Many college students are finding themselves back at home after universities across the country canceled in-person classes and postponed or moved graduation ceremonies online. That’s why some students are turning to an unusual platform to reconnect with the campuses they called home: Minecraft. 

Students from the University of Pennsylvania, Berklee School of Music, and Oberlin College are using the online virtual reality gaming platform to create 1:1 replicas of their schools. Once the campuses are complete, these online schools can serve as social hubs for students and even host club meetings and events that would take place. 

The project offers a chance for students, separated by social and physical distance, to reconnect by collaborating to build these structures. The time-intensive process of building a virtual college is also a creative way to fill the extra time students have on their hands. 

Minecraft was released in 2011 and allows users to create landscapes and design buildings of all different types as well as explore the creations of others. U.S. college students aren’t the only ones taking advantage of the program in the age of COVID-19. Japanese elementary school children also used the platform to design a virtual commencement ceremony for themselves.

Although an online college may not be able to recreate the real feeling of strolling across campus with your fellow students, a Minecraft version of these beloved spaces gives students the opportunity to express themselves creatively and establish a virtual connection to the schools they cherish.