Jala University’s contribution to online education
By Juan Salinas, CEO of Jala University
Few people could have anticipated the migration to online learning as rapidly as it’s occurring, but because of COVID-19, online education has become a new normal.
Online education is accessible and convenient, it has the potential to reach people in every corner of the world and turn them into anything they want to be. But this immense promise has revealed a dark side: dropout rates, widespread feelings of isolation, and a lack of personalized support, critical challenges that affect both student performance and well-being are now commonly associated with remote learning environments. These issues frequently lead to anxiety, depression, and the eventual abandonment of studies.
Making it work will require much more than giving every professor a Zoom account and letting instruction take its course. The existing platforms—such as Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom, and Zoom—while effective for basic communication and content delivery, fall short when it comes to fostering meaningful social interaction and community engagement. This lack of connection erodes motivation and commitment among students, leaving a gap that current technology has yet to fill.

In light of these challenges, institutions are exploring more innovative solutions. Jala University stands at the forefront of this movement, leveraging emerging technologies like the Metaverse and Artificial Intelligence to create an immersive and collaborative learning environment. Through platforms such as MeetPoint and the Valis virtual tutor, Jala University aims to redefine the online learning experience by addressing both the social and academic needs of students. These innovations are designed not only to reduce dropout rates but also to provide a more connected, engaging educational journey. This article aims to examine the role of Jala University’s Research and Development department in advancing these technologies and explore how these innovations could shape the future of online education.
Introducing MeetPoint: A Virtual Campus
The value of MeetPoint becomes clear when considering the current unresolved challenges haunting online education. Widely adopted platforms like Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Zoom were never designed for educational purposes, but for sporadic meetings or workplace collaboration, however, they were hastily adapted for online lessons during the pandemic. While these platforms enable basic functionality for remote classes, they fail to address the long-term needs of fully online institutions, particularly in fostering student engagement and community.
Studies on online education consistently highlight the social isolation and lack of supervision as major factors contributing to high dropout rates. A review by Shaikh and Asif (2022) identifies key elements, such as the absence of social connectedness, sense of belonging, and peer interaction, as critical to student persistence in online programs. Without addressing these social factors, platforms designed for communication and content delivery cannot meet the holistic needs of students.
The persistence and dropout rates in online education are often linked to the inability of students to connect meaningfully with peers and educators. A sense of social connectedness has been shown to be essential for maintaining student engagement. McInnerney and Roberts (2004) argue that isolation, a common feature of online learning environments, negatively impacts both learning experiences and retention rates.
This sense of isolation is compounded by the lack of traditional verbal and visual communication cues in online platforms, which diminishes students’ sense of belonging within their learning communities. The absence of such social dynamics can be a decisive factor in whether a student chooses to persist or drop out of an online program.
Fostering an online community is critical for student success, as demonstrated by numerous studies. Instructors play a pivotal role in promoting peer interaction and encouraging a sense of community among students. When students feel part of a knowledge-building community, their chances of completing their studies increase significantly.
The Role of Emerging Technologies in Addressing These Challenges
Emerging technologies such as the Metaverse and AI offer new opportunities to transform online education. Virtual environments can facilitate richer, more immersive learning experiences, enabling students to interact with one another and their instructors in dynamic, realistic settings. In this context, the concept of “Metaversities” has begun to take shape. These are learning institution in the metaverse where learners and instructors can interact. In some cases, a metaversity is a digital twin of a physical campus. In other cases, a metaversity can be a unique environment created for learning in virtual reality (VR). Over 50 universities are now exploring the use of digital twins for their campuses, supported by platforms such as VictoryXR, Gather Town, and FrameVR.
Jala University is contributing to this movement through the development of MeetPoint, an innovative virtual campus designed to address the limitations of current online education platforms.
How MeetPoint Addresses the Key Causes of Dropout in Online Education
MeetPoint transforms the online learning environment by creating a 24/7 accessible virtual campus. Unlike traditional platforms that limit student interaction to scheduled meetings, MeetPoint offers continuous opportunities for engagement, providing both formal educational spaces and casual social areas. This structure is designed to combat the feelings of isolation and anxiety that are common in online education, reducing dropout rates by fostering a sense of community.
The platform re-imagines online interaction through its Collaborative Communication System, which integrates chat, audio, video, and virtual presence into one seamless experience. This allows students to navigate a virtual environment where they can move between different rooms dedicated to specific topics or casual interactions. Upon entering a room, students are visible to others, encouraging spontaneous conversation and collaboration.



MeetPoint uses Rooms to facilitate interactions
MeetPoint’s community rooms mimic real-world public spaces, offering opportunities for students to connect with others who share their interests. In addition, students can track their engagement and time spent in various rooms, allowing them to optimize their participation and enhance their learning Experience.

MeetPoint recognizes who is the person with the opened camera monitors activity while in class.

MeetPoint shows attendance insights after the class.

Multiple simultaneous screensharing, faculty jumps from students’ screens as needed.

Introducing the Metaverse into MeetPoint

Students and faculty will be able to walk around the campus, join rooms, visit the Deans office, etc.

Live presentations and videos inside metaverse.
MeetPoint’s value proposition
Features
- Chats (1:1, groups, in room messaging, tags, links, images).
- Video (up to 1000s opened cameras per class).
- Private and public spaces.
- Multiple screen sharing.
- Room Management (roles, user management, map customization).
- Hybrid, metaverse mode (casual social interaction, streaming), video, conference mode (for classes), audio mode.
- Room Calendars.
- Mail notifications for events (calendar events).
- 3d Navigation (bird-eye view) and avatars.
- In-app Notifications.
- Class recording and “attendance-video watching” control.
- Attendance monitoring insights (time joined, time with opened cameras, time talking, etc.)
- Proctoring (face recognition and overlays)
- Live Streaming auditoriums
- Kiosk (AI assistants)
- VR/AR
Introducing Valis: An AI-Powered Platform for Universities
Generative AI has indeed dominated conversations for the past year, and has starting to become a part of our everyday lives. While many are equally excited and skeptical about the possibilities it may bring, when it comes to education, the main emotions are fear and pessimism.
With over two decades of experience in software development and education, the Jala Group recognizes the critical importance of understanding Generative AI’s impact. In particular, Jala University is committed to not only preparing students for the evolving demands of the software industry but also adapting its educational strategies to reflect this new era.
Generative AI is no longer a future prospect; it is a present reality that educators and students must proactively embrace. Following, are some key insights that encapsulate the institution’s position on Generative AI:
1. Generative AI is here to stay; educators and students must embrace it proactively.
It is important to expose our students to the technology as early as possible (ideally during the first semester).
2. Universities must slightly re-balance our student outcomes towards human-centric (people) skills.
Over the past 20 years, our educational journey has been marked by a shift away from traditional models focused on memorization and repetition, towards nurturing critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
As we walk (or run) towards a world where Generative AI complements our abilities daily, knowledge skills will be less relevant, and human-centric skills will be significantly more important.
We’re already very aligned with this path, but we must double our efforts so that our students can maximize their skills in critical thinking, collaboration, communication, resilience, problem solving, creativity, emotional intelligence and the pursue of lifelong learning.
Paradoxically, Generative AI can help us or play against.
3. Leverage Generative AI tools towards the accomplishment of our student outcomes
Concretely:
- Explore and implement personalized learning using AI Tutors that can complement the learning experience in our courses while adapting to each student’s strengths, weaknesses, interests, and learning styles.
- Explore and implement highly efficient real-time language translation support reducing the communication gap that sometimes we encounter across English, Spanish and Portuguese native speakers.
- Explore and implement automated AI feedback systems.
- Ensure that the technology is accessible and available to students and educators.
4. Continuous Reevaluation and Adaptation.
Regularly revisit and reassess our educational strategies to ensure they remain aligned with the latest developments in Generative AI. This involves adapting our curriculum, teaching methodologies, and tools to stay at the forefront of AI-driven educational practices.
Explore more about the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Education in the article “Are AI and Education a Good Match? Jala University’s Perspective”, by Rolando Lora from our Research and Development team.
The Valis Platform: Revolutionizing Student Support
In their recent article “Teaching CS50 with AI” (2024) a group of Harvard and Yale scholars reflect on the power of AI and education:
“In online courses of sufficient size, students who enroll might never talk live with an instructor. […] – it is often the case that the only humans a student may turn to for help are other students. If an AI assistant could respond with more expertise than students and behave like a good tutor might, it would be a breakthrough for students who otherwise might never interact with a course instructor”
Moreover, they conclude that “emerging evidence suggests a potential for AI to improve the learning feedback process, promote critical thinking, and bolster problem-solving skills”.
Jala University shares this vision and is making strides in the development of personalized AI tutors that will guide students throughout their learning process.
These AI tutors will be accessible around the clock, not to provide direct answers but to help students understand and deconstruct problems.
Moreover, by absorbing course content, such as textbooks and lecture materials, AI tutors will be able to contextualize a course, offer personalized guidance, and suggest relevant resources for further study.
The AI tutors will also integrate seamlessly with the MeetPoint platform, allowing students to move between academic and social environments without losing access to academic support.
A Common Scenario in Online Education
Consider a typical assignment from one of Jala University’s courses: students are asked to write pseudocode and program a solution in Java to determine which of three numbers is the largest, and print the result as “The largest number is X.”
Some students may turn to generative AI tools like ChatGPT to obtain the answer quickly (See the image below, how the tool solves the exercise.)

However, Jala University’s AI tutor takes a different approach. Rather than providing the solution outright, the AI tutor will guide the student through the problem-solving process, helping them break down the logic step by step (See image below.)

This approach ensures that students are learning effectively rather than relying on external tools for answers. By offering tailored support, the AI tutor improves the overall learning experience and empowers students to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Supporting the Broader Education Community
In line with its vision, Jala University is committed to helping other institutions enhance the online learning experience for students. Both Meetpoint and the AI tutor will be made available free of charge to the education community.
Institutions will only need to cover the costs of servers and necessary services for these tools to operate. As part of this initiative, Jalasoft will donate deployment and implementation services to early adopters, ensuring a smooth transition and setup.
Research and Development at Jala University
The Research and Development initiatives at Jala University are grounded in a mission to create innovations that deliver tangible benefits, particularly in the field of online education. Two key areas of focus—Metaverse and Artificial
Intelligence—are believed to hold transformative potential. Leading these efforts are architects with over 20 years of experience, supported by a partnership with Jalasoft (a sister company that offers Software Development Services) which provides access to a large team of software engineers. This collaboration also involves senior students who contribute actively to both research and product development.
This article was written in English and has been translated into Spanish and Portuguese with ChatGPT.
Discover more articles of your interest! Go back
