Hevolus and Microsoft Italy announce Hybrid Learning Spaces:
Mixed Reality for increasingly hybrid teaching
The Federico II University of Naples is the first university to experiment with the new solution within its degree courses
The Federico II University of Naples is the first Italian university to experiment with Hybrid Learning Spaces, an integrated solution developed by Hevolus Innovation and Microsoft Italy for interactive teaching and laboratories in mixed reality.
The acceleration of digitization processes in recent months has highlighted the opportunities that a more digital education can generate, in terms of access to innovative content and unprecedented learning experiences, preparatory to the acquisition of new skills. This is the so-called Hybrid Teaching, a learning approach that merges physical and digital world, giving life to something new and with high potential.
In this framework, Hybrid Learning Spaces was born, real immersive virtual classrooms that allow to introduce a new educational model accessible both remotely and in person, through holographic lessons and laboratories. The University of Naples is the first in Italy to implement the solution in education field, both scientific and humanistic.
The Hybrid Learning Spaces solution is perfectly aligned with what Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, announced during Ignite 2021 - Microsoft main conference dedicated to the Enterprise world - that is to make cloud-based solutions available to public and private realities to create the metaverse, with the aim of enabling shared experiences between the physical and digital worlds.
"The Federico II University wants to make innovative technologies for teaching available to its students: after managing the emergency period with distance learning, the University is now ready to rethink a new hybrid teaching, for this reason it immediately took the opportunity to experiment and evaluate the Hybrid Learning Spaces for some courses." Giovanni B. Barone, Head of the Systems Division of the University Federico II of Naples says.
"New technologies, smart devices and a hybrid approach now allow educational institutions to respond to the ongoing paradigm change with an interactive and multidisciplinary experiential model able to place the student at the center, involving him personally and boosting his spirit of initiative. We believe that this project developed together with Microsoft can help the Education and Training sector to attract young people in a new way, providing them with specific skills on team collaboration techniques that are essential in the world of work.” Antonio Squeo, CIO of Hevolus Innovation explains, digital company specialized in phygital customer experience and participated by the Italian Venture II Fund - Fondo Imprese Sud, managed by CDP Venture Capital SGR.
“We are in a crucial phase for our country, a historical moment of great changes and opportunities where we return to focus on young people, the real engine of our country's future growth, investing in their training and in the development of new skills. In this scenario, digital has a key role as an enabler of new hybrid teaching experiences and new technologies can help press the accelerator on this transformation already underway; the new solution developed in collaboration with Hevolus is a concrete demonstration of this. The Federico II University of Naples has embarked on a path of innovation and digital transformation with Microsoft for some time now and the adoption of this solution confirms the desire not only to continue but also to accelerate this path, allowing today's students to be ready to face the challenges of the near future.” Elvira Carzaniga, Microsoft Education Division Director commented.