Have you ever wanted to try out the college lifestyle without the stakes, grades or classes?
If so, you’re in luck — Utah State University now exists in the world of Roblox. On “Aggie Campus Life: USU,” players can hang out on campus, shoot hoops, deliver ice cream and see what other minigames the virtual university has to offer.
For those feeling out of touch (or too in-touch with reality), Roblox is a massive online library of games that are made by anyone from bored, technologically advanced kids to skilled game developers.
David Sharratt, USU’s assistant director of web strategy, said building the campus in Roblox began as a side project, but became a major endeavor over the past year.
(Utah State University) The Old Main building at Utah State University stands against Logan’s mountainous horizon. Now, a considerably more pixelated version stands against a virtual horizon in Roblox.
“Making games for me — that’s kind of why I got into computer science,” he said. “For me, this has been like almost a passion project in a way.”
Sharratt said the idea to replicate the campus was born about a year and a half ago, in a class taught by Ramy Shaaban, a USU professor in the school’s Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Department.
“With part of that class, they ended up building out some aspects of the campus, and they ended up doing it in Roblox,” Sharratt said.
He said he first heard of the project as students were showing it to people through virtual reality headsets.
“We were like, ‘Oh, this is incredible,’” he said. “‘This is pretty awesome what this class — these students — had been working on.’”
Not long after, he said USU’s marketing and communications team got involved and expanded the vision of the virtual creation to fit more of the campus.
He said the goal of the project is to target future students in generation alpha and bring them to USU before they ever set foot on the campus.
“We decided, you know what, we have these students making these assets. They are doing a really great job with it, let’s incorporate that into a bigger project,” he said. “We know how big some of these platforms are … for the younger generations and how much time they love spending on them.”
With the help of Shaaban and his students, the school constructed a 1-to-1 replica of the world of USU — one where you can bike through the Taggart Student Center and where you don’t have to start sprinting for class when you hear chimes from the digital version of the Old Main Bell Tower.
(Utah State University) In an effort to reach kids who might one day be students, Utah State University is meticulously recreating its campus in the world of Roblox.
Individual buildings took about 40 hours to build inside and out in the digital world, he said.
And though the beta version was released a few weeks ago with just a handful of USU’s buildings, Sharratt said there will be more to come.
In the meantime, USU students, alumni and prospective students can see how the digital version of the campus stacks up against the real thing.
Along with sharing USU with youngsters who could one day enroll at the school, Sharratt said the universityis also exploring other ways it can use its digital grounds, like incorporating the Roblox campus into new-student orientation.
Note to readers •This reporting position is a partnership with Utah Public Radio, a division of Utah State University.
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