Metaverse education is a 3D digital space mixed with the real and virtual worlds. The impact of metaverse education exceeds the societal impact of smartphones. Students can now learn in a new environment and gain great experience. Nothing is interesting as being able to go on every trip you wish virtually.

Otherwise, who would dare miss going to the surface of Mars virtually? Metaverse is a combination of physical-persisted virtual space and virtually-enhanced physical reality. This is a great opportunity for students to explore beyond their limits. 

How metaverse will change education?

Higher education aims to prepare students with real-world experiences needed in the workforce. Metaverse technologies are already changing the learning models in higher education centers.

That’s why this great transformation must be embraced. A lot of companies and businesses out there are readying themselves for the metaverse. There are many ways in which the metaverse is going to make the education sector better, and these ways include the following;

Active learning

With the metaverse technology, students will be more active. They will be fully immersed in the learning rather than passive information consumers. Students love field trips. But this is only possible for some schools to organize frequent trips. If schools can find a way of giving students the field trips they want, then they will get the education they deserve.

Metaverse technology makes this possible without any complicated logistics of a physical excursion. Students will be able to learn about climate change on a virtual trip. This is a more engaging way than when using VR and watching traditional 2D videos.

Analytics for educators

Analytics from the metaverse help educators tailor instructions for students. It sounds interesting to be able to identify students’ needs easily. Isn’t it? For a long time, educators have been downloading reading materials from the internet. Then, these reading materials are customized to meet the needs of the learners.

Metaverse technology will bring about flipped classrooms. In this case, students learn new materials at home and then discuss their learning. There are more new ways for educators to develop educational content that involves the students in the learning process more emphatically. Learning will be much easier with the metaverse-based modules, and engagement in classroom will increase.

Virtual reality for STEM experiments and history

Universities are investing in virtual human interaction labs with a database of VR apps. So, they can offer self-guided tours of different historical places worldwide as recreated by scientific organizations. This is just a tip for virtual reality. More is yet to be discovered for detailed active learning.

As a result, students can do things they wouldn’t otherwise have an opportunity to do. Some of the STEM experiments are very expensive and dangerous. But with virtual reality, experiments can be done anywhere in a large, well-equipped lab.

XR in classroom

The XR in the classroom will enhance learning in different ways. Extended reality combines the three reality – virtual, augmented, and mixed (VR, AR and MR). Students will be able to experience highly immersive AR overlay in their practical sessions or exams. They will also be able to use the Oculus headsets or any other alternative to study the body structure and look at every part inside like in real. That means study science won’t just theory and basic practical anymore.

Medicine students can perform brain surgery without operating on a patient. On the other hand, pilots will learn how to land safely in a place without the inherent dangers of flight. It can be interesting mastering trade in a low stake yet a realistic environment that’s cost-effective and less stressful.

For all this to be possible, there is a need for strong internet connectivity. And that’s why researchers are investing in a 5G-powered metaverse to power a new universe for students and educators. But why does the educational metaverse need 5G?

How 5G will change the game through educational metaverse?

Most of the virtual reality metaverse experiences work well with a typical Wi-Fi. Though, regarding complex experiments, 5G comes in handy. The main reason is that it provides the important scalability support which many students and educators worldwide always need.

A typical Wi-Fi connection cannot support multiple devices at once. That’s especially if the devices are offloading computational processes to the edge cloud. The 5G network is being slowly rolled out, but the hardware producers still need buffer time. This implies that Wi-Fi-based XR devices will be created in the first ad, then the devices that support 5G spectrum. 

In education field, there are VR or AR experiences does not need high level latencies. Take the instance of a demanding design or engineering project that requires multiple students coming together to achieve the project goals. The project will require faster synchronization in the metaverse sphere so that it’s available to all the learners at same time.

For special cases, there are AR experiences that require outdoor mobility. And in this case, there will be a need for fast-moving process handovers and any other related things in terms of mobility support. The 5G researchers have mastered this.

Advantages of metaverse in education

There is an aspect of ensuring optimum security for virtual learning environments. This robust security feature ensures that learners and educators remain secure. So, learners have access to secure networks, devices, and clouds. Accordingly, the several shared features of the metaverse can be summarized as follows;

Digital identity

With the metaverse technology, each user can customize their own digital identity in the form of an avatar. The customization process is user-defined and more advanced than ever before. You can manipulate and control your avatar with the help of real-time tracking technologies. This 3D representation of users plays a vital role in the metaverse world’s ownership, socialization, and interactivity.

Collection of technologies

The metaverse is a familiar entity for AR or VR. It’s a collection of emergent technologies like the digital twins, 5G, and AI. AR, blockchain, IoT, and holography. You will need several technologies to build a framework for a specific realm of education, like entertainment. That’s because it will consist of several components with different functions per the user’s needs.

Immersive and multisensory experience

The metaverse experience is amazing by vivid and colorful scenes modeled by technologies. All these scenes deliver a deep feeling of immersion. You can interact with virtual created items or any other item projected from the real world. This makes multimodal experience possible as you can feel like you are in the real world.

Convergence of the virtual and real world

Convergence of the virtual and real world is the most basic feature of the metaverse. Just like from the definition, the metaverse combines virtually-enhanced reality with physical-persisted virtual space. That means it includes both augmented or mapped from the real world. Then, these creations are produced in the virtual world for learning purposes.

Decentralized and editable content

The metaverse entitles all students and learners to edit or create content with a virtual nature. They can change properties, orientation, or the position of their items. On metaverse, you can co-create or modify any shared content. You can also run your digital properties and security technologies. This is unlike when using a typical internet for learning. In this case, content is limited to specific groups, like developers, to edit it.

Conclusion

The technological leaps of the metaverse have offered great possibilities for developing the education system. It’s expected that more students and educators will likely spend more time in the metaverse in the future. This could be for entertainment, socialization, or education. A lot of innovations are expected which will completely change the education experience.