Closing Ceremony of a Course Held on a Metaverse Platform
Closing Ceremony of a Course Held on a Metaverse Platform
  • Reporter Lee Ji-hwan
  • 승인 2022.01.07 01:05
  • 댓글 0
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▲Students participating at Creating Shapes game on gather town
▲Students participating at Creating Shapes game on gather town

 

On Dec. 6, the “Future Planning for College Life” course (MSUS103) came to an end with an online closing ceremony at Gather Town, a metaverse platform, and WebEx. MSUS103 is a mandatory class for all freshmen and sophomores that did not complete the course last year. The MSUS103 class requires students to complete a few assignments, including writing a short report on their personal meetings with their advisor professor and participating in the “creating memories with class students”. Students have to get into random groups within the class and then plan and participate in an activity. Sophomores were given an alternative assignment where they had to attend an exhibition and write a short report about it. All first-year students had to attend the closing ceremony from 7:00 P.M. The 15 classes were separated into four groups and each group took turns to play four different games prepared and hosted by Student Advisors (SAs). 
The four games were composed of a Treasure Hunt, Creating Shapes, a True or False Quiz and Musical Numbers. For the Treasure Hunt, students had to find treasure chests hidden across the map. The class that found the most chests were given 50 points and the second class won 30 points. In Creating Shapes, SAs called out a word and students had to create the shape using their avatars. Class leaders had to step on the carpet in the middle of the game room when their class was ready and the team that created the shape approved by the SAs the quickest won the game. After five games, the team that won the most games took 50 points. During the True or False Quiz, SAs asked questions that had been prepared in advance and students had to stand on the O or X tile. Students that stood on the wrong tile were eliminated and the class with the most survivors after the last question won 50 points.  Lastly, in Musical Numbers, students had to roam around the room until the SA stopped the music and called out a number. Students had to get into groups of the number and the students that failed to do so were eliminated. Again, the class with the most survivors won 50 points.
After the games, students gathered at the WebEx conference room. A video of all 15 classes participating in the “creating memories with class students” assignment was shared. Then, the winner of the games was announced as class number four, and they were awarded 300,000 KRW. Alternatively, classes each had a personal room created by class leaders and three classes that had designed their room the best were awarded 50,000 KRW. The event ended with classes gathering at their personal room and spending some time with their SA. 
Of course, having more than 300 people participating at the event caused minor problems like avatars being stuck between others or internet connection problems. However, the event received positive feedback from the participants overall. An anonymous student stated that, “although internet problems and the absence of channels for communicating with desired people was a shame, I think that overall the games were well prepared and were aesthetically pleasing. I enjoyed the experience and thought it was a great way to bring an end to the MSUS103 class. I wish we could have experiences like this more often, especially with COVID-19 becoming more of an issue lately.”