Virtual Reality (VR), Extended Reality (XR), and the Metaverse – Many organizations are struggling with how to use these technologies effectively. Learn how to expand these digital worlds in your organization with this recent Q&A with Tom Pizer, CTO of GP Strategies.
What is the metaverse?
The metaverse is an older term to describe a virtual reality space where users can interact with a computer-generated environment. This interactive environment can be accessed through virtual reality headsets and can be viewed through computer and phone screens. The environment can be designed as a large convention center for events, individual or joint classrooms, workshops, meeting spaces, concept visualizations, digital worlds and much more.
What are the differences in technologies and terminology?
- Virtual reality: Virtual reality is a virtual environment that excludes the real world and creates another virtual environment before your eyes. To experience virtual reality, you need a special headset that immerses you in the new reality.
- Augmented Reality (AR): With AR, the real world remains central to your experience and is enhanced by virtual details. Virtual details are typically overlaid on a phone or tablet screen, allowing you to learn more about an object by pointing your device at it.
- Mixed Reality (MR): MR combines virtual and real realities, allowing you to interact with both at the same time.
- Extended Reality: XR is when these various technologies are used together. Now that the technology is here, it’s time to refine and expand it. We need to think about combining virtual and augmented realities to enable hybrid learning experiences between virtual and face-to-face environments.
- Metaverse: The metaverse is a persistent virtual reality space available and accessible at any time for users. These can be created with a variety of purposes in mind.
What kinds of learning can be put into the metaverse?
VR technologies are getting better and more accessible, so the capabilities and what can be built in the metaverse is constantly expanding. So far, learning in the metaverse has been effective in three categories.
- Hard Skills Development: The metaverse can provide opportunities to learn and practice these skills in a variety of ways, such as operating a vehicle, operating complex machinery and equipment safely, going through procedures such as plant start-up activities, putting on the correct safety equipment and more. .
- Soft skills development: Designers can use the metaverse to simulate and create branching experiences for customers, from sales scenarios to customer service, to work with concepts like emotional intelligence, or to facilitate live coaching and mentoring.
- Collaborative workshop environments: While this category overlaps with the previous two, it can also be used to work with others outside of skills development, such as attending and giving lectures, hosting meetings or productivity workshops, sharing resources, working in digital office spaces, and more. .
How is the metaverse transforming learning?
Learning in the metaverse creates a level of presence from the perspectives of designers and learners. By using the VR headset, you limit the number of users who can multitask, for example, making it easier to stay on task.
The simulated environment is globally accessible, eliminating constraints, logistics, and travel budget. Offering persistent digital environments can also help remove some of the time constraints of teams with complex schedules and in different time zones.
What is special or different about learning in the metaverse?
It is amazing how easily our senses can adapt. The experience feels like a personal space and there is a sense of realism, while also providing capabilities that users would not have in the real world. Examples of these abilities could be jumping from building to building like a superhero or shrinking down to a tiny size to float through an exhaust system to better understand the inner workings.
Any content that can be embedded in a website could also be embedded in a 3D environment, and users can explore and manipulate it.
Create and update the environment from within
The development of VR and metaverse environments, programs and projects is becoming increasingly simple. There are plenty of templates to get you started, apps available to provide tools with less coding, and companies that can partner to deliver more complex VR experiences.
You can access more information about VR and the metaverse here. You can watch the interview with Tom here and see what a multi-room flying building can look like and how Tom is working with companies to deliver successful metaverse learning experiences.