South Korean telecom company LG Uplus, a subsidiary of LG, recently launched a Metaverse experience at Yonsei University in Seoul.
Dubbed “Meta Yonsei,” the Yonsei metaverse features a re-creation of the university’s Sinchon campus with traversable landmarks such as the school hall and library, as well as tiered access to digital resources and private meeting spaces for faculty and students.
Unlike many Metaverse experiences, Meta Yonsei limits many of its features to verified students. While it appears that prospective students and other outsiders can physically walk around the campus to view its features and landmarks, access to peer meeting tools and certain areas within the metaverse is limited to registered students.
According to an article published by local newspaper Chosun Biz, the Meta Yonsei experience was very well received by students on campus.
Typically, metaverse experiences targeting specific communities, such as universities, tend to focus on social aspects. As such, they tend to target potential students or business partners. In practice, these treatments tend to resemble digital museums rather than workspaces.
However, the Meta Yonsei digital twin appears to have been designed with productivity in mind. Tools such as team meeting functionality featuring virtual workspaces, video and audio conferencing, captioning, and automated captioning are implemented directly into the experience. This gives students the impetus to participate in the metaverse throughout their academic career.
It can also help prepare students for the reality of the modern global workplace where productivity tools like Google Meet, Zoom, and cross-border collaboration between a diverse workforce in real time have become the norm.
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Students and faculty can also interact through structured check-ins and supervised activities. A report on the project’s announcement in 2023 indicates that up to a thousand users could attend virtual events in the Metaverse Hall – a digital doppelgänger of the university’s real installation – including the ability to watch guest speakers and experts on a virtual stage.
