Virtual Reality (VR) is a trending topic in education, from corporate to higher education contexts. Back in 2016, Educause claimed that VR was “teeter[ing] on the edge of becoming mainstream,” and earlier this year, Forbes (2019) claimed that VR was becoming well-established in corporate training, “an ever-growing medium to improve processes and bolster employee education.” With the media attention VR is receiving, it is reasonable to claim that VR is already an adopted trend in education.

 

For instance, the 2016 Horizon Report for Higher Education had projected that VR would be adopted within three years, and now, three years later, we find a plethora of examples of VR successfully attracting the excited interest of educators and learners. On the other hand, the 2018 Horizon Report speaks of VR as both here and not here, citing examples of innovative adoption in practically the same breath as it forecasts VR only poised to become a “key educational technolog[y] within the next decade.”

​

If VR has the potential to positively respond to learning and learner engagement issues, why has VR not reached a critical mass in terms of adoption?