(Radio Iowa) – The president of the University of Iowa cut a virtual ribbon during an online ceremony Thursday afternoon, to open what’s known as a digital twin replica campus. The so-called “metaversity” will be used for online learning as well as campus labs for residential students. Steve Grubbs is the founder of Victory-X-R, a Davenport-based tech company that creates 3-D immersive educational environments.

Victory built an online replica of the Pentacrest and the Tippie College of Business where remote students can go to class, just as if they were actually on campus. Thursday’s launch of the Metaversity of Iowa only makes a couple of courses available, for starters, but students who attend those courses will be able to attend from anywhere.

Other Big Ten schools are using virtual reality for this type of distance learning, but Grubbs says the U-I is the first to launch a full digital twin campus. He says 40-percent of today’s students already take classes remotely.