Abstract:

Virtual spaces enable employees or students to use digital technologies to collaborate and interact with others remotely. The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown periods forced organizations to alternative ways to organize and implement learning. Large-scale training events such as tech events of major cloud provider organizations were turned into fully virtual mode streaming hundreds of presentations to participants in their homes. Physical meetings were replaced with virtualmeetings with Teams, Zoom and other digital collaboration tools. Virtual campuses, numerous Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Extended Reality systems were established to tackle the learning challenge. Although the COVID-19 pandemic is over, virtual spaces have not lost their shine. Global extended reality market is growing rapidly at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33 % according to forecasts from 2022 to 2030 and many organizations are investing in or planning interactive virtual spaces and Metaverse implementations.

In this paper, the research problem is what are the challenges, tasks and benefits of using virtual spaces for educational, learning and showcasing purposes. Case study research methodologywith multiple case structure is applied in the study. Data for the study has been collected from virtual space implementation projects implemented in Kainuu region, Finland and observations from XR events, and trials with XR technologies and devices. The main contribution of the paperis to highlight limitations and barriers of utilizing existing virtual spaces but also demonstrate the benefits why organizations should continue investing in virtual learning, education and showcasing environments.

Keywords:

Virtual spaces, extended reality, virtual learning.