CityUHK's CLASSy World Metaverse Expands

City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) launched the CLASSy World metaverse project in July 2026. The initiative creates five interactive virtual spaces to enhance blended and team-based learning across disciplines, acting as a dynamic supplement to traditional teaching rather than a replacement.

The project, detailed in a sponsored article, enables independent exploration, reflection, and collaborative inquiry. Each of the five spaces was developed by academic leads who translated subject knowledge into immersive, navigable digital worlds.

Interactive Learning Spaces

The project's five distinct but interconnected spaces cater to different academic fields. Each space is designed to allow students to explore, reflect, and collaborate before, during, and after in-person class sessions.

Pedagogical Approaches

The House of Europe is structured as a virtual residence with four thematic rooms: European Governance, European Economics, European Art and History, and the Room of Enlightenment. Professor Bert George and Professor Astrid Harth explain that the platform offers an ideal channel for students to acquire key knowledge before lectures. Classroom sessions can then focus on discussing contemporary challenges.

Professor Esterina Nervino leads the Italian House. It integrates architectural motifs from UNESCO World Heritage sites like Venice. The space includes institutional videos and a short language course developed with a university language centre and supported by the Italian government. Nervino says the metaverse removes practical barriers to international engagement, allowing remote exploration without travel constraints.

Dr. Li Ruozhu's Python initiative offers two course streams: one for departmental courses and another open to all students. Both use self-recorded tutorials and quizzes. Li states the metaverse transcends geographical boundaries, allowing shared learning across borders. Students from different countries can learn together in a shared virtual space.

Local and Language Focus

Professor Alfred Tat-Kei Ho's Sham Shui Po project reconstructs the development of Kowloon Tong from the 1930s to the 1950s. It examines post-war public housing policy. The team integrated historical materials like archival documents, old newspapers, maps, and photographs into the virtual space. Ho says this lets students navigate content non-linearly and engage with historical urban development in a self-directed manner.

CLASSyCAN, led by Professor Caesar Lun and Dr. Lee Tsz Ming Tommy, focuses on Cantonese pronunciation. It uses the Jyutping romanization scheme. Videos include animations of the articulation process and remarks about minute pronunciation differences. Daily examples and an MTR station scenario help application. Lun notes that using an avatar to teach fits the virtual reality of the metaverse and can help reduce learner anxiety.

The project operates in a blended mode. Students watch videos in the metaverse then join small tutorial sessions for live practice. Professor Lun notes the evaluation of this blended mode was very satisfactory. Dr. Lee agrees human interaction remains essential, calling both the learner-oriented metaverse journey and traditional face-to-face interaction crucial components for effective learning.

Across all initiatives, the shared philosophy positions the metaverse as a dynamic extension of traditional teaching. It aims to make blended learning more cohesive and meaningful by enabling exploration and collaborative inquiry.