Higher education and professional training courses are moving into the metaverse—introducing new subjects for study and offering a new formula for virtual learning.
Roblox and Parsons School of Design are teaching a digital fashion course. The new course, which will be offered in the spring 2023 semester, will explore virtual fashion trends and will teach students how to design and sell digital clothing. The course offers students an “opportunity to engage the complex intersection of visual culture and social structure, and to play with how we make meaning when we dress ourselves—in digital and physical worlds,” said Shana Agid, dean of the School of Art & Media Technology at Parsons School of Design, in a press release.
Meta hopes to transform the way people learn with its Immersive Learning offerings, which includes a partnership with VictoryXR to create virtual metaversities of existing schools. One participating campus, Morehouse College, will begin holding classes in the metaverse in spring of 2023. Professor Ovell Hamilton will teach Black history exclusively in the metaverse. The first-of-its-kind course will use virtual reality to transport students back in time. “That is an experience that they would not have if they were sitting in a classroom, if they were sitting in a lecture,” Hamilton said.
Students at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania can now become certified in metaverse business. The certification program, called “Business in the Metaverse Economy,” is designed for “business professionals and executives from a range of backgrounds, including finance, management, and tech,” said the program’s academic director, Professor Kevin Werbach. “The metaverse is a significant and broad phenomenon that is still poorly understood. We hope to equip business leaders, consultants, and entrepreneurs with an understanding of the impending opportunities the metaverse brings, as well as the practical knowledge to build solutions of value.”
The University of Tokyo plans to open a metaverse school of engineering, which will offer free lectures about digital technologies and entrepreneurship to high school students and working professionals.
The metaverse is upending a swath of industries, and education is no exception. Expect to see more universities holding classes in the metaverse and educating students on metabusiness.
