The assessment industry has evolved at an exponential rate. These changes have opened new opportunities for better assessments. This year’s Association of Test Publishers (APT2022) Conference addressed the new ways of learning and technological advances. With this in mind, have you ever thought about assessment in the META Verse, the future of virtual reality?
“To help you get a sense of how vague and complex a term “the metaverse” can be, here’s an exercise to try: Mentally replace the phrase “the metaverse” in a sentence with “cyberspace”. Ninety per cent of the time, the meaning won’t substantially change. That’s because the term doesn’t really refer to any one specific type of technology, but rather a broad shift in how we interact with technology.”
ERIC RAVENSCRAFT, Nov 25, 2021, What is the Metaverse, Exactly?, WIRED
With the emergence of the Covid pandemic, many universities, schools and offices were closed, pushed to working remotely. In the past few years assessment has been happening online most of the time and people are keen for it to continue to be so. It’s the right time for assessments to evolve and adapt to the new technologically advancing world.
There are a lot of benefits to assessing people in the virtual reality world. Students or professionals can be in the comfort of their homes but in the classroom at the same time. It can be really cost-effective for companies and simulations can be created for more specific types of assessments that require preparation of equipment in the physical world. Virtual reality doesn’t have any limits as to how many people can be tested at a time. This means that large groups of people could be assessed at the same time rather than being limited in numbers to the size of the assessment venue.
Not only that but with the advance of this technology, virtual reality translates to a digital economy where people can create, sell and buy digital and physical products or services. The emergence of NFT (cryptographic tokens), which are used as a certificate of ownership of a digital item, could also act as proof of a completed assessment in the virtual world.
With all that said, people are uncertain that the metaverse is going to become as mainstream as computers or mobile phones. At the moment, the virtual reality sets are bulky and expensive. Virtual reality is now compared with the early days of the internet. No one is certain that it will succeed but if it does and you get involved at an early stage, it could make a real difference for your organization moving forwards.
If you have any questions for us about translation and localization but couldn’t attend the #ATP2022 event, then Sue Orchard and Karolina Ndlovu will be happy to hear from you.
