The CEU expands virtual teaching in its university metaverse

In his continuous interest in responding to the current needs and demands of the University and Society, the CEUs has created a think tank about the metaverse which, along with the current Metaverse Observatory R&D Community Labintends to continue exploring this technological environment that is already transforming our way of seeing and interacting with the world, as a space where the border between the real and the virtual is blurred.

This Reflection Group, coordinated by Juan Manuel Corpavice-rector for Digital Transformation at the CEU Cardenal Herrera University (Valencia) and promoter of the CEU Metaverse, wants to focus on the possibilities that this technology can offer in the teaching field, as a useful tool for both the teacher and the student.

college metaverse

The CEU, which has launched a university metaverse, was the first in Spain to virtually replicate its campuses, as well as the urban environment of its three universities: San Pablo (Madrid), Abat Oliba (Barcelona) and Cardenal Herrera (Valencia).

The think tankwhich will have the participation of teachers from all faculties, experts in different thematic areas (legal, economic, anthropological, education, health, communication, etc.), will organize periodic meetings in which new trends, updates and ideas regarding this reality will be discussed.

Incorporating the metaverse in teaching is also the objective of this forum, which estimates that in a few years it will be a tangible reality, for which we must be prepared and take measures that allow us to anticipate. Study, analyze, break down and integrate the metaverse in the teaching activity to show it to students. studentsit will be necessary in a world in which many of these students will develop their professional activity.

Likewise, the metaverse and the entire technology that is developing around it can become a business opportunity for those corporations that understand it, take the initiative and know how to adapt.

CEU Metaverse

the virtual world of CEU Metaverse It covers the campuses of the three CEU universities, where students can interact, get to know the facilities in detail, carry out different learning activities to consolidate the knowledge acquired in classes and carry out various administrative procedures such as accessing courses or finding a job. In addition, it seeks to integrate the CEU Universities with the cities and towns where they are physically built to enhance the interaction between neighbors Y students. To achieve this, as the metaverse grows, local businesses will be incorporated to provide services to university students.

The integration of a layer of real images and videos in 360º complements the user experience. Various university services have also been incorporated through characters not playable (NPCs), which gives students access to their virtual counters. The pilot experience of this project has been successfully developed and tested in the educational version of Minecraft (Minecraft Education Edition) and, at the moment, its migration to the commercial version of Java and other platforms is being studied in order to increase the number of concurrent users in the same world.

New ideas

The University also continues to advance in the development and investigation of new ideas around the metaverse. Work is currently being done on the incorporation of an economic system, regulated by blockchain. Students will earn rewards (tokens) based on academic results achieved within the metaverse. In this way, students will be able to exchange these tokens to carry out activities within the university or even for products in the real world. It would be, therefore, a new reward system based on academic excellence by which students will get benefits thanks to the effort in the study. In other words, it would be a new modality of scholarships, but adapted to the metaverse.