Beyond Real Congress: Academic Congress in the Metaverse Provides Exciting and Novel Educational Experience
2024 Volume 9 Article ID: 20240020
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2024 Volume 9 Article ID: 20240020
Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the number of online conferences and seminars has steadily increased.1) Although normal online events have the advantage of allowing many people to participate remotely at the same time, communication tends to be a one-way process. Within the metaverse, the implementation of interactive events becomes possible because of the visualization of each other’s reactions.2) Based on this background, events using the metaverse have now become widely available. Although some level of digital literacy is required to access the metaverse, our association has conducted part of our academic congress in the metaverse. This editorial shares our experience.
We hosted the 13th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association of Rehabilitation Nutrition on March 2, 2024. Moreover, we hosted a virtual rehabilitation nutrition congress on the cluster metaverse platform (https://cluster.mu/) as a post congress seminar. We routinely conduct medical events on cluster, and we found these events to be useful. However, many medical professionals are unfamiliar with the metaverse, and there have been barriers to participation. Therefore, we decided to host a part of our academic congress on cluster to allow other medical professionals to experience the metaverse, and, if possible, to provide motivation for continued use of the metaverse.
Table 1 lists the advantages of conducting medical events in the metaverse. In Zoom events, presenters have difficulty getting a clear view of participant responses, and participants tend to hesitate to actively ask questions. Within a virtual space like the metaverse, participants can observe and understand the reactions of others. In a physical conference, weather events such as typhoons or snowfall have the ability to disrupt transportation systems, leading to some speakers and participants being unable to attend. Within the metaverse, such weather-related problems are unlikely to occur and require little consideration. The use of avatars is also a positive aspect, because it reduces the psychological barrier to participation and allows for casual communication beyond social status. Furthermore, setting up and staging an event is easy within the metaverse. When hosting a real event at a large venue, much preparation is required to set up audiovisual facilities and a reception desk on the actual event day. In the metaverse, such efforts are not necessary.
| ● Allows for interactive events with visible reactions among participants |
| ● Not affected by location, time, or weather |
| ● Easy to set up the space and venue production |
| ● Use of avatars lowers the psychological barriers to participation |
| ● Allows for casual communication among participants beyond social status |
To conduct an event for medical professionals, a system that allows slide projection and voice chat is required as a minimum. The ability to log in to the event from a smartphone is also desirable. Table 2 lists the metaverse platforms that meet such requirements and Table 3 provides a comparison of these platforms. VRChat (https://hello.vrchat.com/) is among the most well-known applications; however, it provides a limited number of simultaneous connections, and the hurdle of installing a specific application is rather high for beginners. Spatial (https://spatial.io/), MyVket (https://vket.com/), and DOOR (https://door.ntt/) are web-based platforms with low access hurdles and are available for business use without cost. Given that we expected a large number of participants to join our event, we chose cluster, which allows up to 500 simultaneous participants. Cluster is a Japanese metaverse platform that hosts events for Japanese people on a daily basis. This platform allows easy upload of avatars and is highly recommended for events of extended duration.
| Platform | Explanation | Website |
| VRChat | Largest metaverse platform in the world. Highly flexible and has many heavy users. The majority of the metaverse culture originates from VRChat. | https://hello.vrchat.com/ |
| Spatial | Platform developed in the USA. Easy to log in and allows the sale and purchase of non-fungible tokens. | https://www.spatial.io/ |
| MyVket | Browser-based Japanese platform provided by HIKKY Corp., organizers of the Virtual Market, the world’s largest virtual reality event. Easy to log in and handle. | https://vket.com/ |
| DOOR | Platform provided by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., powered by the Hubs Cloud and easily accessible from a browser. Allows corporate events. | https://door.ntt/ |
| cluster | Japanese platform, allowing large numbers of users to log in at the same time. Many events are conducted every day. Cluster, Inc. is the largest host of virtual events in Japan. | https://cluster.mu/ |
| Feature | VRChat | Spatial | MyVket | DOOR | cluster |
| Maximum number of simultaneous connections | 80 | 50 | 20 | 50 | 500 |
| Access with a mobile phone | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free commercial use | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Web-based platform | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
Despite the advantages of metaverse events, problems can still occur during implementation, such as difficulty logging in, inability to provide voice chat, low voice volume, excessively noisy voice chat, and inability to perform slide projections. As part of our event preparation, we ensured that all presenters were familiar with the process by conducting a rehearsal of the event. As a back-up measure, the event was also made available on YouTube LIVE for participants that were unable to log on to cluster.
After a brief operation briefing, the virtual event started with lectures on medical blockchain, avatar work, metaverse medical education, and other topics. Finally, an AI art contest was held as an activity, and a commemorative photo was taken at the end of the session (Fig. 1). During the event, the lectures were made interactive by picking up chat comments and using reactions as appropriate. According to survey results obtained through the questionnaire function of cluster, approximately half of the respondents were medical professionals who were logging on to cluster for the first time. The number of real-time participants was about 600, including those using YouTube LIVE. Two weeks after the event, the on-demand video had been viewed 1300 times on YouTube LIVE. A post-event survey using the User Experience Questionnaire3) received 65 responses. In comparison with benchmark data, the traits of Attractiveness, Stimulation, and Novelty were rated as excellent, indicating that the event provided an exciting and novel educational experience (Fig. 2). Careful preparation ensured that the virtual event was conducted without major problems. Hosting medical events using the metaverse opens many possibilities. In conducting our virtual congress, we hope that the experience will encourage participants to continue to use the metaverse. The on-demand video of the virtual rehabilitation nutrition congress is publicly available on YouTube LIVE (https://youtube.com/live/8akY3yvCgb8). We encourage all readers to watch the video and experience the metaverse.
Academic congress in the metaverse.
Results of the User Experience Questionnaire after the congress in the metaverse.
The authors thank Cluster, Inc. for hosting the congress.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
