More on “Metaverse University”

I still have no idea what “The Metaverse” actually is, but it’s clearly the flavor of the year.   And where the hype goes, University administrations are sure to follow. 

My own view is that this chatter about the “Metaverse University” is far too premature , though it may help clarify some of the hype about the Metaverse.

You want to see premature?  Take a gander at “National Metaverse Strategies”, big picture hype if I ever saw it [1].  The Metaverse is pretty much a Rorschach Ink Blot on which big brains can project their own goals and dreams.  These “National Strategies” have little to do with each other (except expressing economic nationalism), but do tell us about the aspirations of the respective governments.

On the “Metaverse University” front, there are some reality-based discussions developing. As I commented earlier, we’ve been thinking about and experimenting with virtual classrooms and so on for quite a while now.  Look back at the earliest web conferences.  Look back at the earliest VR conferences. We’ve been thinking about this for a long time now, even if Silicon Valley venture capitalists dropped out before they got to these studies.

This winter Sorel Reisman throws some cold water on some of the hype about virtual classrooms in the Metaverse [2].  The reality is that the technology is no where near ready, or cheap enough, for use at the scale of a University Campus. 

This is a bit ironic, because one of the biggest advantages of digital instruction has been low cost.  The Metaverse has all the drawbacks of the internet, plus it ismore expensive than in person instruction.

Reisman points out that developing curricula and teaching materials for the Metaverse is still to be done. It’s not just that there aren’t any lessons prepared already. Unless you want to just do a virtual power point presentation, most teachers do not have the knowledge or technology to actually teach in VR.

Reisman notes that, despite decades of teaching over the internet, the intellectual property law and licensing rules are complex and unsettled.  And, no, using a blockchain does not “solve” licensing.

And, of course, the Metaverse is data intensive.  Student data is protected by law in many jurisdictions, so it is not OK to do whatever you want in the Metaverse University.  Online privacy law is evolving rapidly, and most of it is not designed for instructional settings.  So the legal rules are only going to get more complicated.

(Should I point out that VR is unusable by students (and teachers!) with limited eyesight?  What’s the plan for teaching people who have limitations of various kinds?)

Finally, Reisman wonders how instruction and instructors will be evaluated in the Metaverse. He’s pickng up on the fact that a lot of teacher rating hinges on appearances. So, will students give high ratings to favorite avatars? If so, should these ratings ascribe to the human teacher behind the avatar? Discuss.

I’ll expand on these concerns to wonder how well instruction even works in the Metaverse, good ratings or not.

We know from recent pandemic experience that digital instruction is pretty iffy, and the results definitely vary from student to student.  Worse, many students are left behind when they drop out of the technological connection, or simply hide their disengagement behind a technological curtain.  I’m not optimistic that adding VR and blockchain will keep marginal students engaged any better than Zoom or whatever. 

If the Metaverse University is about teaching in the Metaverse environment, it doesn’t seem to offer much other than novelty. And, frankly, for students familiar with video gaming, it’s not even novel.

I’m having trouble finding any reason to take “the Metaverse” seriously.

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1. Nir Kshetri, National Metaverse Strategies. Computer, 56 (2):137-142,  2023. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10042106
2. Sorel Reisman, Metaverse-Based Instructional Settings: Matters That Matter. Computer, 56 (2):111-115,  2023. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10042082