The Meta for Education program, a new effort to drive XR technologies—VR and MR —into higher education across the United States and the United Kingdom, was announced as available in beta. That move is another step down the road toward immersive learning experiences, following a call from Meta announced April 2024.

This new education offering extends the Quest series of VR and MR headsets, equipping educators, trainers, and administrators with specialized tools. Meta will work with a small group of colleges and universities in its beta program, including Arizona State University, Imperial College London, and the University of Miami, among others, gathering that feedback to help hone the technology and improve the application in the educational space.

More dynamic learning areas are aimed for through the program; current subjects such as science, medicine, history, and language arts are in support of educators who can use the XR technology to conduct immersive field trips, digital labs, and simulations that open up new possibilities in terms of interacting with material in ways traditional classrooms cannot provide.

Meta for Education package boasts improved device management tools, easing setup and managing multiple devices in the classroom. The solution is further enhanced with Metaverse capabilities, unleashing virtual collaboration and interactive experiences that breathe new life into learning. Its promise has already been proven in programs aimed at creating empathy and is evident in Houston Community College’s “Virtual Reality for Empathy” initiative, where students are engaged in role-playing community-based activities.

Meta has highlighted that the work is collaboration-based: several leaders in higher education, including Imperial College London’s Monica Arés, stressed that effective development of the strong and scalable ecosystem of education would demand cooperation from educational institutions, tech developers, and researchers.

This program will be further scaled up during late 2024, after the beta testing. The key promise that XR holds – transforming how people learn and teach, which was actually the main reason why Meta is setting itself up to be a vital player in the newly emerging education technology market.