OST informs about study programme in the Metaverse

The OST - University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland is moving with the times and thus into the Metaverse. "With the info events in the Metaverse, we are particularly addressing potential students who either already have a good connection to the digital world or are open to getting involved in it. These are important characteristics of future business informatics students," says Thomas Metzger, Head of Business Teaching at the OST - Ostschweizer Fachhochschule. "As an interactive information event, the Metaverse offers us the opportunity to present our degree programme to our prospective students in a varied and exciting way. For example, participants are invited to take part in games and at the same time receive important information about the degree programme."

The Metaverse is a digital space created through the interaction of virtual and physical reality. The OST relies on the Spatial platform for this. "There are already countless platforms that can be called 'metaverse'. These include forerunners such as Second Life or Habbo or current representatives such as Decentraland or The Sandbox. Spatial was very suitable for our project because it allows very low-threshold and technically uncomplicated access. Even with a simple guest account without registration, the metaverse can be tried out and the interaction possibilities used," explains Tom Ulmer, lecturer at the Institute for Information and Process Management at the OST.

First, the participants have to determine an avatar, a software-based, graphic representation of the user. Then various signposts guide them through the Space. "In the central space there are videos, posters, links to studies in general, to our practical projects and to the topic of a semester abroad. So everyone can get the information he or she wants. In addition, the head of the study programme answers the questions of prospective students. Then there are rooms where you can discuss with students around the campfire and a room with the profiles of graduates, so that the great job profiles and diverse fields of activity that open up after a degree become visible," says Tom Ulmer.

More individual information on the Business Information Systems degree programme

"In the Metaverse, prospective students can get much more individualised information about the many possibilities of studying business informatics. They can talk to business informatics students who are present, watch films about the degree programme in other rooms or find out from the head of the degree programme, for example, how to integrate a semester abroad into the degree programme," explains Thomas Metzger, head of business teaching at the OST.

The next virtual info event will take place on Monday, 24 April, at 6 pm in the Metaverse: www.ost.ch/de/event/infoabend-bachelor-wirtschaftsinformatik-2-4-2-1-1.

Source: Linth