Metaverse is a new trend that has shaken the digital world. The use-case of this emerging technology is in alignment with the concept of the virtual world and Web3. Technology is in an early phase and has also witnessed lots of criticism but there are many sectors that can benefit from it and Education is one of them. In fact, Education is one of the most important applications of the metaverse with great prospects in the coming future. Webbybutter believes that the presence of the metaverse can provide a new educational ecosystem. The recent pandemic also makes a strong case for metaverse education.
Let us get on the metaverse and education and lay out some of the benefits of the metaverse in education.
Benefits of Metaverse Education
The AR and VR technologies will help develop an immersive experience. Here are some pivotal benefits to watch out for:
➥ Interactive Learning
Education via the metaverse can immerse students in a 3D world of imagination where they can view and interact with their peers and the 3D objects near them, the scenario will be just like in a physical classroom. Whether it is about the stone age or the modern age, metaverse learning can virtually transport students to different historical periods, eliminating the necessity for imagination.
➥ Gamification
In general, students are taught statically or passively and actively in an engaging way, the latter is the most compelling as it can teach concepts better. Metaverse can accomplish the exact results for students through gamification, which is the process of integrating something with game elements to facilitate user participation. Gamification in a metaverse blends both entertainment and learning to boost student participation and engagement where they have to complete fun tasks. This motivates students to keep learning and finish their assignments on time.
➥ Teaching gets simpler
There is no doubt that learning becomes easy with the use of the Metaverse. What’s a big advantage here is the opportunities to experiment, meaning, opens new ways for the teaching community as well.
Social interaction in realistic circumstances helps improve collaborative work environments and enhance problem-solving skills. Making avatars can efficiently explain the idea of utilizing a roleplaying technique to fetch into real-life scenarios. Making different scenarios for realistic situations can become feasible with the metaverse.
➥ Information Discovery is easy
Knowledge is easily made open to a broader audience with internet-enabled plans. Once the curriculum is made, it can be used by many learners saving time and money. Personalized search results and more reasonable socially collective tools will deliver individualized learning paths in a way that is effortlessly understandable.
➥ Realistic experience
Unlike the orthodox education system that barely stimulates active communication and engagement among students, metaverse classrooms will offer life-like ecosystems that can inspire students to interact with their surroundings and peers. In a metaverse, educators can take learners to various life-like scenarios where they can participate in activities after which they can confer their learnings and findings.
➥ Tackle Absenteeism
While actions to boost school attendance continue to be tough, schools are betting on metaverse education to assist kids to engage with those near them. In fact, Japan recently revealed it will use Metaverse for tackling absenteeism in schools.
Also read: Educational App Development- Cost, Technology stack, and benefits
These were some noteworthy benefits of a metaverse in education, now let’s explore some of the applications of the same.
Applications of Metaverse in education
➥ Virtual Classrooms
With the rise of online study in schools and colleges, students have started to observe the difference in the study between physical classrooms and virtual ones. The metaverse can fill this gap by making 3D virtual classrooms where students can virtually meet and interact with their classmates and educators. Students from any geographical location are a part of this metaverse-powered learning setup and do much beyond what a physical classroom permits.
➥ Practical Learning
As discussed earlier in the benefits, the learning is interactive in the metaverse. This suggests students can easily comprehend topics that are often boring or complex. For instance, students can easily explore the human body’s anatomy virtually or solve math problems in a creative way or use the role-playing concept to recreate a historic event, the possibilities are endless. In short, it offers a hands-on experience without involving physical attribution.
➥ Virtual trips
Now as students read about a country or any specific place in the classroom there is an immediate thought to visit that place. With metaverse education, you can actually help students to virtually go to that place. Will this not be a unique experience? This situation is not feasible in the real world, and the metaverse authorizes such possibilities by offering virtual worldwide tours. By letting students travel to any place of their preference in a virtual establishment within minutes, the metaverse helps extend their knowledge regarding the places.
➥ Expert sessions
Educational institutions face challenges while arranging Expert Sessions for students due to tight schedules, geographic constraints, and other factors. With Metaverse institutions can conduct virtual sessions with experts scientist with ease.
Metaverse features in Education
The Metaverse Space is still in the development phase and its difficult to project precise features, especially for education. Still, here are some features of the metaverse in education,
➥ Learner ID
Metaverse enables users to create their avatars and virtual IDs. This authenticated the users and allow them to navigate the virtual classroom without any concerns.
➥ Learner Interaction
The teacher and student communication will improve in Metaverse. The avatars of learners can interact with teachers and peer avatars, acquiring and delivering real-time feedback, socialization, expert help in concept learning, personalized support, and so on.
➥ Learning Methods
It is a known fact that teachers play a fundamental role in successful education and bringing about educational reform. Teachers’ professional development in relation to the metaverse will bring in different methods of teaching and in turn deliver better learning to students.
The customary learning setup allows the creation of an environment with boundaries for practical learning, like labs, workshops, etc. Screen-based learning is dull and at times boring as it primarily backs theoretical learning methods. On the other hand, Metaverse can make realistic scenarios, allowing the learners to partake in real situations and learn in a practical yet secure environment.
➥ Interaction technologies
With the backing of interaction technologies, learners can mobilize their bodies to take part in different exploratory learning activities, collaboration, and socialization, to stimulate different sensory organs and fetch real-time feedback. To some extent, the metaverse can even provide learners with authentic and exemplified learning experiences.
➥ Learning Assessment
The learning analysis module in Metaverse aims to use massive data to examine and display learners’ performances and achievements by unit or in all. More particularly, it can make assessing students’ performance more manageable, and equip faculties with reliable proof to execute personalized services for pupils.
Challenges of Metaverse Education
Similar to crypto, there is no specific regulator or government entity formulating rules. This presents different types of challenges for Metaverse in Education.
- The foremost challenge is to decide on the curriculum i.e. Who will outline it?
- Standard teaching methodology- Even with traditional teaching methods there is a variance in methodology according to subjects and faculty, so simplifying a standard teaching methodology for metaverse education will pose a massive challenge
- Tackling Social Isolation- If students start spending excessive time in the metaverse there is a high chance that they will avoid social interaction and won’t meet up in the real world. Social media is the best example depicting such a situation and Metaverse schooling may end up making it worse.
- Cost- presently, there are not many companies providing the necessary equipment for accessing the virtual world and the ones offering them are not exactly affordable in a general capacity.
- Psychological Dysfunction- There are studies revealing signs of psychological dysfunction among people using VR Headsets for a longer time.
The vision of the metaverse is just inching into the academic field, its prospects in the education sector are yet to be fully unleashed. However, there are several startups and firms that are actively investing in the idea of metaverse education. So, if you are looking to optimize your learning experience you can contact us for taking the next leap.
