Metaverse in Education to Boom by 2031, India and China Projected as Beneficiaries: Report

The metaverse technology is projected to power up the existing education sector in the next eight years leading up to 2031. With an estimated annual growth rate of 38.42 percent, the coming together of the metaverse and the education sector is expected to be churning over $102 billion (roughly Rs. 8,48,980 crore), as per a report published by research firm InsightAce Analytic on Tuesday, October 3. Supported by blockchain networks, metaverse ecosystems provide fully functional virtual environments for people to work together, play games, and socialise as digital avatars from the privacy and comfort of their homes.

InsightAce's ‘Global Metaverse in Education Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report' said in the coming years, schools and colleges establishing their brands in the metaverse could become a trend. This could open the doors to education for more people, eliminating potential roadblocks like travel, medical conditions, and the financial pressure on parents to purchase uniforms and other amenities currently required by education institutes today.

“The increase in e-learning adoption and rising interest in immersed learning environments are prime factors driving metaverse's expansion in the education market,” the report by InsightAce said on Tuesday.

The boom in Internet adoption, 5G, Cryptocurrencies, Cloud services, as well as technologies like AI, VR, and AR are also increasing the likelihood of the education sector fusing its operations with metaverse in the coming years.

As per its findings, the report said that the education market of North America and Asia-Pacific regions will see the combination of education and metaverse the fastest.

“Many market participants are seeing promising opportunities in developing nations like China and India, where sizable populations are paired with recent advancements in numerous industries,” the report noted.

Several metaverse ecosystems like The Sandbox and Roblox, among others, are offering interesting metaverse experiences.

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, for instance, is also working to make the metaverse sector more usable and immersive for people to experience. Meta, which offers its expensive AR/VR headset ‘Quest' for metaverse experiences, is working to finetune digital avatars to look less cartoonish and more photorealistic.

InsightAce's report, however, noted that industry players need to pick pace in manufacturing affordable hardware to step in and out of the virtual worlds.

Some edtech players have already begun integrating metaverse into their systems. These platforms include the Invact Metaversity, Tomorrow's Education, 21K Schools, Roblox, the University of Miami, as well as University of Nevada among others.

Last year in July, the University of Tokyo, Todai, also decided to offer a bunch of study programmes in the metaverse.

In conversation with Gadgets 360, former India head of X, Manish Maheshwari had called the metaverse technology “a solution to combat the education crisis in India and around the world”. Maheshwari is now part of the Invact Metaversity team.