Date:
November 12, 2024
Meta has partnered with universities in the US and UK to improve feedback on VR’s role in education, including science, history, medicine, and arts.
Meta has been involved in an ongoing effort to integrate Virtual Reality into education. As part of the effort, Meta has signed partnerships with leading universities in the US and UK. The partnership is strategically designed to provide on-ground feedback on Meta’s new VR product that can help make it more mainstream in science, medicine, history, language, and arts.
Meta has enrolled in 13 educational institutions in the Education Beta program, which will get early access to a product Meta has been teasing for some time. The partner universities include Arizona State University, Houston Community College, Imperial College London, Miami Dade College, Morehouse College, New Mexico State University, San Diego State University, Savannah College of Art & Design, The University of Glasgow, University of Iowa, University of Leeds, University of Miami, and University of Michigan.
One of the early receivers of the Meta VR product, University of Miami Professor and University XR Initiative Lead Kim Grinfeder, said, “The first time I put on a headset, it was immediately apparent to me that this is not like a screen or TV. It had a completely different feeling. We were creating experiences. I immediately recognized this as a tool that’s going to change education—change the way we teach. It allows us to bring the world into the classroom.”
The introduction of VR into classrooms has helped improve engagement and learning outcomes. Morehouse College witnessed a sudden jump of 10% in attendance rates, while student achievements and grades collectively grew by 11%.
The program has a built-in trust factor supporting the innovative experiments. New Mexico State University Director of Microcredentials Instructional Design Andrew Sedillo said, “Meta checks in with us—they’re asking us what they can do to improve the products, and they’re actually listening. And because of that, we’ve developed a lot of trust with Meta because we understand that they’re putting out a product that’s going to impact educators in a positive way.”
“I’m really happy to be pioneering this with Meta and that Meta chose to partner with us and not assume that they had all the answers.”
-Morehouse College Metaversity Director Dr. Muhsinah Morris.
Even though the Education beta program is in its early phase, the response and positive outcomes have emerged impressively. With continued feedback, VR can pose great potential for empowering advanced education practices for both mainstream and niche academic fields.
