Engage: A Brief Introduction

Andrew (the producer for our upcoming show Metaverse Newscast) told me about Engage, which is a free social VR platform for educational purposes:

The Engage platform is a free to use social education and presentation platform. Engage allows you to hold meetings, classes, private lessons and presentations with people from all around the world in a safe virtual multi user environment.

You can record and create your own lessons and presentations inside Engage using our recorder feature and you can add in immersive elements such as virtual objects for people to interact with or visit virtual environments such as the surface of Mars.

Why teach marine biology in a class room when you can teach it on the sea bed. Why travel thousands of miles for a single meeting when you can do it virtually. We are excited to see how people like you will utilize the Engage platform to educate the world.

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When using the Engage platform you are given access to the Engage presenter tablet. You use this virtual tablet in the same way as a real life ipad or tablet.

On the tablet, you are given recording options. When you select record, the Engage platform will record everything you say and do within the virtual space along with any presentations, virtual objects and media you share in the virtual room. This recording is saved onto your hard drive for you to review.

If you are happy with your performance you can share it privately with other users in your virtual room or choose to upload it to the Engage platform for the public to view at their own convenience.

There are several multimedia sample lessons, including a lesson on the Mars Curiousity Rover. You are able to walk around a model of the rover on the surface of Mars, and click on various features for an explanation of what they do:

Here’s a short promotional YouTube video about the Engage platform:

Engage is currently available through the Early Access Program on Steam. I’m really impressed by what I saw in Engage, and it will be an interesting social VR platform to watch as it develops.

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