100 Roads FAQs

What is a virtual campus?

A virtual campus is an online education hub that reproduces many of the interactions and learning environments of a physical school or college.

Students can attend classes, collaborate, ask questions, speak publicly or privately with educators and peers, meet friends, and relax with fun activities between classes.

What is a proximity chat platform?

A proximity chat platform is a virtual environment where participants interact and communicate via avatars, text-based chat or video conferencing. Participants control who they speak to and what they interact with by moving their avatar closer.

For example, close proximity to other avatars and objects opens private communications, group chats, information pop-ups and more.  

Why do I need hosting?

Your 100 Roads campus is created for use on a proximity video chat platform. To make it available for students it needs to be hosted and maintained on a platform that supports this technology.

How much does it cost?

For every campus there is a one time non-refundable set up fee. This covers the customized set up of your school using one of our expertly designed campuses. 

Once your school is set up, you choose either a monthly or yearly subscription for management of your campus. There is a substantial discount for a yearly subscription. Our tech team at 100 Roads will manage the code of your virtual school including installing updates, changing designs and interactions, and making sure your school is functioning correctly. 

Lastly, you will need to purachase hosting for platform. The cost of hosting depends on the number of participants using the campus at the same time, and is calculated on the single user basis. 100 Roads has secured discounted hosting for schools using our designs.

Why are there different fees involved in having a campus?

To operate a campus there are three main costs: 

One time non-refundable set up fee:  Our tech team sets up accounts in Github and WorkAdventure (platform creator and host) with your customized virtual campus. 

Monthly subscription:  Every two weeks our tech team checks your campus, makes any necessary changes or updates, adds custom designs or new add-ons, and makes sure everything is working well. We do this so you don't have to learn the platform or train a tech team in the school to manage it. 

Hosting:  Your campus must be hosted on a proximity chat platform. We work with WorkAdventure and have a special deal for our education clients. New clients receive 3 months free and 50% off regular pricing. It costs approx $5/month/per concurrent user (how many people you have at once) in your campus.

Why do you lease and not sell your campuses outright?

We expect schools will want to make changes to their learning environments, add new spaces, change interactions, and change their campuses based on the ebb and flow of their communities. 

Founders may even want to move their school to another platform, add different landscapes for events, and incorporate new features as the platform evolves. 

If you buy the campuses outright, you will need a tech team that understands proximity chat platforms and has significant design and coding skills. While possible, it is cheaper and easier to use our tech/design team to safeguard and update your environment.

Do you use any other proximity video chat platforms?

We can customize our designs for use on other proximity video chat platforms, however some features may become unavailable after on other platforms. We have chosen WorkAdventure as our platform partner because they have no age limit for account users. They also allow more flexibility on coding and integrations than some platforms. 

How often do you update the campuses?

We check and update all leased campuses every two weeks. During this process we make furniture and interaction changes, add campuses, change portals and add seasonal decorations. If you have an urgent change outside of the two week window we charge a $60/hr fee (minimum 2 hrs).

Can I buy additional design hours to customize my regular campus?

You can buy a 5 or 10 hour design package and then submit a work order. Our designers can create custom furniture, branding, landscaping, kiosks, buildings and more. 

Once a work order is submitted, you will receive an email with an estimate and can work with one of our designers to create your IP.  We install your designs into your school and send you your design files.

How many hours does it take to create custom furniture? 

We have pre-made furniture in many colors and designs. We can also make custom furniture if you wish to supply pictures and colors. The furniture will be created in four aspects and sized to fit the avatars. The more complex the furniture, the longer it will take. We estimate approx 5 hours for a lounge set with tables and lamps.

Can I update my campus outside the updating window? 

If you have an urgent change outside of the two week window we charge a $60/hr fee (minimum 2 hrs).

Who do I contact if I need support?

If you need support please fill out the contact form and we will email you. Or email us at team@100roads.org.

What services do you offer to support getting my community on board?

We have a lot of experience in onboarding admin, tech teams, educators and students. We have onboarding guides that you can give to your community. We can also make suggestions, support you in any event you want to organize, or provide an onboarding team to facilitate the onboarding process. 

Can I get the onboarding manuals?

We have created onboarding guides to help you operate in your new campus.
When you lease a campus, you will be sent all of the guides to share with your community.

Can I duplicate my campus?

No. When you lease a campus from 100 Roads you are using one of our signature campuses which are copyrighted. You may not copy, distribute, or transfer your campus.

How many add-ons can I buy?

You can buy and set up as many add on campuses as you wish. You will be able to attach a limited number of them to your center campus based on the size of the campus leased.

Can I buy a regular campus and later upgrade it to Premium or Deluxe?

You can upgrade your campus if you would like custom branding and signage, a larger campus, more portals and seasonal decorations. If you would like to upgrade, just email us and we will reach out to discuss. 

What is the difference between 'build your own' and 'custom design'?

With a build your own campus you choose elements from the purpose-built designs in our store. First you choose your admin center, then you select add-ons to attach to your campus. 

Custom design is building a new-world campus from scratch. We discuss your ideas in an initial 30-minute free consultation, then we start developing design concepts. When you're happy with the style of your new campus our design team builds your unique virtual space. We work in close contact with you at every step. Custom designs are not sold on our storefront so your campus will be one of a kind.

What kind of interactions can I install in my campus?

In short, you can install any link in your campus. However, there is a difference in how the website opens in your campus.

The links can open as embedded websites. In this case you'll have your campus and the opened website on the same screen. The website appears on the right side of the screen, and your avatar and surrounding areas on the left side. Most of the links that our educators use (such as Google Docs, Sheets, Slides; calculators, calendars, YouTube videos, Kahoot, etc) function as embedded websites. In order for the website to be embeddable, it needs to be available as an iFrame embed code.

If the website cannot be embedded, it can be opened in a new tab. In this case, you can approach the interaction with your avatar, press the key and the website will open in a new tab. The avatar will stay on the campus in the other tab. One example is Google Classroom. Absolutely any website (doesn't matter if it is embeddable or not) can be installed in your campus by opening in a new tab.

Why do we need a digital universe rather than simply a collection of Google Meets? Is there research to support this effort?

While it is possible to create an online school with a series of Google Meets and an LMS, there is a sense of place missing from these environments. To enable a sense of belonging and to capture the hearts and minds of our youth, we need to create environments where students and staff want to be. Proximity video chat platforms mimic the interaction that happens in schools, even allows play for the younger learners. School buildings can be replicated and/or designed to enhance collaboration and community building.



At 100 Roads, we have created and tested website based community spaces and they are not as compelling for learners who want to hang out with their friends. We have had the most engagement on proximity chat platforms where you have the in-between times between classes, and hanging out spaces where relationships outside the context of a class can be nurtured.


There is no research yet to support the use of proximity video chat platforms in schools. This technology has only been in use over the last few years. In order to perform research, we need to collect data and monitor activity inside a school. We are working with WorkAdventure to see what is possible, as far as what data we can collect, and we are designing a framework to evaluate and interpret collectable metrics. We have spoken to two universities interested in collaborating with 100 Roads to create studies.

Are there any other schools using this in the US?

Currently Choice Charter and Cottonwood ALC are using WorkAdventure as a host and 100 Roads school designs as their school location. Cottonwood has physical locations in Montana and NYC, and uses the virtual platform to join their learning communities.



How customizable is this interface?

The interface is highly customizable. If you can imagine a grid of 10,000 squares, in every square you can have individual code to embed all kinds of interactions. You can design using traditional architecture using vectors, or create artistic worlds that you would see in a computer game. For school we generally use traditionally designed buildings as it helps create the context for learning and educators and students feel more comfortable with what they know. Educators can customize their own spaces.  

Who is 100 Roads and what background does it have in consulting?

100 Roads Inc. is a non profit organization founded in 2018 by Catherine Fraise. It is a research and development company that evolved to help new founders create community based colearning locations for families opting out of conventional education. Catherine Fraise was originally a public high school teacher, then Montessori educator (3 AMI Montessori certifications for children aged 2.9yo through adolescence), the founder of Workspace Education, and then 100 Roads.  She has a 20 year history of working with students who have exited the school system and helping them create a strong alternative educational pathway outside the conventional school system.

We specialize in creating learning landscapes where students and families want to be, creating community and working with teens. 100 Roads moved into creating virtual learning environments during Covid, and to support founders who are innovating in education and needing a space to host their learning communities.

100 Roads has held over 12 training courses over the last 4 years, with colleagues Dr. Chris Unger (Northeastern University/Doctoral Program in Innovation in Education) and Thomas Steele-Maley, designer of networked learning ecosystems. 100 Roads has been designing virtual spaces for two years with an international design team. We are working closely with WorkAdventure to create an education arm and to ensure the safety and security of our education communities.

How do you create community and school culture in this space?

Community is created by allowing for many small conversations, and creating time and space for informal activity to happen in between classes.  

How do we know kids are being successful in this environment?

Right now we have a lack of empirical data to verify success. In our view success is engagement, and how students are interacting on our campuses. What we know is that online learning in just a meeting room environment is not compelling enough to engage students in education. 

Choice Charter School is the first location that is using our platform to recreate full-time school in a virtual space. We are now in the position to collect data and verify the validity of our campuses as an engaging school environment. Studies have been done focusing on virtual reality based virtual campuses. Results suggest that virtual campuses provide more engagement.