‘Students can even go inside an active volcano’: how VR enhances education

From taking a trip to Mars to holding a human brain in her hands, it’s fair to say that 16-year-old Kaleigh Carmine has had some remarkable experiences at school, all thanks to virtual reality (VR). “In science we can do experiments that would be too dangerous in real life,” she says. “I loved the biology lesson when we got to step inside a cell. It really helped me to understand the structure.”

Carmine is American but has lived in South Korea, the Netherlands and Qatar over the past four years. Her parents are both university professors who frequently move for work. Recently, they returned to California but Carmine was apprehensive about going to a US school and wanted to continue studying for the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) she started in the Netherlands. Attending the online school King’s InterHigh, which offers the first fully integrated online IBDP, seemed like “an amazing opportunity”, she says. “It’s much better than anything I’d experienced when learning online during Covid. I think that has a lot to do with the technology and tools the school uses. It’s that extra step, which makes it feel like actual school.”

King’s InterHigh, which was established in 2005, saw an increased demand from students who were interested in online learning during the pandemic. And the numbers are continuing to rise, says Nathan O’Grady, the school’s VR, AR and E-sports lead. The school now has more than 4,000 students around the world and more than 200 teachers. Some students join because mainstream school isn’t the right fit for them, whether that’s because of bullying, anxiety or other additional needs. They might be academically gifted, or looking for flexibility to balance schooling with passions and careers. Others, such as Carmine, move a lot, or just prefer the distraction-free online learning environment.

O’Grady began at the school as a teacher of geography and history from his home in Hereford, and now works full time as part of the school’s innovation team. The team’s efforts helped King’s InterHigh to win the Educational Establishment of the Year award at the 2020 Education Resources awards. “What’s really nice about this school is they’re very open to trying things out,” he says.

Almost two thirds of UK teachers who took part in a study acknowledge that technology is a critical learning tool, although they’re concerned about access to digital tools and the need to be upskilled. It’s something that parents want incorporated into lessons too. Over the next five years, 55% of the UK parents who took part in the same study believe VR and social gaming will play a key role in shaping education. There’s evidence to show that learning in VR is more effective – in a workplace training study by PwC, researchers found that VR participants completed training four times faster compared with the classroom cohort, and were more focused overall.

O’Grady says it was his experience as a geography teacher that first inspired him to try VR in class. “We’ve got 4,000 kids around the world; it’s not easy for us to go on a field trip. But if they put on a headset, we can take them anywhere we want … even to the inside of an active volcano. That’s something that would be impossible for any school to do outside of virtual reality.” A history lesson that stands out was when the students toured the annex where Anne Frank and her family hid during the second world war. “It was a breakthrough moment where we really saw how VR was going to work for learning. The kids came out and they could respond to challenging questions about what they’d seen. They were able to develop emotive responses, and truly understand feelings such as claustrophobia. That’s not an experience you can have unless you’re actually there – and certainly not from a textbook.”

Every IBDP student is required to have a VR headset as part of the course. There’s also a virtual science lab, art classes and language classes, where students can practise their language skills in a virtual restaurant abroad. VR isn’t used in every lesson, but O’Grady says it can be used to enhance every subject. “I always say to teachers: ‘You’ve got the ability to create the perfect classroom for any lesson you teach.’ And it’s a way that students want to learn.”

Although some teachers are initially unfamiliar with the possibilities, those who try it are quickly converted and have reported that quieter students are more open to getting involved in VR. “We’ve got kids who are less confident in contributing within traditional classrooms. But when they have an avatar in these virtual worlds, it seems to create just enough separation that they feel safe and confident to interact,” O’Grady says.

In Germany, another IBDP student, Johnathan Allen, lives in a small village near Stuttgart. His father works for Nato and Allen started at King’s InterHigh a year ago. “I tell my friends that I took a blind leap off the cliff and landed on a pile of mattresses,” he says. “I’m very lucky that I don’t find it difficult to socialise, learn and complete group work online as part of the King’s InterHigh community. It’s been a very smooth transition. And I love sleeping in, in the morning. School is on UK time so it starts at 9.30am for me, which is absolutely amazing.”

The 17-year-old’s favourite subject is theory of knowledge, which is similar to philosophy. He has friends from the US, Morocco, South Korea, Norway and beyond, and says the diversity of the student body has led to some really interesting conversations in class. “You get so many different viewpoints. I often wish those discussions could go on for longer,” he says. “I’ve found this cohort the most international and economically diverse by far. It’s much more inclusive.”

Allen has used VR in history and business class, as well as French, where a program called ImmerseMe evaluates his pronunciation. In terms of extra curricular activities, he’s founded a Dungeons & Dragons group and attends a book club. “Experience with technology is very helpful,” he says. “But the ability to interest yourself in a subject and stay focused during lessons is really crucial.”

King’s InterHigh is part of the Inspired Education Group, which is made up of more than 80 schools worldwide. The group is also making developments in the education technology space by launching a completely virtual metaverse school, which connects students and teachers across a worldwide network. “If we’ve got a teacher who’s a specialist in archaeology, for example, and 20 students are interested, we can connect them and run a specialist lesson with that teacher,” O’Grady says. “It’s going to be a gamechanger.”

“There are still a lot of people who think an online school is just a lecture with webcams, but there’s so much more to it,” he says. “It’s a completely different type of education that for some students is much more applicable to their needs.”

King’s InterHigh is now enrolling for its fully online IB Diploma Programme for September 2023. For a flexible, innovative and expert-taught pathway to top universities, visit the King’s InterHigh website to discover more.