What Will the Future of Chinese Education Look Like?

As a lot ink continues to be spilled with regards to the “metaverse,” universities in China are rolling out plans to take their packages into uncharted digital realms this yr. Their curiosity stems from the potential makes use of of digital areas in training, an application that has turn out to be more and more necessary throughout the COVID-19 pandemic when faculties have been pressured to carry lessons on-line for prolonged intervals of time.

On Oct. 17, Nankai College in Tianjin launched the nation’s first metaverse mannequin of its College of Journalism and Communications. To this finish, they created an in depth digital mannequin of one of many campus’ instructing buildings that college students can freely navigate as avatars.

Previous to that, on Sept. 23, Nanjing College of Info Science and Know-how grew to become the primary college within the nation to boast a division bearing the phrase “metaverse” in its title. The College of Synthetic Intelligence (which additionally glided by the title “School of Future Technologies”) introduced that its Division of Info Science had formally modified its title to the Division of Metaverse Engineering.

As of time of writing, 17 universities in China have already dipped their toes into this burgeoning discipline.

College initiatives

At the moment, universities are principally exploring the metaverse by means of the institution of labs and analysis facilities. For instance, Beijing College of Posts and Telecommunications, Tsinghua College, and Renmin College of China have all based their very own metaverse laboratories.

Tsinghua College opened the Metaverse Tradition Laboratory in April this yr. Its director Professor Shen Yang informed The Paper that, previous to its opening, the varsity had already begun conducting research into digital communities and “virtual humans”. He believes that metaverse research is an umbrella time period encompassing numerous fields akin to expanded realities (XR) and synthetic intelligence.

Shen’s group has developed a metaverse elective course for undergraduates, for which a number of the lessons are held in a digital actuality (VR) setting on a metaverse platform. He explains that the biggest distinction between holding lessons within the metaverse and in actual life is that the previous is much less restricted by time and house. For instance, the category can happen in digital worlds like Mars or an area station. Sooner or later, Shen says, he could convey extra digital people into the classroom, akin to Confucius, to work together with college students.

Half of the scholars enrolled on this course imagine that VR know-how efficiently produces an immersive and interactive studying expertise for them, however solely 28% assume that it lives as much as their expectations in its present state. Shen predicts that in a few decade, XR will probably be a necessity in individuals’s day by day lives in the identical means that smartphones are at this time.

In the meantime, Nanjing College of Info Science and Know-how nonetheless presents the unique Info Science main in its Division of Metaverse Engineering. The curriculum has included a number of metaverse-related electives, akin to Human-Pc Interplay, Digital Actuality Know-how, Blockchain Know-how, and Mind-Pc Interfaces. Professor Pan Zhigeng, dean of the division, explains that the division has already submitted a proposal for a serious in Clever Medical Engineering and plans to suggest a Digital Actuality main within the close to future.

For now, no metaverse-related majors have been given the inexperienced gentle by the Ministry of Education. Nevertheless, the Division of Computing of The Hong Kong Polytechnic College introduced a brand new one-year Grasp of Science in Metaverse Know-how program in October, for which enrollment will open in 2023. By the top of 2024, this system will see its first cohort of graduates.

Some universities have arrange metaverse dialogue platforms or begun to develop metaverse-related merchandise. The Communication College of China, Southeast College, and Northwest College have all opened “virtual campuses” on completely different metaverse platforms. Customers can entry these platforms and roam the digital campuses utilizing VR tools, cell units, or private computer systems.

Regional help

Following the wave of curiosity in metaverses during the last couple of years, not solely have Chinese tech tycoons akin to Tencent and ByteDance launched their very own metaverse divisions, some native governments have additionally jumped on the bandwagon this yr.

Over 30 prefectural and municipal governments have drafted insurance policies to help metaverse growth and are actually soliciting enter from the general public. Shut to twenty coverage paperwork embody “metaverse” of their titles. This goes to point out the help of many native governments for universities to develop metaverse companies and elective programs.

Predecessors

Will the arrival of the metaverse set off a development of recent metaverse majors? The Paper reviewed the brand new majors rising since 2002 to see how technological innovation has introduced modifications to training.

In 2002, eBay bought a 33% stake in Eachnet.com for $30 million, marking the start of the period of on-line procuring. The next yr, Taobao — China’s reply to eBay — went on-line, and 56 faculties in China launched e-commerce diploma packages

At present, on-line procuring has turn out to be extra standard than ever, however e-commerce diploma packages have ceaselessly come beneath hearth. “They hyped the program up, saying it’d make us ‘all-round experts’ when we hardly touched the surface of each subject,” one graduate complained on-line.

Zhejiang College and Shantou College closed their e-commerce diploma packages in 2018. Previous to that, Zhejiang College had not opened enrollment for its e-commerce program for a number of years.

In the meantime, the variety of different new diploma packages which have emerged and risen in recognition since 2010 has soared.

The age of “big data” has spawned a plethora of scorching new majors, together with Web and New Media, Knowledge Science and Massive Knowledge Know-how, in addition to Massive Knowledge Administration and Software. Of those, Knowledge Science and Massive Knowledge Know-how was essentially the most ceaselessly added main for universities’ undergraduate packages within the final 20 years. Within the house of seven years, a whopping 715 schools and universities added the most important to their number of packages.

New majors with “intelligent” or “smart” of their names additionally got here with the rise of synthetic intelligence. The tech development gave rise to 36 new majors during the last 20 years, together with Sensible Agriculture, Sensible Hydropower, and Clever Manufacturing Engineering. A complete of 1,397 packages in these majors are provided at schools and universities throughout China. For the reason that Ministry of Education accredited majors in synthetic intelligence in 2018, 440 schools and universities have opened a program.

It stays to be seen if the brand new development of providing metaverse packages will actually revolutionize training and analysis, or whether or not it would simply be one other flash within the pan.

Reporters: Li Haohao and Wang Yasai

A model of this text initially appeared in The Paper. It has been translated and edited for brevity and readability, and is revealed right here with permission.

Translators: Lewis Wright and Xue Yongle; editors: Xue Yongle, Luo Yahan, and Elise Mak.

(Header picture: Shijue/VCG)