About the Course

Rapid advancements in immersive technologiesVirtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality have impacted all mainstream industries. The hardware required to support immersive experiences is becoming cheaper and more accessible. Therefore, it’s becoming feasible for businesses to harness these technologies for their specific use cases. The rebranding of Facebook to Meta has further catalyzed this adoption of immersive technologies in e-commerce, healthcare, and education.

The immersive technologies are also called metaverse technologies because they enable users to experience the metaverseAs per Meta: “The metaverse is where you can explore virtual 3D spaces to socialize, learn, collaborate, and play.”. The metaverse advocates a 3D internet that consists of 3D virtual spaces where the users, as avatars, get to socialize, learn, interact, and collaborate. Popular technology giants are investing heavily to improve immersive technology infrastructure and are actively competing to capture the emerging extended realityAn umbrella term, which refers to virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality technologies. (XR) market.

Recently, Apple announced the release of Vision Pro, an XR headset to support immersive experiences. Similarly, Meta also announced Quest 3 to enable user’s transition to the metaverse. On the software side, Roblox, with 220 million monthly active users, announced its availability on the Meta Quest platform. Other players like Microsoft and NVIDIA are also pumping investments to enhance infrastructure to catalyze our transition to the metaverse—a 3D internet.

Understanding the potential and the limitations of XR technologies is essential to embrace them fully. Like any emerging technology, immersive technologies are rapidly evolving. It’s difficult for managers and decision-makers to keep track of the state of the art and gather enough knowledge to craft an adoption plan to harness advances in immersive technologies in their businesses.

In the metaverse, the user experiences the 3D internet via an XR device. Brands like IKEA have already revamped their business to offer their product line via their augmented realityA technology that enhances our real world by adding virtual items/information to it. application. We expect this trend to continue, and in the upcoming years, we’ll see more and more businesses incorporating XR technologies to enhance their customer experience.

Course objectives

This course will give us a thorough understanding of the metaverse, how XR technologies act as its gateway, and how businesses can harness metaverse technologies to their advantage. It’ll equip the learners with technical knowledge to evaluate the technical aspects of VR technology. In return, leaners can make informed decisions while considering VR for their specific business. This course has been divided into the following three chapters:

• In the chapter, “The Metaverse and the Web3’s Evolution,” we’ll develop an understanding of the metaverse and Web 3.0 ecosystems.

• In the chapter, “Technologies Driving the Metaverse,” we’ll develop an understanding of the latest XR technologies and how they are catalyzing our transition to the metaverse. We’ll also cover real-world examples so managers can identify XR technologies relevant to their business case.

• The chapter “Harnessing VR Technologies for Business Growth,” covers essential concepts to help executives conceive and develop their XR strategy.

Prerequisites

This is a beginner-level course. The only prerequisite is a willingness to learn about new technologies.

Intended audience

Note: For XR playground, to view interactive examples related to mobile augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), you'll need an Android device with an Android Version of 11 or lower and Meta Quest 2 or 3, respectively.