Introduction
Technological advancements have brought a lot of new things to human life. In addition, Covid-19 has extended technological exposure to a huge extent in day-to-day life.
Although the initial stage of the pandemic was quite difficult, with time and digital solutions, everything started to fall in sync. Among all the industries, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on education. As a result, 91 percent of learners have moved towards online study.
In the near future, the online education trend is going to soar at an exceptional level. Consequently, the physical classrooms and lab environments will become nonexistent.
Metaverse is going to augment the online education industry worldwide. The future of education will change drastically and thoroughly soon. People will encounter a completely new and advanced method of education with Metaverse.
Metaverse – A Beginners Guide
Initially, the Metaverse concept was created in the science-fiction novel “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson. In simple words, the metaverse is a concept of a persistent, online, 3D universe. It combines multiple different virtual spaces that don’t exist in real life. In other words, the metaverse is a hypothetical iteration of the Internet, a universal and immersive virtual world that is facilitated by the use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets.
Metaverse can also be referred to as a future iteration of the internet. This will allow users to work, meet, play games, and socialize together in virtual 3D spaces. The metaverse would connect multiple platforms, similar to the internet containing different websites accessible through a single browser. Although metaverse isn’t yet completely in existence, some platforms contain metaverse-like elements. For example – video games.
Potential of Metaverse in the Education Industry
The metaverse is going to have a massive impact on how we live our lives. Metaverse is a combination of two technologies as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). Along with other related technology stacks, the metaverse will bridge the gap between the physical realm and the virtual world. One of the highest affected industries via Metaverse would be the education sector.
With Metaverse, learning will become more engaging and meaningful. It will also enhance the learning experiences. A Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) based education system will have more potential to break down boundaries between traditional methods of study. Metaverse will be able to demonstrate how diverse ideas can be applied to real-world circumstances effortlessly.
For instance – Students and teachers alike can meet up in the digital space via their virtual reality headsets regardless of their real-life location. Such functionality will lead to enhanced education and learning. Teachers can build virtual landscapes based on the lesson plans to enhance a student’s learning experience beyond a book reading.
Benefits of Metaverse in the Education Sector
The Covid-19 pandemic had impacted all industries. Since that time, everyone has started to engage virtually, including educational institutions. This change has greatly impacted the students’ performance and motivation to study. As an online learning system lacks collaboration and hands-on experiences. However, Metaverse is the technology that will eliminate all the challenges of online learning.
Metaverse has endless benefits to render to the educational industry. It will allow students to get fully involved in a digital classroom environment. With this technology, students will be able to interact with the instructor and learn content in an interactive environment. This simply means that students will be able to participate in all day-to-day activities like classes, workshops, projects, experiments, and seminars in real-time.
Top Benefits of Metaverse in Future Education System
● Less Geographical Barriers – There will be no geographical or physical constraints with the Metaverse. As a result, students can join a class from anywhere in the world.
● More Realistic Environment – Metaverse will make the environment realistic just like the real world. This means history classes could immerse the students in a scene from the Roman Empire. Science experiments could be done more practical and arts & crafts would be in a completely new and advanced world.
● Better Physical Interaction – Metaverse with the help of augmented reality technology can highly enhance physical interactions between teachers and students. This will lead to a better demonstration of difficult concepts such as sign language, medical procedures, physical exercise, etc.
● Highly Enhanced Safety – With Metaverse, trainers/teachers/instructors/educators will have complete control, hence complete safety is ensured. This means in case of need teachers can eliminate desired students to enhance discipline by limiting certain functions.
Additional Advantages of Metaverse
Advanced World Without Limitations – The digital world with the metaverse would be similar to the real world. For example – in video games, players cannot feel or touch things, but metaverse technology will make it possible.
Easy Remote Work Challenges Solution – With the metaverse technology, people can interact with another person or a group of people like in the real world, while staying in a virtual world.
New Opportunities For Businesses & Marketers – The metaverse will allow businesses or marketers to connect with customers or clients in real-time with numerous advanced features such as new clothes, avatars, etc.
Enhanced eLearning & Games World – Metaverse will help students in a virtual space to perform required activities such as walking, writing notes, communicating with other students, etc.
Better Illustrations By Teachers For Students – With metaverse, teachers can illustrate an idea or problem more effectively with ease. Furthermore, students will be able to better understand the concept even if something is new as they can see and feel things in the virtual world.
Organized Interactions or Communication – Another advantage metaverse caters to the world is organized and clear communication among two parties. No matter how many people are involved in a conversation, everyone will be able to get clarification on the subject.
More Learning Resources With 3D Visualizations – With 3D visualization technology and unlimited learning resources, people will experience better learning exposure.
Metaverse: The Future of Education
Although every day there are new trends and technologies emerging, Metaverse is one of them. However, this isn’t like many other technologies that will vanish in some time. On the contrary, Metaverse is going to stay for a very long time. Moreover, the future of human life is going to highly depend upon virtual reality. Metaverse will impact every aspect of our lives or industries, especially the education sector. However, the impact of metaverse will enhance the future of education and learning. This isn’t going to be limited to only school or college as businesses or corporations can also leverage the advantage of metaverse for upscaling the knowledge of their employees
Written By : Dr. Anees Ahmad
Designation : Assistant Professor – Marketing
Anees Ahmad is presently working as Assistant Professor of Marketing at International Management Institute, Kolkata. He has acquired the doctoral degree from IIT (ISM), Dhanbad. His research interests are in the areas of branding and consumer behavior. He has published research papers in national and international journals which are indexed in Thomson Reuters, Clarivate Analytics Master Journal list Web of Science, Scopus and ABDC journal quality list. Besides publications, he has also presented research work at various national and international conferences. He is a management graduate from Uttar Pradesh Technical University, Lucknow. He has qualified UGC NET & JRF in Management. He started his academic career in 2008 and he has more than 13 years of teaching and research experience.
