Colleges in the US are facing the growing problems of rising tuition costs and increased debt threatening the affordability of following on-campus learning models. As a result, universities are turning to online solutions to provide alternative methods of acquiring an education while streamlining on-campus learning opportunities.
Offering more courses online is viewed by some institutions as a method of reducing costs, reducing class sizes and easing the workload for university instructors. According to a Campus Technology article focused on an Educause survey, student preference for online learning has grown 220% since pre-pandemic learning. EdSurge data claims that 70% of today’s students prefer online or hybrid models.
Critics are concerned that online models and methodologies create less immersive and distracting elements that affect the overall learning process.
Advances in Web3 technology provide compelling ideas that can impact the virtual educational experience. While some metaverse technologies may still need time to fully mature, opportunities are emerging for universities and schools. Morehouse College recently became the first institution to host classes in the metaverse.
Individuals from the video game world continue to innovate, using the metaverse as the landscape of possibility. Alejandro Saez is the founder of eGoGames and the current Executive Director and CEO of Utopia, a development and consulting firm accelerating metaverse ecosystems for major corporate brands and the education sector. Utopia offers individual and corporate metaverse training and certification through its subsidiary Utopia Voyagers.
In the words of Saez, “Utopia’s mission is to bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds to provide users with a more immersive and tangible experience. We are leveraging the innovative power of Web3 technology to provide a user-controlled and managed ecosystem of Internet resources.”
I sat down with Mr. Saez to discuss his company’s role in advancing the capabilities of the metaverse and his development of space avatars. He discusses how recent efforts are contributing to an inevitable future, including greater acceptance within education.
Rod Berger: You attribute much of Utopia’s success to the team behind it. Can you tell us about your team?
Alejandro Saez: Yes, sometimes the speed of your success can be determined by who you have on a project. Everyone on the executive team has a wealth of experience running a variety of businesses.
I am what you call a serial entrepreneur. From starting a franchise when I was 19 to founding eGoGames in 2017, leading three rounds of funding and buying Virtual Voyagers, I’ve been at it for a while. Our executive vice president, Javier Garcia, is the owner and leader of Asterius VC, a venture capital firm.
Maria Bravo and Eva Longoria are our connections to the entertainment world. Maria is our branding expert and founder of Global Gift Foundation, which focuses on promoting high-profile celebrity events in the world of philanthropy. An excellent group of leaders and people move up and down the hierarchy.
salvager: What was the reason for developing the Utopia Avatars as a company?
Saez: As a company already building robust virtual ecosystems for its customers, this felt like the next natural step. If you already have a detailed virtual world that reflects all the elements and possibilities of the natural world, the next step is for humans to occupy that world.
Utopia avatars are high-quality 3D avatars that you can use to move around and experience the metaverse as you would in real life. Owning a Utopia avatar gives anyone access to Utopia’s metaverse ecosystem that can be accessed through any device. You could also redeem the utilities annually through the non-fungible token (NFT), taking the project beyond just art.
salvager: How did you manage to grow with all the uncertainty surrounding Web3? Were you early to enter the process?
Saez: We have raised capital before building our Web3 community to execute on our vision to deliver long-term benefits to the project on a constant growth basis. Asterius Venture Capital led the round. They are a venture capital fund that likes to get involved in people-oriented investments.
It says a lot to have a talented and scalable team structure to address the wider possibilities of digital identities. The market has not been optimistic since our inception. It’s hard to prove that your products and projects are in high demand when there’s uncertainty all over the Web3 industry. We overcame those fears and raised funds before our Avatar product launched.
salvager: For the general public to understand, what are the main differences between virtual reality (VR) and the metaverse? Can you describe the difference?
Saez: The simplest way I can put it is that VR and the metaverse focus on bringing rich, virtual experiences, but their applications and scope differ. Virtual reality, as we know it, offers an experience limited by VR headsets and controllers. When using a VR headset, you never forget that with a screen in front of your eyes you can explore a virtual area while controlling things with a laser or joystick.
Utopia’s venture into Web3 focuses on user representation through avatars The metaverse has no such restrictions. It’s a 3D representation of the internet that looks and feels like real-world components.
And so, unlike VR, where the experience is defined by the brand that owns it, say Oculus Rift, no one owns the metaverse, just as no one owns the internet. Your avatar can visit various metaverses and virtual environments on the Internet in the same way that we visit various websites. This unrestricted nature is why educators find these opportunities extremely attractive.
The metaverse is a confluence of VR, augmented reality and other advanced technology to create a fully-fledged digital world where you can live as you would in real life.
recovery: Do you see this reverse evolution impacting the education sector and how our educational institutions run their services?
Saez: I believe the metaverse is poised to hit any sector, but none are more suited to this disruption than the education sector. We are already in a major disruption with online learning taking center stage. The shift from online learning as we know it today is similar to what would be available in the metaverse. It would be a more immersive experience, but the original concept of commute-free learning would remain the same.
There are already a number of projects within the industry aimed at creating metaverse-based learning platforms, so it’s conceivable that this is closer than most expect.
salvager: Where are Web3 and the metaverse going?
Saez: The main value that the metaverse brings is its boundless nature. People see it as a second chance in life to be everything, and everything they want or can be in the real world. So, for example, a five-foot-tall guy could be a six-foot-tall basketball player in the metaverse. But while some want to be completely different from what they are in the real world, others want an exact digital replica of themselves in the metaverse.
When it comes to businesses, the possibilities for branding, marketing, and customer service are endless. I see videoconferencing meetings and college lectures replaced with meetings in the metaverse. Customer support personnel would be able to interact with customers in the metaverse, and more companies would have fully functional metaverse ecosystems like the ones we’re already building for our customers. In these ecosystems, customers and customers meet through different points of communication and transaction.
A lot can change in our world with the metaverse and metaverse-ready avatars. It is now difficult for anyone to know all the directions this evolution could take.
salvager: If innovation increases, where do you see Utopia in a few years?
Saez: There is already a lot of competition for places in this relatively new space. Big companies like Facebook Amazon and Microsoft are pouring in billions to get a foothold in the future of the metaverse so I think it’s a testament to the uniqueness of what we’re doing that we’ve been able to secure funding and keep pace keep with them. But of course we still have a long way to go, but so does everyone else.
After the success of our start-up financing, we are on the right track. We are developing a close-knit community that provides resources and activities that allow members to benefit from the digital and physical experiences we curate.
We want to continue to grow our community by helping them build ecosystems, launch real-life (IRL) businesses, and encourage altruistic activity. The big difference is that in a few years we will all be doing this on a larger scale.
As online learning models continue to expand within education, the capabilities of the metaverse also come into play.
Morehouse College’s recent inaugural approval to integrate the metaverse into active learning opportunities may mark the beginning of a new normal in education. Many issues still need to be ironed out for greater understanding and acceptance of the metaverse.
Partnerships are part of the equation that ensures greater long-term viability for an industry that is still in its infancy. Alejandro Saez and his team recently kicked off a collaboration with Deepak Chopra and Poonacha Machaiah’s Seva.Love.
The NFT platform aims to enable global action that benefits society worldwide. Philanthropy-based efforts like this provide useful examples for a metaverse that needs more positive public attention.
Quelle:
Foto :getty
Web3 and the metaverse actively provide a canvas for education to paint.
