What I would want, and what makes sense to me, is a system that uses online material and lectures in conjunction with an in person, immersive physical meeting place where questions may be asked and problems worked through or tips given. I think that's the best of both worlds and utilizes the low-latency environment of a classroom best, while still capturing the in-person benefits you mentioned.

Unfortunately, class time is generally largely spent observing lecture, and the real meat of the learning is generally spent alone in a high latency environment (with feedback available via email or forums). I don't like going to class just to watch a video, and going home just to do problems out of a book (by myself), and that has been my experience so far.

Some of my courses in college have just flipped to this model where most of class time is spent problem-solving (to greater or lesser degrees) and it's been incredibly effective. Granted, this is at a small liberal arts college, but learning through collaboration has been much more effective than just attending lectures (that I and many others zone out of)

This is the flipped classroom model. Definitely not widespread, but it’s gaining popularity, even in universities. The system is slow to change.

Exactly what I am dreaming of. :-)

Personally class time in STEM courses has always been a waste for me. If it wasn't required for my degrees, I would just learn everything on my own, pass the tests and complete the assignments. OTOH I also attended a great books discussion based course and there the class time was essential to really dig into the texts. However, even that can be zoomified with a disciplined enough group.

Yeah, I'd be happy with a self study model where I could also ask occasional questions of a teaching assistant or better-informed peer, ideally over a voice connection so the latency between questions is minimized. Most online teaching models lack this but could benefit greatly from adding just a little rapid give-and-take to resolve the inevitable obstruction.

> turn to the person next to you and whisper a question or look at their notes?

Person next to you has the same low quality notes you do. In my group we designated a single person to take notes and after the class you just snapped a photo, since no other materials were provided. Other people were listening and trying to understand the subject. Taking notes is distracting you from learning.

Making friends in a class of 100-200 people is hard. My friend went to a Berlin university. You are just a number there. I find it much easier to engage in a discussion using a forum.

> Meet older students

How do you approach them? You have no idea who they are. You are never in class with them. University is basically the same model as high school here. You are not picking subjects or classes, you have to follow a script. You only meet students of your year.

There are some sorts of after hours interest circles, but they start after your 6 hours of learning.

Peer learning can also be done online or after an online course.

The good parts of university are the ones that can be done outside of it, hence there's no need to visit the building at all.

I think when VR technology improves a bit more it'll be the superior learning experience.

Imagine learning history interactively. Don't just read about Julius Caesar being stabbed, why not stab him yourself?

You could explore physics in a sandbox environment. Learn geography by going there. Practice theater by performing.

Grabbing a cup of coffee is fun but so is hopping into a game of virtual paintball.

I'm not really sure if actually doing something will be effective for say learning history. I think of all the odd activities teachers had me do, and I kind of wish they just told me the story, but I'm a guy who now listens to history podcast so may just be personal.

Also think of all the odd physics demonstrations and I'm not sure they really often enhanced my knowledge more than a gif would of especially versus the expense. Does anyone know of any research around this area?

What is the rate of data processing of a human’s sensory organs? Until VR output data at that rate to every human sense being in VR will be less stimulating than being in real space. I think this is especially true of social environments, were subtle body language, facial movements, touch and smell are critically important.

Being around a group of people is easily 20x more stimulating to me than any VR experience I’ve had, and I’ve experience the state of the art in VR. Spending day after day, year after year, going to classes with the same group of peers was very socially validating and helped me be more engaged with my time at school.

I personally know 3 people who get pretty ill from VR, so that's not an option for everyone.

I've heard accounts of conferences where the attendees ad-hoc setup a collaborate editing environment while the presentation was going on with the facility wifi, and organized notes, formed questions and generally improved the quality of the interaction with the group. IMHO this goes a long away to replacing the "peer to peer" interaction when you're in the audience, and has a potential to engage the learners more.

I imagine K-12 Remote learning is hesitant to do that so as to not lose control of the messaging. The teacher has enough burden to make sure their lesson is communicated effectively; that moderating a realtime chat is just not possible.

From my own anecdotal experience with my kids, I have one is super hesitant to stick their neck out and participate where the whole group can see (either on video, or embarrassed for asking too many questions), where this model might bring more anxiety.

This is frustratingly not an easy problem to solve.

In my country, most classroom have an unofficial facebook group or discord channel. My little sister (20y) organizes zoom call for her own group of classroom friend to work together. They work but also chitchat, comment world politics, social issue, etc. It is awesome to assist.