Discovering VR in Learning: My Conversion Story

Louise Jones July 28, 2026

I’ll Be Honest: I Used to Keep VR at Arm’s Length

If you have ever felt slightly suspicious of VR headsets in education, or thought they were a bit of a fad, you are not alone. One of the things that has always drawn me to ThingLink is our commitment to immersive learning (and accessibility) on any device. Learners can explore an immersive space through multi-projection, move an iPad around to experience a 360° environment, use a phone or laptop, or interact with content on a display at the front of the classroom.

I genuinely believe that immersive learning should be available to every learner, regardless of the technology they have access to and especially taking into account their comfort in using different types of devices. Different platforms and devices offer different kinds of learning experiences, e.g personal or shared experiences, and VR should be one option within that wider landscape, not a barrier to participation.

But I am now very happy to admit that I may not have given VR in headsets a fair chance. That changed in Barcelona.

Two wonderful Days at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya That Changed Everything

Our Interactive Course Journey

Last week I was in Barcelona delivering training with a wonderful group of Professors and Lecturers at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, BarcelonaTech. I cannot thank Professor Jordi Guàrdia Rúbies and team enough for their wonderful welcome. The journey began with participants putting on Meta Quest 3S headsets to explore existing VR experiences, including a Jurassic Park experience that had the room buzzing with excitement.

We then stepped back to consider the real roots of immersive learning: the pedagogy behind it, and the role of place, space, interaction and authentic context. The best immersive experiences are not built on novelty; they are built on purpose and designed to offer the best possible learning experiences.

From there, we moved into creating with ThingLink. We looked at different media types, what multimodality really means, and how the different simple ThingLink tag types can be used to layer meaning into a space and offer interactive activities. As the sessions progressed, I really did sense a shift.

The Moment the Penny Drops

The impressive immersive examples we often share are not created through magic or years of expertise. However, they can appear super professional in a magnificent but often misleading or off-putting way! They are built from carefully chosen media, purposeful interactions and combinations of actually relatively simple tag types. Once educators see that, the possibilities for their own ideas and creativity open up fast.

Our participants created their own experiences by generating a 360° image, connecting it to a starting image and publishing it directly to the Meta Quest headsets. There is something genuinely powerful about seeing an experience you have just created appear around you in VR. That moment of recognition, immersion, seeing your own work become a world you can stand inside, is hard to describe and impossible to forget. It’s a whole world away from off-the-shelf content, imagine the power of this for student creation too!

Coming Home a Convert: My Own Meta Quest 3S Experience

When I got back, I decided it was time to explore this properly for myself. I bought my own Meta Quest headset. I had Google Cardboard in the early days and even Google Daydream, but this is the first time I have really got to grips with VR in a meaningful way. Hands down, it has blown me away.

The ThingLink experience in Meta Quest is phenomenal. You can sit in the rear crew seat of an ambulance and explore the environment around you. You can step inside a student-created virtual field trip or experience a learning resource that combines real-world media, interactive information and purposeful activities.

What Makes ThingLink on Meta Quest 3S So Powerful

The creative tools available to you are genuinely impressive. Using your own AI tools for media development (think image to video – 360 to 360 video) or ThingLink’s AI offerings, and integrations with Adobe Express and Canva mean that designing visually rich content does not require specialist skills or a design background. I love the concepts of democratization here.

Sharing experiences to a headset is also far simpler than you might expect. Content can be opened on a Meta Quest using a simple short code, organizational landing page or presented through an interactive choice board containing a collection of experiences that can each be accessed in one click. The same experiences work equally well on phones, tablets, laptops, interactive displays and immersive rooms, while also being available through Meta Quest, HTC Vive, Pico and Apple Vision Pro.

VR Is Not the Whole Menu, But It Belongs on It

The message for me is clear. We now have a whole range of creative tools at our fingertips, and VR gives us another incredibly powerful way to bring the things we create to life. It is not a replacement for other devices or approaches. It is an addition to them, and a brilliant one at that.

For a deeper look at how ThingLink XR works on Meta Quest in employee training and organisational learning contexts, this post on transforming employee training with ThingLink XR on Meta Quest walks through the key possibilities in detail.

I am officially converted. The experiences you create today can be shared across every device your learners use, with VR as the incredibly powerful cherry on top. If you have access to a headset or even a class set and would like to see what is possible with ThingLink, just hit me up!