Meta Launches An Immersive Learning Project Across Ten Campuses

Meta Launches An Immersive Learning Project Across Ten Campuses

The metaverse-focused social media company, Meta is supporting universities to set up their virtual reality campuses online. The company will be opening ten virtual campuses as part of its Immersive Learning Project, which seeks to take education into virtual reality environments. Meta will invest USD 150 million in this initiative in partnership with VictoryXR, an Iowa-based virtual reality education startup.

Universities in the Metaverse

One of the biggest applications of virtual reality and metaverse technology has to do with education and the possibility of virtual reality classes. The social media giant Meta is supporting ten universities to launch their Metaverse campuses.

The University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC), an online university, is one among them. The more than 45,000 students of the university will now be able to meet in a metaverse online to convene and share their experiences.

Daniel Mintz, Chairman of the Department of Information Technology at UMGC, stated:

"We’ve never had a campus before, and now we have our first. It has a duck pond."

The university will offer five courses on the metaverse campus at no additional cost compared to non-immersive courses. However, the university has a limited number of headsets that are required for the courses.

The University of Kansas, School of Nursing, New Mexico State University, South Dakota State University, Florida A&M University, West Virginia University, Southwestern Oregon Community College, California State University, Dominguez Hills, and Alabama A&M University are the other universities in the project.

Meta’s Involvement

Meta is donating its Meta Quest headsets to the institutions to be used in the courses. One of the goals of Meta's Immersive Learning Project is to increase student access to technologies through collaboration with organizations and universities. Part of the USD 150 million investment for Meta is to deliver headsets in partnership with VictoryXR, the company that is designing the Metaverse campuses.

Meta has also helped universities pay for the design and construction of the spaces, which can cost USD 50k for a five- to seven-building campus. Steve Grubbs, the Founder of VictoryXR, stated:

"Education is an exciting use case for the metaverse, and Meta Immersive Learning will help creators around the world gain skills for the metaverse and create immersive experiences for learners."

Meta’s pivot to virtual reality has caused the company to lose money, as its metaverse division, the Reality Labs unit, reported losses of USD 2.8 billion in Q2 2022. The company also had its first bond issuance in August, selling USD 10 billion in debt to invest in metaverse products and other initiatives.