Meta has announced a new beta programme which will work with dozens of educational institutions across the US and UK, including the University of Glasgow, to deliver interactive and engaging content through a virtual reality education platform.

The Meta for Education initiative will see Meta Quest headsets rolled out to teachers, trainers, and administrators, which will be used as part of a virtual reality education platform for students across a range of subjects including science, medicine, history, and language arts.

The plan is to use interactive mixed reality technology to create immersive experiences, like field trips to distant museums and risk-free hands-on training.

Working along the same lines as the Meta Quest for Business programme – a subscription service that allows VR and mixed reality devices to be used in training and support functions – Meta for Education will give educators access to a range of virtual reality education-specific apps and features, as well as allow them to manage multiple headsets at once, without needing to update and individually prepare every device.

Meta claims that the introduction of VR in the classroom has been linked with improved learning outcomes, with the firm pointing to the example of Moorhouse College, a university in Atlanta, which apparently saw attendance rates go up by 10%, and student grades go up by 11% after extended reality devices made their way into classrooms.

The company also links higher levels of engagement, empathy, and even new forms of connection to the use of such technology by students, arguing that by broadening horizons, it can provide the tools needed to better understand other people’s lived experiences, potentially reducing bias.   

Recommended reading

• UK Gov Funds VR, AI Tech Projects For Reducing Drug Death
• Abertay Uni VR Project Explores AI and Nature
• Could VR Tech Help With Fire Scene Investigation?

“We’re finally at a place where we have a way to combine the digital and physical worlds, and it’s unlocking this entirely new set of tools, which is what makes all of this so exciting,” said Monica Arés, executive director of Imperial IDEA Lab, at Imperial College London. 

“This moment is greater than any one institution or one company. We need to come together in collaboration across the creators, the developers, educational institutions, research organizations, and tech companies to build this new learning ecosystem because it’s going to benefit every individual and industry.”

At the moment, Meta plans to collect feedback from participating institutions and their students, looking to evaluate its offerings before rolling out the scheme more widely this winter.