These are campuses created in the metaverse under the demand of college, university center or university leaders to enhance immersive learning. The creation or (co) creation of digital twins from the physical higher education institution can be considered an advance of virtual and augmented reality in the educational area, since it enables immersive teaching and learning in higher education through virtual realities, augmented, mixed, or extended. The first metaversities were created in 2018 and, with the improvement of software and hardware, higher education institutions invested in technological infrastructure and in the purchase of glasses and headsets with virtual reality. The perception that simulations in health courses and immersive laboratories could help in teaching and learning increased the demand for the development of immersive educational solutions. The reduction of costs with physical structure and the mitigation of risks leveraged investments in metaverses for higher education. Companies such as VictoryXR and Frame are responsible for developing educational opportunities in higher education with virtual, augmented, mixed and extended realities. The proposal is that errors can be added to learning from an andragogical point of view and do not cause damage to human lives and infrastructure. Academics [avatars or digital humans] can experience the functioning of a human heart, for example, and can return to the organ whenever they have doubts. Professors, academics, and technical and administrative staff are three-dimensional digital avatars or humans in metaversity. One must replicate campuses in the metaverse is a limited use and research within the metaverse ecosystem in higher education should be encouraged so that phygital [physical and digital] opportunities enhance the inseparability of teaching, research, and extension activities. Innovation, disruptive technologies, and professions that do not yet exist in the educational area with the metaverse may be able to enable quality and environmental and social management in metaversities. The extension of campuses in the metaverse is sought, not just the digital twin and the digital can complement the physical in the phygital transformation.
Published in Chapter:
Metaverse in Higher Education and the Metaversities: Disruptive Technologies and Innovations in Industry 5.0 for Phygital Transformation
Copyright: © 2024
|Pages: 27
DOI: 10.4018/979-8-3693-2314-4.ch011
Abstract
This chapter was written based on an exploratory study, reports, and articles current at the time of writing; however, over time, it tends to have historical characteristics in relation to metaversity. The objective was to highlight the growth mindset and disruptive technologies and innovations for the metaverse in higher education. In the exploratory research, it was revealed, in the metaverse ecosystem, the existence of metaversities, the possibilities of the metaverse for higher education institutions and the presence of phygital transformation in educational contents and activities. It was concluded that new research and new paradigms are needed for disruptive technologies in the metaverse ecosystem and metaversity has the potential to bring together realities, simulations, campus replicas, time and space travel, and meaningful and immersive experiences with augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, and extended reality.