As we were at the height of lockdown, I was tempted to recreate specific campus buildings so the students had the feeling of being at the university.Д«ut based on a combination of educational theory and student feedback, I eventually created a world that was overtly fantastical. When conceiving my VR module in spring/summer 2020, this was an interesting dilemma. Author provided What should the virtual world look like?ДЄ second fundamental decision concerns whether the virtual world should be based on a real-world space (perhaps even aiming to replicate one as a digital twin) or should be purposefully different. Students can enter 3D spheres representing universityвЂ™s three campuses in UK, China and Malaysia. It also needed to be a space students could contribute to (for example by adding post-it notes, photos, videos and 3D objects). I needed to develop a world where we could easily gather for whole group discussions and presentations, as well as smaller group discussions. The ability to customise this world has been essential for me. Last year I edited an existing world, while this year I took several pre-existing building blocks (for example, bits of a castle) to re-imagine Nottopia. Turns out the answer to virtual reality sickness is right in front of your faceД¬ustomisability is how easy it is to edit virtual worlds on the platform (usually, they have a set of вЂњtemplateвЂќ worlds), or create your own from scratch. From my perspective, it was important the virtual world be accessible on standard technology, but also that students could benefit from the immersive experiences that VR headsets afford (students can use VR headsets provided by the university if they wish). These platforms can broadly be categorised according to accessibility and customisability.ДЄccessibility questions include whether the platform can run on everyday computers, including mobile devices, or whether it requires dedicated hardware, like VR headsets. I used Mozilla Hubs, but there are several others. To build a virtual world that others can join, you need to use a social virtual reality (VR) platform. Author provided What platform should you use? In Nottopia, IвЂ™m able to teach my students about virtual reality in a virtual world. TheyвЂ™ve also informed my answers to three central questions, which I think are relevant to anyone considering their own virtual world вЂ“ whether for education or any of the metaverseвЂ™s myriad other applications. My observations have informed changes IвЂ™ve made to Nottopia along the way. IвЂ™ve approached this as somewhat of a research project, surveying students about their experiences, and observing their behaviour within the virtual world.

Nottopia began as a fantastical virtual island, and has since become a floating castle in the sky. To that end, I established a module at the University of Nottingham in 2020 where up to 100 of my engineering students interact with each other in avatar form in a virtual world known as Nottopia.

The virtual worlds within the metaverse need to be conceived, designed and built by individuals and organisations. With Facebook changing its name to Meta to focus on this space, and other big tech companies like Microsoft coming onboard, there is much discussion about the potential of the metaverse to enhance the way we socialise, work and learn.ДЄ key component of the metaverse ecosystem will be the creator economy. WeвЂ™ve been hearing a lot recently about the metaverse вЂ“ a vision for the internet which uses technology like virtual and augmented reality to integrate real and digital worlds.

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