Ten universities are entering the metaverse this fall as they team up with VictoryXR to create digital twin campuses.
Learning through virtual reality is becoming increasingly popular among schools and universities that were forced to alter their instruction methods because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent study showed that 40% of individuals learning through VR are more confident in applying what they’ve learned. In addition, they were 150% more engaged in the classroom.
VictoryXR will be creating “digital twin campuses,” an exact digital replica of each campus for students to virtually attend classes whether they are on campus or remote. Students will also be provided with a Meta Quest 2, a virtual reality headset. Classes will be synchronous, or multi-student, to recreate the feeling of physically attending class.
The universities entering this new era of virtual reality include:
- Morehouse College
- University of Kansas School of Nursing
- New Mexico State University
- South Dakota State University
- West Virginia University
- University of Maryland Global Campus
- Southwestern Oregon Community College
- Northern Illinois University
- California State University Dominguez Hills
- Alabama A&M University
“When the history of metaverse education is written, these are the schools that will be known as the metaverse pioneers,” said Steve Grubbs, VictoryXR CEO, in a blog post.
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Students will be using their VR headsets to join their professors and peers on the metacampus. Just as if they were physically in the classroom, students will be able to take part in enhanced classroom activities that go beyond normal instruction, such as taking a history field trip back in time, studying astronomy in outer space, or exploring human anatomy.
“Unlike in the real world, they will be able to shrink to the size of Ant-Man and tour the human body,” said Grubbs. “No wonder student retention is so much greater.”
