Metaverse, a conjectural iteration of the internet, which supports permanent online 3D virtual environments through virtual and augmented reality devices and conventional personal computers, catches on with in Turkey as in the whole world.

Metaverse, which is presumed to have the most significant impact on human life after mobile internet, has started to be used not only in the social area but also in education. For the first time in Turkey, Atatürk University Pasinler Vocational School Computer Programming 1st year Graphics and Animation lesson was taught in Metaverse for two days.

In the lesson, in which spatial.io environment is used as the Metaverse, each student participated in the lesson by creating their own character in the Metaverse environment. After the lesson, the students who visited the NFT exhibition opened in the Metaverse universe by OpenSea (https://opensea.io/), the platform where NFT buying and selling transactions are carried out around the world, were presented to the students by the Department of Computer Technologies Lecturer  Ebubekir Kaba gave information about NFT.

On the second day, after the Graphics and Animation lesson, the "ATAUNI Exhibition", where Atatürk University photographs were exhibited, was visited and the "My Social Media Wall" event was held. In this event, the accounts of the students who wanted to have their social media accounts printed on the wall interactively were written on the wall, and the images in the exhibition were shared on social media with the #atauniMetaVerse hashtag.

While the 3D modeling subject within the scope of the Graphics and Animation lesson was explained practically in the exhibition, the course was handled through the 3D eagle model added to the exhibition.

“As a University, We Follow up the Developments in the World”

Stating that Metaverse, which gives a new impetus to the virtual world, has recently been used frequently as one of the important concepts in the field of information technologies and digitalization, and that it digitizes many areas of physical life, Atatürk University Rector Prof. Dr. Ömer Çomaklı emphasized that Metaverse represents a virtual universe that brings together the latest approaches and protocols developed in the fields of multimedia, computer networks and sciences such as computer vision, artificial intelligence, 5G, and invention computing. Rector Çomaklı stated that it is inevitable to take place in this universe and stated that as a university, they follow up the developments in the world and make the necessary integrations immediately.

Rector Çomaklı stated that Metaverse aims to create a mirror of the real world with digital twin technology: “We took our place in this virtual universe with the lesson in the Metaverse held for the first time at our university. The pandemic process reminded us again that distance education is a part of information transfer. Perhaps it will become more common to take lessons in virtual classrooms in the near future. In this context, I am happy to be one of the universities that enter the virtual world, and I would like to thank everyone who has a share.”

CORPORATE COMMUNICATION DIRECTORATE – 23.03.2022