This company is betting big on the metaverse by taking online education to the next level

Metaverse – just a proof of concept or a safe bet for the future? Depends on who you ask. For most regular users, including yours, the Metaverse is something that may have potential, but has little real benefit at the moment.

However, from the perspective of investors, tech gurus, and those powering the next era of the Internet – Web3 – the Metaverse is a safe bet and will play a significant role in our lives.

What this means is that Indian tech startups are dipping their toes into the pool of the metaverse, or jumping straight off the diving board, headfirst, to become among the first to take advantage of this nascent concept.

One of them is Gurgaon-based Edverse, which is a metaverse-focused company that intends to create a virtual world for educators, students, creators, and more. or, if you’re lucky, hands-on training.

Edverse is fine-tuning its offering and, according to its official website timeline, will move to “beta launch, expand tokenomics, content creation for pre-primary through 8th grade” in the fourth quarter of the year.

“We have an entire school running in the metaverse. We have the pre-primary segment – content for grades 6, 7, and 8. Soon we’ll be launching a ‘Classroom in the Metaverse’ feature, no matter what class you are so any school can grab it and get a feel for what it’s like to take a course in the metaverse,” said Yuvraj Krishan Sharma, Co-Founder, Product Manager/CTO, Edverse , at CNBC-TV18.

Edverse has made several strides towards signing up educational institutions to host courses on its metaverse. In August, Edverse had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with LM Thapar School of Management, and previously tied up with Panchkula Saint Soldier Divine Public School, Sainik School in Chandrapur, Green Field School, Supreme Academy and Children’s Well Academy from Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh, Mother Athena School and Vedaant Vidhyakulam School from Indore, MP.

And to ensure that no school is left behind due to technical shortcomings, Yuvraj says Edverse offers its metaverse functionality in three ways: the widely accessible browser, a basic desktop or laptop. and more advanced features for those with high-end equipment.

During a demonstration of their base central city in the Edverse metaverse, an avatar was led into a classroom, in which a jet engine was disassembled and each of its components were visible and available. for interaction, which in theory might yield better insights for someone studying aeronautical engineering.

Fascinating stuff, at least in this demo.

Additionally, Edverse has drawn quite a map in its metaverse, with different topics and even eras branching out from its central city. While these features are still in development, once they’re ready, students can travel back in time to study futuristic concepts – like Web3, for example – or even go back in time, where they could explore the legendary university. from Nalanda, or take a stroll through ancient Rome or witness the construction of the pyramids. While it’s easy enough to get your hands on a book that talks about these things, the feeling of actually being there, even if it’s in avatar form, could provide an enhanced learning experience.

Imagine the wildly popular Assassins Creed games, only this time you actually put what you see, do, and experience, to practical use to deepen your knowledge.

And Edverse hopes to be part of the first wave of this technological advancement.

“Even if it’s something as common as learning about the human heart, if it’s a Zoom call, at best, as a teacher, I can show pictures , videos, or presentations, and that’s about it. It’s pretty much the same in a physical classroom. Ultimately, students are passive receivers of knowledge. In the metaverse, students have the flexibility and freedom to look at the heart from all angles and even enter the heart and look at all the chambers,” says Yuvraj, laying out another example in which Metaverse learning takes it even further.

As Yuvraj says, Edverse goes all out on the metaverse because whether it’s communication, math, social science, or a field trip, the metaverse is the next thing education steps up to. superior in terms of students actually absorbing knowledge.

Now, it remains to be seen if the Metaverse really is the “next big thing” or if it becomes one of those fads that ends up being a “was.” I remain a generational skeptic of such things. However, the likes of Yuvraj have clearly seen something normal people haven’t – so let’s see how things play out over the next decade.