The University of Tokyo, also known as Todai, announced this weekend that it will offer study programs in the metaverse.
Study programs in the metaverse will depend on the university’s engineering-related graduate schools.
According to a report in the Japanese news outlet The Asahi Shimbun, the courses will be offered to high school students and adults in college and the job market.
Prior to the start of these courses, the university will hold introductory classes on the metaverse, aimed at students and the general public who wish to pursue engineering studies.
This introductory cycle is scheduled for the end of 2022
The courses will not be run by a faculty offering degrees, but will operate under the university’s engineering-related graduate schools, and students will receive a certificate after completing the courses.
Although the classes are taught in the metaverse, the courses do not mention Web3-related topics. Middle and high school students will receive an introduction to the virtual space while learning how they might find jobs in the engineering field. Classes for them will be taught online and in real life.
Online and in-person introductory metaverse classes
Introductory classes will be delivered online and face-to-face to provide a taste of what college courses will be like through the metaverse.
They will be able to participate in a “learning by doing” modality where companies involved in the development of products cooperate.
Another highlight is that online courses will be offered in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI), business education and next-generation communication technologies.
Upon completion of introductory classes in the metaverse, students will receive a certificate from the University of Tokyo, accrediting them as qualified personnel to work in areas of “digital transformation” and “advanced technologies.”
To balance the male-dominated engineering-related fields, the university will also push to attract more women to study the programs.
The metaverse is becoming a strong use case for e-learning, as students, regardless of age, gender, social status and place of residence, can follow the courses offered.
In Japan, other metaverse use cases include a Fukuoka virtual support group on the metaverse
platform SecondLife. The support group works to help hikkikomori (juvenile social isolation syndrome) who refuse to leave their homes due to severe social anxiety.
In April, some 3,800 students from 29 trade schools of the Niigata NSG University League attended their 2022 graduation ceremony in the metaverse, allowing everyone to attend without running the risk of being infected with Covid-19.
Students who are not part of the University of Tokyo will be able to access these metaverse courses for guidance on possible careers in engineering in which they may be interested.
This is not the first time the University of Tokyo has addressed the metaverse. Last January the director of the university, Teruo Fujii, gave a lecture to students who wish to explore this new model of virtual communication.
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