Wharton School rolls out online certificate course on business in the metaverse

The premier institution becomes the first of the Ivy Leagues to launch a course based on the metaverse

By Shashank Bhardwaj

Image: Shutterstock

Wharton School of Business announced on Tuesday that its Aresty Institute of Executive Education would launch a “Business in the Metaverse Economy” certificate program. In the age of online education, this six-week course would also be taught online with a focus on immersion and discussion, with students expected to spend 8-10 hours every week.

Wharton Business School comes within the University of Pennsylvania, a prestigious institution which is a part of the Ivy League colleges. The leading business school partnered with a consulting firm, Prysm Group, to create the course. The official announcement explains that the course will contain more than 50 lectures by the university faculty and industry representatives and include six case studies surrounding the content.

“The metaverse is a significant and broad phenomenon still poorly understood. We hope to equip business leaders, consultants, and entrepreneurs with an understanding of the impending opportunities the metaverse brings,” the program’s academic director, Kevin Werbach, said.

The course will also include guest speakers from Adobe, R/GA, Animoca Brands, Second Life, RLY Network, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among other organisations.

Wharton School is the first of the elite group of universities known as the Ivy League to introduce a course on emerging metaverse technology. Previously, they have offered free massive open online courses (MOOCs) through Coursera on crypto and blockchain and a formal fees-based online course on “Economics of Blockchain and Digital Assets”. The university appears optimistic about the future of the metaverse, projecting that it will be a $13 trillion market with five billion users by 2030.

The first cohort for “Business in the Metaverse Economy” is set to begin on 12 September, and the fees stand at $4500. In the spirit of embracing the rise of crypto and Web3, the University is accepting payments in crypto for this course as well as donations in crypto with a $10,000 minimum. The course is now open for limited enrolment from the university website.

The writer is the founder at yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash

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