After a month of record-high COVID infections, Ontario and UofT are loosening restrictions as case numbers decrease. With classes operating somewhere in the online/in-person purgatory from Feb. 7th to Feb. 18th, one Computer Science professor is taking virtual/reality a little too seriously. Marty Reagan, a tenured Comp Sci professor and Mark Zuckerberg impersonator, is holding his next week of lectures in the Metaverse.
What does this mode of delivery mean for students? “I have no fucking clue,” says Reza Ahmadian. “I’m a fourth-year Computer Science Specialist and even I’m not super clear on what the ‘metaverse’ is,” the student admitted. “My tutorial buddy is going to class on his VR set, but I could technically join through the Club Penguin server and that would still count. It’s gonna be the cyberspace Wild West out there.”
With Professor Reagan failing to give students a clear definition of the metaverse and how to join the classroom, the stress of answering the undergrad’s questions has fallen upon TA Amanda Johnson:
“I don’t know if Marty struck a deal with Facebook— sorry, Meta, or something, but holy shit. We don’t have enough headsets for the whole class, so I’ve been teaching half the students how to make sure they don’t crash into their walls when they’re in VR, and I’ve been helping the other half sign up for what’s essentially a collab between Quercus and Webkinz. But I have to admit, augmented reality is still better than Zoom.”
Photo Credit: Faiz Ali