Tech CEOs keep talking about “the metaverse.” Mark Zuckerberg insists that Facebook will be seen as a “metaverse company” instead of a social media company. Satya Nadella proclaims Microsoft is creating a “metaverse stack” for the enterprise.
Author Neil Stephenson coined the term “metaverse” in Snow Crash, a dystopian cyberpunk novel published in 1992.
In the novel, the metaverse is a sort of 3D virtual world. It’s not simply a virtual reality game but is a persistent, shared virtual world. Or rather, the metaverse is a whole universe of shared virtual spaces seemingly linked together—you could, essentially, teleport between them.
If you think this all sounds a bit like Ready Player One or a higher-tech version of Second Life, you’re right.
virtual reality (VR) and not augmented reality (AR) was necessary for that kind of vision
To Zuckerberg and other tech CEOs, the concept of “the metaverse” seems to have more in common with “Web 2.0.” It’s a bunch of new technologies: VR headsets! Presence! Persistent digital worlds
Microsoft’s vision of the metaverse seems to take the form of rambling, buzzword-heavy talk about “digital twins” and “converging the physical with the digital” with “mixed reality.” Microsoft’s Azure cloud can do it!
The terms ‘extended reality’ or ‘cross reality’ refer to “technologies and applications that involve combinations of mixed reality (MR), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and virtual worlds (VWs)” (Ziker, Truman, & Dodds, 2021, p. 56). Immersive learning definitions draw from Milgram and Kishino’s key taxonomy (1994) emphasizing the continuum of experiences that range from where a computer adds to a learner’s reality with overlays of information, or a computer experientially transports a learner to a different place and time by manipulating sight and sound.
VR Design Model
three different design models (see Figure 3): the ADDIE Design Model (Branson, 1978), Design Thinking (Brown & Wyatt, 2010) from user experience (UX), and the 3D Learning Experience Design Model (Kapp & O’Driscoll, 2009).
Serrat (2008) defines storytelling as “the vivid description of ideas, beliefs, personal experiences, and life-lessons through stories or narratives that evoke powerful emotions and insights” (p.1).
The foundational theory for most XR experiences is experiential learning theory. In cases where users create within XR, constructivist learning theory also applies.
XR experiences can include a story arc (See Appendix D), a tutorial of user affordances, intentional user actions, and place the user into first or third person experiences (Spillers, 2020).
Virtual Reality Improves Emotional but Not Cognitive Empathy
more immersive and interactive VR experiences were no more effective at arousing empathy than less expensive VR experiences such as cardboard headsets.
Founded in 2012 and previously known as AxonVR, the company’s tech promises to deliver realistic touch feedback to users reaching out for objects in VR, thanks to microfluidics in the glove system that physically and precisely displace the skin on a user’s hands and fingers.
Virtual and augmented reality have not yet reached mainstream consumers as some predicted but enterprise-focused startups such as HaptX have found traction. Large tech companies such as Facebook and Apple also continue investing in the technology, and investors keep making bets.
According to the author of the report, one of the participants in the AI education market will be IBM, AWS, Microsoft, Google, Nuance, Century Tech, Blackboard, Pearson, Cognii, Volley.com, Blippar, Knewton, Jenzabar, Content Technologies, PLEIQ, Luilishuo, Pixatel System, Cerevrum Inc., CheckiO, and Quantum Adaptive Learning.
Europe is expected to hold a significant market share with supportive government initiatives.
Nurse’s Escape is a VR game that simulates an escape room based on the five stages of the Sepsis Bundle. The purpose is to supplement nurse’s lecture-style curriculum with an interactive way to test nurse’s Sepsis knowledge. Sepsis is one of the leading causes of deaths and hospitalizations yearly, so equipping nurses with the right skills and information to treat sepsis in a timely manner can save lives and money. Help treat the millionaire’s illness before time runs out!
This game is sponsored by the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s College of Nursing-Lincoln.
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Australian hospitals leveraging VR tech to fast-track clinician training
It only takes 10 minutes to practice a procedure in a session through a VR platform such as Vantari VR.
Using flight-simulator technology, Vantari VR provides medical training using a VR headset and laptop. Its modules cover 90% of medical procedures as part of doctors’ core training and deliver steps that are recommended by college guidelines.
In Fiona Stanley Hospital, for example, over 20 registrars have been educated to perform chest drain insertions.
Vantari VR was awarded a $100,000 grant from Epic Games, the American video game company behind the online game Fortnite. Presently, the startup seeks to raise $2 million from a funding round that will close in August.
Here’s a deeper analysis I published recently on how much Facebook likely spends and expects to make from XR, given such a low entry price for Quest2.
2022+: Establish a Growing Ecosystem
Facebook needs developers[…developers, developers…] to make the content that attracts and retains customers. They reportedly haven’t treated some VR developers very well so far, including strong-arming, competing with, and sometimes blocking eager developers from the platform.
Apart from offering a virtually interactive environment, VR also offers a myriad of variations in how and to what extent an environment is explorable.
VR technology can offer a fully immersive, non-immersive, and web-based VR experience. A great example of a non-immersive VR experience is a flight simulator which allows the user to experience an alternate reality with just a joystick controller and a PC. Non-immersive technologies are commonly used in architecture, industrial designing, and archeology through 3D designs, allowing users to create a replica of the real-life environment.
State of XR & Immersive Learning 2021 Outlook Report
p. 12 about VR and AR
p. 15 about social VR platforms
p. 39 CAVE like environment for Nursing students
p. 43 The FUTURE Time Traveller is a project developed and co-funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme and coordinated by Bulgaria’s Business Foundation for Education in partnership with seven national organizations.
p. 46 obstacles – disabilities
p. 48 California State University Northridge, which has developed an MA in Instructional Design with a focus on XR and immersive games and simulations
What do you think is the current status of XR experiences? Are most of them accessible?
As with all technology, XR is evolving. The current status in terms of accessibility is that more folks need to be educated about accessibility in the VR space. In general, most experiences are not accessible, yet.
My current research with VEIL (Virtual Experience Interaction Lab https://www.veilab.org/) involves examining Design Patterns in VR. My future work involves research into inclusive and accessible XR. In addition, I am working on a book that will be related to XR and spatial computing.