A guide on how to measure results from VR classes and scenarios
Virtual Reality (VR) has proven valuable in education by offering immersive experiences across diverse subjects, from field trips to medical training. However, as with any new tool, it’s important for institutions to measure its effectiveness and ensure they’re getting a solid return on their investment. That’s where measuring VR’s ROI (Return on Investment) becomes crucial.
In this blog, we’ll explore how to effectively measure the impact of VR in educational settings and why tracking VR training ROI is important for your institution.
When implementing a new technology, such as VR in classrooms, the focus isn’t only on how fun or innovative the experience is. You need to assess whether the immersive simulations are improving student outcomes, increasing engagement, and helping with long-term retention. Measuring the effectiveness of VR in education helps justify the investment and allows you to make data-driven decisions for future implementations.
Additionally, tracking ROI ensures that your VR investments are aligned with your educational goals and budget, making it easier to secure future funding or approval for expanding VR initiatives. To effectively gauge VR's value in education, it's essential to use specific metrics that directly tie to the desired learning outcomes and overall return on investment
First, what are some of the key metrics that we recommend keeping track of?
The most straightforward way to measure the impact of VR in education is through improved learning outcomes. Did students retain more knowledge after using VR compared to traditional methods? Conducting pre- and post-assessments is a simple yet powerful approach. Before a VR lesson, give students a baseline quiz, and after the VR session, repeat the same test to see how much their understanding has improved. In this way you can create quantitative results from VR training.
While knowledge retention is key, engagement is just as important. VR experiences can foster deep engagement, making students feel like they’re part of the learning environment. Tracking how long students engage with the VR content, how actively they participate in interactive elements, and how willing they are to explore beyond the required tasks can all help gauge the effectiveness of VR in your classroom.
For example, teachers can monitor how long students spend exploring different sections of a virtual museum or participating in virtual lab experiments. If students are interacting with the simulation for longer periods and engaging in additional activities, it indicates that the VR experience is capturing their attention and deepening their understanding of the material.
Getting direct feedback from both students and teachers is essential for measuring VR’s effectiveness and provides invaluable qualitative results. Surveys and interviews can provide valuable insights into how VR affected the students' experience. Did they find it easier to understand concepts? Were they more interested in the subject? Did the VR lesson feel more immersive compared to traditional methods and did this immersion improve their learning experience?
Teachers, too, can offer feedback on how the VR lesson impacted their ability to teach and whether they noticed any differences in classroom dynamics, such as increased participation or fewer distractions.
For many institutions, the cost of implementing VR can be a concern. Measuring VR’s ROI involves comparing the cost of the VR equipment and content against the benefits it provides, such as improved student outcomes and increased engagement. Additionally, VR can save time by allowing students to "experience" complex concepts or scenarios that would otherwise require long, resource-intensive lessons. VR can also bring far-away locations directly to the classroom, reducing costs for travel.
For instance, rather than taking a field trip to an archaeological site, a virtual tour of the site could offer the same educational benefits without the logistical headaches or travel costs. Similarly, virtual labs in science education allow students to conduct experiments in a controlled, risk-free environment, reducing the need for expensive equipment and safety measures.
Measuring the long-term effects of VR in education is also vital. Do students retain the knowledge gained from the VR experience after several months or even years? Conducting follow-up assessments after a period of time can help you understand if VR has provided lasting educational benefits.
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For an educational VR experience, let’s imagine a scenario where students are virtually taken to a solar power plant. The objective is to educate them about the mechanics of solar energy production, the technology behind solar panels, and the environmental benefits of renewable energy.
Here is a short set of sample questions that could be used to understand how effective such a scenario would be. Of course, this list could be much longer, and the more questions, the more precise the results. These questions serve only to spur the imagination.
This VR experience can be evaluated based on quiz results, time spent interacting with the content, and feedback from both students and teachers. With VR’s ability to simulate complex systems, such as solar energy, students can learn by virtually “walking through” the process of energy generation and storage, all without leaving the classroom.
This example shows how testing can be used to create a clear connection between VR and results. The VR simulation also provides a cost-effective alternative to physical field trips, saving time and resources while delivering a rich, hands-on learning experience.
Bentley University offers a great example of how to assess VR’s effectiveness in education. The university developed a VR experience centered around marine ecology, allowing students to immerse themselves in underwater ecosystems. This gave students the ability to interact with marine life and ecosystems in a way that would be difficult and costly to achieve through physical field trips.
Bentley University implemented a structured approach to measuring VR’s impact on learning. The process included pre- and post-VR assessments to evaluate how well students understood key marine ecology concepts before and after engaging with the VR content. Although the specific survey questions used for the assessment are part of a peer-reviewed study and cannot be shared directly, their overall methodology can serve as a guide for other institutions.
Here’s how they approached measuring effectiveness:
The results helped Bentley University refine its VR programs and gain insights into how students respond to this new mode of learning. Additionally, this structured approach ensured that VR’s educational benefits were measurable, demonstrating the tool’s effectiveness to both educators and decision-makers.
For more details on how Bentley University used VR in their curriculum, you can check out the full case study here.
With the quiz results in hand, educators can now evaluate how much the VR experience impacted the students' learning outcomes. If quiz scores significantly improve, it suggests that VR helped students grasp concepts more effectively. Similarly, if engagement scores rise, it indicates that VR was successful in fostering a stronger connection to the material.
In terms of ROI, educators can compare the cost of the VR experience to that of a traditional field trip. For example:
Your next question might be around whether or not this has been done already. The answer is absolutely. It's a common testing method and has been used in literally hundreds of VR studies measuring effectiveness. For more info on that, head over to our blog on VR in Academia, which is all about testing results and includes links to specific academic studies and their results.
While VR is showing tremendous promise in enhancing learning outcomes and engagement. For educators, measuring the effectiveness of VR is essential to understanding whether it’s a worthwhile investment. By focusing on learning outcomes, student engagement, and cost-effectiveness, institutions can determine whether VR delivers a positive ROI.
Incorporating structured assessments—such as the pre- and post-quiz model demonstrated in the examples above—provides educators with tangible data on the value of VR in their classrooms. With careful planning and measurement, VR has the potential to become a powerful tool for enriching educational experiences.
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