A Roadmap Toward Metaversity: Recent Developments and Perspectives in Education

Although face-to-face interactions in the physical classroom are regarded as the most-recognized medium to achieve learning and teaching among students and teachers, the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the game and video conferences have become the indispensable approach during the crisis. It has become common practice for many educational institutions to deliver lectures remotely and facilitate different events, such as workshops and student organizations, through virtual means. The surge of metaverse initiatives in 2021 depicts a vision of converting daily routines from tangible venues to virtual counterparts, where people can play, work, learn, and live in many virtual worlds. A rising number of ambitious education institutions attempt to leverage the metaverse concept and build virtual campuses based on their agendas. This chapter concisely discusses the recent developments of metaverse campuses, primarily in higher education. Also, we summarize and discuss the ongoing projects focusing on establishing virtual campuses and promoting virtual learning, i.e., the metaversity initiatives. Accordingly, we share our perspective on implementing metaverse campuses, and outline the research opportunities in this thriving field.