubtedly the industry’s future, inasmuch as it ensures greater access to education, offers convenience, and remains sufficiently cost-efficient.

Metaverse and education are two concepts that seem to be far away from one another. Nevertheless, present-day technologies speed things up significantly, paving the way for e-learners to reap the benefits of innovative virtual environments. Therefore, the world is expecting the metaverse to turn the education discourse upside down in the years to come.

Furthermore, what the metaverse brings in for the educational evolution encompasses the new experience, entertaining virtual environments, hands-on practice, and far more studying prospects. In the future, schools, colleges, and universities will offer both online and offline studying forms simultaneously. After all, one doesn’t exclude another, right?

By employing the power of the metaverse for education, we open up new opportunities for students and teachers, endowing both with new engagement options. Let’s just take, say, Roblox, a famous gaming platform. It allows the players not only to entertain themselves but also to educate others through gameplay, with e-learning classrooms on private servers.

Benefits Of The Metaverse In Education

1. Immersive experience. Education is all about memorable experiences that enable students to keep essential knowledge in mind and use it in practice. As a next-gen education platform, the metaverse, for example, can offer unexpected virtual journeys to various historical periods. Just imagine teaching the history of Ancient Greece while virtually standing in front of the recently erected Acropolis of Athens or Ancient Corinth. Isn’t it an astonishing experience for both educators and learners?

2. Hands-on practice. Conventional means of education rarely offer students to practice some freshly acquired skills without any risks, especially during global crises. Imagine a healthcare professional showing students how to do complex surgery and asking them to repeat their movements. Can anyone do the same without risking someone’s life or health?

3. Gamification prospects. E-learning can be brought to the next level with the improvements that metaverses open for education. Gaining new skills as well as improving the expertise may be enhanced with gamification because by combining entertainment and learning, educators increase engagement.

4. Improved learning speed. According to the PwC research, employees train up to 4 times faster in the VR environment compared to traditional learning means. With a more engaging experience, gamification, and hands-on practice, everyone involved in training within the virtual world considerably increases the odds of becoming a better specialist or merely learning faster.

5. Life-like learning conditions & communication. Whereas traditional education rarely promotes active communication and engagement between students, metaverse learning provides life-like environments that stimulate discussions. Hence, people tend to feel more immersed, which results in better performance and motivation to speak about what they’ve recently learned.

Disadvantages of Metaverse Learning Environments

Without a doubt, metaverse online education can become a double-edged sword, with noteworthy drawbacks resulting from remote learning combined with XR technology.

• Poor accessibility. Given that VR headsets and hardware supporting its functionality are quite expensive, some students may find it difficult joining such online classrooms. Depending on the quality and performance of the metaverse used by universities, colleges, or other organizations, learners will have to gain access to the technologies of different cost. However, chances are that institutions will be able to provide all the required hardware and software for these purposes.
• Exposure to an anti-social environment. The more frequently people study in the metaverse, the more they get used to social distancing, especially if the students are underaged. There’s no denying that socializing and interpersonal communication account for better relationships within teams, be it a working or studying setting.
• Virtual bullying. Although the same goes for the relationships between students inside physical classrooms, bullying taking place inside the digital realm is becoming a widespread phenomenon. However, it’s worth pointing out that this disadvantage primarily relates to the means of using this specific technology as well as who is involved in its application. In turn, the solution itself can’t be either good or bad by default from an ethical perspective.

How To Use The Metaverse In Education

As we’ve already mentioned, metaverse schools and universities can become a progressive way of teaching students from all corners of the world who won’t even need to leave their rooms. Just like businesses may want to develop solutions that provide educational institutions with such learning opportunities, educators can tweak the software on their end.

In this relation, all parties involved may contribute to the functionality of the metaverse university, thereby broadening the scope of its teaching options. Notably, this solution can be used both inside physical classrooms or directly from home, which makes it incredibly versatile. Taking into account all the pros of metaverse training, the technology’s prospects are limitless, depending on who and in what circumstances takes advantage of it.

Teaching in the Metaverse

Teaching in the metaverse may become a real challenge for people used to the conventional approach. At the same time, this opportunity ensures a load of versatility for educators. With metaverse classrooms, teachers will be able to show a lot more without posing a threat to students’ lives as they practice potentially dangerous skills.

In virtual environments, educators can turn lessons into fascinating journeys, simultaneously enhancing the student learning capabilities through unique experiences. As research suggests, 54% of teachers and 41% of parents are excited about the increased presence of VR in education. Teaching in the 3D environment allows educators to refer to more multifaceted methods without considering safety risks of students.

From virtual surgeries to historical journeys, VR training also can be used as a complementary teaching approach in addition to the traditional means. In case some educational facilities aren’t ready for this revolutionary technology to replace conventional schooling, teachers can use metaverse education as an alternative.

Learning in the Metaverse

Beyond question, metaverse learning will enable students to enjoy the studying process more while acquiring new skills with fewer efforts. With reduced health risks, say, students of aviation universities will get a chance to pilot a plane in a realistic flight simulator without a need to put their lives in peril. Not only does this minimize the exposure to danger but it also considerably improves the learning process as students enjoy each lesson.

The application of the metaverse in higher education is what will dramatically change the way students perceive the learning process and teachers. Today people differentiate between gaming and studying, associating the former with leisure and the latter — with work. Still, these two concepts can be merged through gamification. Such an approach helps to approximate education or work to entertainment, increasing the engagement of students.

Apart from a deeper engagement, the learning capabilities of the metaverse also promote the interest toward technologies, which today constitute the backbone of evolution. From lesson to lesson, students get a better understanding of how they can use the metaverse for learning, communicating, working, etc.

Create Your Metaverse Education Solution With Program-Ace

Universities and organizations involved in educating others require a constant inflow of innovative solutions to make training more user-friendly, engaging, exciting, and optimized for different learning scenarios. Hence, businesses should join the metaverse craze with a clear understanding of their contribution and what they can offer to benefit society.

Fortunately, Program-Ace is a reliable service provider whose profound experience in immersive technology may come in handy for those willing to develop their own metaverse solution for education. If you don’t want to hesitate any longer, contact us and get an opportunity to discuss your project with a professional metaverse development company.

Originally published at https://program-ace.com.