There are few chances in today's world to gain and maintain attention, and this represents the key benefit from VR for education.
Removing distractors means that sustained, focused concentration on the topic on hand can lead to higher order thinking skills.
This is a huge benefit with regards to student affect. Allow learners to fully commit to learning without fear of judgement, or prying eyes.
NOTE: Do not make the fatal assumption that these benefits are automatic with all VR devices, and systems. They are not. The following are areas of issue:
- A front-facing camera ... introduces distraction (there will be moments of breaking the illusion of being in another place)
- Tracking ... introduces judgement (the Observer Effect), and a constant awareness of being watched
- Class-wide delivery ... introduces distraction and judgement (the user is no longer the sole agent of their learning environment)
Alone, any one of these chips away at the benefits of VR in education. Together, they badly affect attention, one of the very key benefits VR affords.
Great partnerships, and a decade in VR education ensures that SVR content is:
150,000 words of content in 180 learning modules
- All content is written and voiced (in various regional languages)
- Written to specific ages (9-17 yrs old)
- 4-5 assessment questions per module
- ETR (Easy To Read) option for each of the 180 modules
- 45 modules in each of the 4 following subject areas:
Financial Literacy... Environmental Studies...
Science... Technology and Computers
Majestically-filmed worlds come to life.
Enter the realm and habitats of the:
- Jaguar
- Arctic Fox
- Sperm Whale
- Reindeer
... and many more. Experience these worlds and learn amazing things about these fantastic creatures.
104 lessons in unique scenes. Get her to produce language and let her practice speaking.
Allow language learners a chance to experience different scenarios and build confidence. Offline speech recognition!
- Speaking production, even offline!
- 4 levels (fundamental, basic, intermediate, advanced)
- 15,000 words of dialogue, written by teachers
- A safe space to practice, make mistakes, and learn
Social-emotional learning via the character traits of amazing people. This award-winning personal development platform has been co-developed with SVR for virtual reality, fostering a supportive, inclusive school culture of purpose, respect and discovery. Learn from:
- Harriet Tubman, Albert Einstein, Ibn Battula,
- Anna Nzinga, Wang Zhenyi, Gandhi, and others
Being there brings it to life.
What's on your horizon?
With CareerViewXR, educators are taking students places they never thought possible. From the top of a wind turbine to the inside of a police squad car, CareerViewXR brings job tours to the classroom with engaging, accessible experiences for all grades and learning styles. Explore from any internet connected device, including VR headsets.
Bring a student to work. Experience the real world.
Stunning 360° scenes
Get a sense of being there, with this series of scenes brought to you by our good friends at 360 Cities. They have amassed the world's largest collection of such images, and wish to share some of their favourites with you.
Amazing 3D images and animations
Corinth has created the largest library of STEM education in 3D, available to schools. This sample collection of 3D images and animated models allow for deeper understanding and easier visualization.
Content created by you... offline!
Take 360° images or videos, and build your masterpiece! Add multimedia elements that will bring this to life.
- Add 2D images and video (slideshow)
- Informational text and places of interest
- Audio events in a number of intriguing ways
- Interactive quiz inside the environment
- Easy navigation between scenes
- Plus other interactive features
Unlimited creation opportunities
Every time you use SVR, costs go down.
Every time you use other VR systems, costs go up.
It's simple.
The price of a VR headset gives almost NO indication of the costs you will endure with VR systems
Don't fall victim to the fallacy that a "cheaper VR headset" means a less costly VR setup. At SVR, we proudly and openly offer up a best-of-class VR headset to ensure the greatest value, and incredible cost savings, for years to come. Less than 1% of your 5-yr costs will be associated with the price of the headset itself. It is essentially meaningless. System design (paying to access content online, requiring teacher intervention and supervision, ongoing maintenance & patches & updates, confusing setup, regular & ongoing PD, content subscriptions, platform charges, and so on) and hardware utilization will vastly dwarf the price of a VR headset. This is the uncomfortable truth that few will discuss.
SVR Adds Accretive Value
Accretive value means every year the system costs less per student and delivers more learning without additional effort. SVR creates accretive value because:
✔ The devices don’t require ongoing staff time
✔ No update treadmill
✔ Content included, no subscriptions
✔ Stability means zero retraining
✔ More sessions taken = cheaper to use
→ every hour saved compounds over the years
→ the absence of maintenance adds value each year
→ each module increases long-term value without cost
→ teacher time compounds as a benefit, not a cost
→ this is pure accretive value.
In contrast, 6 DoF gaming devices create erosive value as costs go up (staffing, updates, space) while usable value drops. Every time a 6 DoF system using a gaming device is used, the costs increase rapidly. A 3 DoF system used class-wide, lead by a teacher, also induces high costs (though not as exponentially as a 6 DoF system).
Sensible-VR delivers accretive value: the more you use it, the more valuable—and more cost-efficient—it becomes.
Simply having a VR device will not confer all of the benefits of immersive learning. The device matters because every teacher hopes for the following:
Interactivity necessitates a controller. A gaming device may have 12 buttons, which is yet more evidence that it is not designed for education.
Affordability does not mean sacrificing quality. SVR ensures that this outcomes-driven solution will be of value today, tomorrow, and into the future. A gaming & entertainment headset does not live up to the reality of school needs.
Key features of the SVR headset, made for education:
3 DoF (3 degrees of freedom)
The only scalable VR option, free of tracking personal information, requiring large spaces, and many other issues explained throughout these pages.
Hardware specs
There must be the requisite horsepower to support interactive learning content. It starts with an XR1 chipset, and includes:
Controller
One controller with 2 buttons, a trigger, and a trackpad (easy to use)
Touchpad on the VR device, allowing enough interactivity to continue (should the controller get broken or goes missing, which is the reality of school life!)
An education-quality device made for real learning and real outcomes. Designed for 9 years and older (various reasons for this). We value connecting learners with complex concepts, rather than simply giving kindergarten children an experience. This is the reason why a high-quality device is needed, instead of an expensive kaleidoscope.
Life would be easy if VR devices were like TVs, and you could just buy one and get started. But that's not the reality.
3 DoF vs 6 DoF devices both put you in the scene and allow interaction with learning content. Both are immersive.
3 DoF provides:
6 DoF devices were primarily made for gaming and entertainment, plus certain specialized learning experiences, such as surgery and welding, where movement and precise manipulation is important. There is a trade-off, and in most cases, what you give up for a gaming device is not worth it. 97% of learning is NOT centered around such manipulation.
VR Content is inherently heavy (GB and MB), so it's best and easiest (for the user) to have preloaded content modules. Online retrieval of content is expensive and fraught with issues. Easy for a company... difficult for a school.
The name, Sensible-VR, was chosen with purpose and intent, based on predominant forces within the VR in education industry. There have been incredible promises made, yet an inability to deliver something meaningful. Here are some of the claims made, and the unfortunate reality.
"We have an offline solution!"
They don't. Take a close look and ask the relevant questions. You'll either find that the content resides online (you need to retrieve before using), or the content is so light that it is only a picture.
"We have a classroom or lab solution!"
Why? VR is a uniquely personal experience, greatly enhancing learning. Why take the very essense and value of VR away, and transform it into a group experience? Done as a group means:
"6 DoF is better!"
It isn't. This is such a lazy statement, and wildly untrue.
Go through the videos in the Learn More section and you will soon understand far better than any self-proclaimed expert.
"I am Juror #8". A very, very specific, cultural reference which I would enjoy being asked about.
"We have 2000 pieces of interactive content!"
They don't. Those virtue signalling about the breadth of their content have put large amounts of fillers (simple, static pictures), or claim that 360° YouTube videos are their content. In the most egregious and deceptive cases, they take one module and classify it as having been made for Grade 8, change the module name and then classify it as having been made for Grade 11. This is a wildly dishonest way of doubling and tripling numbers. Unfortunately, there are bad actors out there. Beware.
"The price of the VR headset is the primary cost."
Not even close to reality. A system built with a teacher at the center of the VR experience can readily be shown to incur heavy costs in hundreds of thousands of dollars, over 5 years. Reality insists that personnel, real estate, PD (professional development), and all other costs be factored in.
Being sensible means being prudent about school budgets, and cricitally aware of all costs.
"What about updates, patches, and fixes?"
SVR is built for education, not for patch notes. If you buy a gaming or entertainment device, you have bound your school to the fragility of that purchase. What this means:
- Constant OS updates (often weekly or monthly)
- Major firmware changes every 3–6 months
- Forced cloud logins and identity verification
- Mandatory feature pushes not intended for schools
- Security patches that may break classroom workflows
- App compatibility changes need manual re-approval/testing
A gaming device is essentially a moving target, continuously morphing because the manufacturer is not designing for a stable 5-year educational deployment — they’re optimizing for gamers, store revenue, and rapid iteration.