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First Large-Scale VR Use in the Classroom Extends the Boundaries of Education
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-large-scale-vr-classroom-boundaries.html [phys.org]
The use of virtual reality (VR) is expanding across industries, but its large-scale application in educational settings has remained largely unexplored. As the technical capabilities and affordability of VR tools continue to improve, Waterloo researcher Dr. Ville Mäkelä is turning his classroom into a living lab to better understand how VR can enrich the student experience.
Mäkelä and colleagues Dr. Daniel Harley and Dr. Cayley MacArthur piloted the first class in Canada to offer large-scale, VR-centered 3D design at the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business. Throughout the term, students used VR headsets and the design software Gravity Sketch, already used by companies including New Balance for product design, to create characters and objects in an immersive environment.
From its initial offering in 2024, Mäkelä has taught 200 students over four sections and co-authored a research paper about integrating VR into the classroom. The study is published in the Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
"Our prediction is that VR will be increasingly relevant to many careers," he says, "so future graduates need to know how to navigate VR technology and understand its opportunities and limitations."
The work positions Waterloo as a leader in expanding our understanding of how technology adoption impacts classroom learning. "There aren't many examples out there of mass adoption of VR in university classes," Mäkelä says. "A lot had to happen before something like this was possible."
Between budgeting for equipment, deciding on headset models, developing protocols for equipment use and finding a space large enough to accommodate multi-user VR interaction, there was a lot to prepare on top of regular course planning.
After the first class launched, cyber sickness, a kind of motion sickness triggered by exposure to a virtual environment, presented a challenge. "It became very clear during these courses that the symptoms and how they develop can vary quite significantly," Mäkelä says, adding that moderating use of the headsets and offering non-VR alternatives for assignments became key strategies to support students. "It's interesting that despite all these issues, students were very positive about the VR experience and using the technology."
Another challenge was effectively communicating with students. Although everyone was physically together in a classroom, demonstrating a virtual application to someone outside of it presented a unique problem. Mäkelä turned to screencasting as an innovative way of lecturing that allows the VR user to stream their view from inside the headset onto an external screen.
"It's such a different technology, not just for students but for instructors," he says. Although it required practice, screencasting became an effective tool to offer mass tutorials and support peer learning and group activities among students.
The class pushed the boundaries of traditional education not only through its content and delivery but also through its relationship with students, who were at once research participants and co-learners in navigating this new technology.
"For a lot of people, including myself, it was the first time using VR and for almost everyone the first time designing in VR," says Brooke Eyram (BGBDA '24), who took the first iteration of the course in her fourth year.
Being part of this cohort meant that her input, and every student's since, has been invaluable to further developing the course. "Professor Mäkelä was very open to feedback at all stages," she says, emphasizing how impactful it was to influence and shape her own and others' experiences as a student.
On top of the opportunity to engage with VR in the class, she adds that the experience has helped empower and equip her for life after school by giving her tools to navigate an up-and-coming technology. "Just like how AI is growing, it's really important to be aware of and develop skills that relate to VR, because that can be the future of the market."
In their paper presented in Japan earlier this year, Mäkelä and colleagues shared key findings from their ongoing research on large-scale VR in the classroom, including the need for careful planning, flexibility, collaboration and student-driven learning.
The first of its kind, this study plays an important role in sharing best practices and opportunities with fellow educators, shaping the future of technology in the classroom.
"Thanks to the embodied way of seeing and doing things in VR, design becomes a more experiential practice," Mäkelä says. "These immersive, embodied and interactive aspects of VR enable ways of learning that no other technology or approach can deliver."
More information: Ville Mäkelä et al, Integrating Virtual Reality Head-Mounted Displays into Higher Education Classrooms on a Large Scale, Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (2025). DOI: 10.1145/3706598.3713690 [doi.org]
