{"id":678,"date":"2026-07-14T13:53:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T12:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/?page_id=678"},"modified":"2026-07-14T13:53:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T12:53:35","slug":"lectures-in-the-metaverse-engaging-university-students-socially-within-virtual-worlds","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/lectures-in-the-metaverse-engaging-university-students-socially-within-virtual-worlds\/","title":{"rendered":"Lectures in the Metaverse: Engaging University students socially within virtual worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Prof.<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Gary Burnett – Loughborough University
This event took place on Wednesday 11 October 2023 at 13:30<\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n


For the last 3 years, Professor Burnett has taught Engineering and Computing students (presently 266 in total) about the Human Factors design issues for virtual reality from within a persistent virtual world. Teaching activities have included traditional lectures (pre-recorded and live), highly interactive seminars and open ‘virtual’ office hours. Whilst most students have used desktop\/laptop computers and mobile devices to access the virtual world, increasing numbers have been using headsets for more immersive experiences (22 students were lent headsets in 2022 for use throughout semester). This innovative way of socially engaging with students has been treated as a research project and considerable objective and subjective data has been collected, analysed and published \u2013 focused on general, as well as specific research questions \u2013 such as the positive\/negative impacts on students\u2019 learning experiences, their use of avatars, the role of immersion, virtual world design, etc. This talk will outline the motivation for the work, the findings so far and conclusions that can be drawn for Higher Education practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch the webcast replay >><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

View all past events<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Maven<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Maven of the Month<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We are also inviting top experts in AI and Knowledge Technologies to discuss major socio-technological topics with an audience that comprises both members of the Knowledge Media Institute, as well as the wider staff at The Open University. Differently from our seminar series, these events follow a Q&A format.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prof. Gary Burnett – Loughborough UniversityThis event took place on Wednesday 11 October 2023 at 13:30 For the last 3 years, Professor Burnett has taught Engineering and Computing students (presently 266 in total) about the Human Factors design issues for virtual reality from within a persistent virtual world. Teaching activities have included traditional lectures (pre-recorded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"unity_related_person":[],"unity_sdg":[],"unity_research_theme":[],"unity_strategic_priority":[],"unity_enabler":[],"unity_general_category":[],"unity_stem_unit":[],"unity_related_project":[],"unity_related_archived_project":[],"unity_related_event":[],"class_list":["post-678","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":679,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/678\/revisions\/679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"unity_related_person","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_related_person?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"unity_sdg","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_sdg?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"unity_research_theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_research_theme?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"unity_strategic_priority","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_strategic_priority?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"unity_enabler","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_enabler?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"unity_general_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_general_category?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"unity_stem_unit","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_stem_unit?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"unity_related_project","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_related_project?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"unity_related_archived_project","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_related_archived_project?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"unity_related_event","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/knowledge-media-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unity_related_event?post=678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}