Courses in the Metaverse Struggle To Compete With Real World (ft.com) 18
Fulfilment of initial promise made for the technology remains elusive. From a report: The Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) has offered a tantalising prospect to people who want to learn but don't like to leave the house: join us 'virtually, for a postgraduate course in the metaverse.' Students signing up to WU's professional master of sustainability, entrepreneurship and technology programme can complete the entire part-time course -- attending lectures, meeting their classmates for a coffee and so on -- by just logging in via a laptop. The course -- developed in partnership with Tomorrow University of Applied Sciences, an edtech start-up based in Berlin -- is one of many examples where business schools have embraced the metaverse, 3D technology, virtual reality headsets and avatars to extend the reach of management and leadership training.
Setting up the course "provides us with greater reach, making the course more global," explains Barbara Stottinger, dean of WU's executive academy. However, she is quick to add: "Vienna is a great location so coming to campus is still pretty attractive to most of our students." And this is the problem at the heart of why many business schools have been reluctant to enter the metaverse for course tuition: studying in the real world has its advantages. Teaching the interpersonal skills of leadership and networking that are so integral to postgraduate management courses, like the MBA, is better done in person. It also avoids having to fund purchases of the hardware and software necessary for metaverse projects. Meanwhile, the metaverse has been caught in an extreme example of a 'hype cycle.' This is where wild enthusiasm about a new technology turns to widespread rejection, as its reality fails to live up to what is claimed for it.
Setting up the course "provides us with greater reach, making the course more global," explains Barbara Stottinger, dean of WU's executive academy. However, she is quick to add: "Vienna is a great location so coming to campus is still pretty attractive to most of our students." And this is the problem at the heart of why many business schools have been reluctant to enter the metaverse for course tuition: studying in the real world has its advantages. Teaching the interpersonal skills of leadership and networking that are so integral to postgraduate management courses, like the MBA, is better done in person. It also avoids having to fund purchases of the hardware and software necessary for metaverse projects. Meanwhile, the metaverse has been caught in an extreme example of a 'hype cycle.' This is where wild enthusiasm about a new technology turns to widespread rejection, as its reality fails to live up to what is claimed for it.
just online classes, relabeled (Score:2)
This seems to be nothing but online classes, relabeled with a trendier title.
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Just this. VR is not as good at being real life as real life is, but it can do things that you otherwise cannot. Take advantage of that in the VR courseware, use learning simulations that you couldn't afford to implement in meatspace, and maybe it will be successful.
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That's what I was trying to discern. The "just join from your laptop" makes it sound like it's buzzwordifying zoom lectures. However they further mention VR headsets, but then "business schools" guides me back to the assumption that they are just making their offering buzz compliant without substance, perhaps with a few token uses of a VR headset hear and there.
That's not to claim that a VR headset doing anything credibly called 'metaverse' would necessarily fare better, but this has the extra burden of l
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This seems to be nothing but online classes, relabeled with a trendier title.
I would agree. Seeing the instructor in 3d? maybe a few 3D models of molecules? Maybe they can ressurect smellovision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] for chemistry classes? Surely seems like more of a distraction than anything else, a solution to a non-problem.
marketing to shut-ins.... (Score:2)
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"prospect to people who want to learn but don't like to leave the house:" Come on hikikomori, at some point, you'll need to leave to actually get a job...
Exactly. At some point, the never leave home model is pretty counterproductive other than for people who are suffering from agoraphobia. They rather like that, although it seems like hell on earth to the rest of us who aren't suffering from it.
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ACME, ACYOU (Score:1)
Cheap-ass Physics courses will be AI-trained on cartoon and movie physics. When the students get to the real world, all their spring-loaded TNT magnets won't work and they'll sue.
Have you tried.. (Score:2)
Using a bunch of virtual IoT devices powered by virtual solar roadways to help with the teaching?
The Real World *is* the Metaverse (Score:2)
That "Metaverse" is all around us, it's just not built out yet.
Once we wallpaper all reality with displays and overlays and sensors and behaviors and reactives,
what's the difference between seeing it on a display, seeing it thru a face hugger, or seeing it "for real"?
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And education is probably going to be the VERY LAST thing to be conquered by the internet.
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And education is probably going to be the VERY LAST thing to be conquered by the internet.
That's quite the odd prognostication, as education is something that the Internet excels at right at this very moment. I learn more math, science, technology, and history in a day on the Internet than I learned in weeks in meatspace schools.
Let me know when I can, at the very least, have a meatspace lecturer repeat himself as many times as needed until I understand what he's saying. Or when I can instantly call in as many subject-matter professionals as I need to rephrase the answers until one of them hits
Lectures On Tape (Score:2)
Wow, distance learning has come a long way since they used to mail you cassette tapes of the lectures... Not sure they're more effective though.
hype cycle? (Score:2)
Everything Meta (Score:2)
Everything in Meta is worse than an alternative available elsewhere. Certainly worse than the real world, but generally even worse than other virtual alternatives.
I fail to see anything Meta excels at.
For business people... (Score:2)
#1 To reach potential students who, due to circumstances, can't or won't attend in person, particularly people who have families &/or are working. This is the most common application & has been the mission of open universities around the world since the 1970s.
#2 To save money with economies of scale, i.e. the cost of developing & a
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Distance, and online Universities have been around for more than 50 years. (Disclaimer, Graduate of the UK's The Open University). Distance education can provide big advantages for both the student and the provider. It's not for everyone. Nor is it suitable for every type of course, all the time. (Just like in the office, it isn't necessary for all education to be 100% in person, either).
It seems like the Meta version didn't live up to expectations. However, if the appropriate analysis is done, it can provi