Immersive Learning in the Metaverse Platform

Abstract

In this sharing, the speaker first introduces the 3D metaverse platform – ‘Learningverse’ developed by her research team at The Education University of Hong Kong. ‘Learningverse’ includes the key features of an immersive learning environment with avatars that mirror the real users, rich social interactions and a low threshold for users to join the metaverse on an ordinary computer with a webcam. Then, pedagogical design and practices in using the platform for immersive learning in both schools and higher education will be shared. Advantages and limitations of applying the platform for innovative pedagogical practices are discussed. Finally, future work is explored.

Bio

Dr. Yanjie Song is Associate Professor at Department of Mathematics and Information Technology, The Education University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include artificial intelligence in education, metaverse in education, multimodal learning analytics, and innovative pedagogy designs. She has led her research team developed two award-winning mobile apps of ‘VocabGo’ for vocabulary learning supported by augmented reality and virtual reality, and ‘m-Orchestrate’ for teacher orchestration of collaborative science inquiry in a mobile learning environment. Her research team also developed a 3D metaverse platform – ‘Learningverse’ which won ‘Bronze Medal’ in ‘Geneva Inventions’ 2023 (Switzerland). Dr. Song has published over 100 referred journal papers, book chapters and conference papers, and won a few best paper awards in different international conferences. She was listed on Stanford University List of World’s Top 2% most-cited scientists in 2020.