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- Utah's Virtual Horizons Charter School offers tuition-free VR-based home education statewide.
- The school combines virtual classes and independent activities, enhancing engagement and learning.
- Applications are open for 350 spots; equipment provided free, including VR headsets.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's first tuition-free, virtual reality-based charter school is now enrolling statewide for the 2025-26 school year.
Virtual Horizons Charter School is a home-based schooling program that uses virtual reality to allow students to learn in an immersive environment. The typical student's schedule would involve a combination of classes led by a teacher in a virtual classroom setting and independent activities and assignments done outside of virtual reality.
Classes held in virtual reality would last about 20 to 30 minutes and allow students to interact with one another and their environment while learning.
"It's kind of like they're going to learn something, and then go into what would be a really exciting field trip," said Kristin Elinkowski, board chairwoman of Virtual Horizons Charter School. "In virtual reality, we can go into the ocean, we can go back to a historical event, we can go to the best museums in the world. We can do so many things in VR that you can't do in a traditional school.
"It really is cutting-edge technology. It's really new and exciting, and we really think the students are going to love it, especially those who are currently disengaged or not really thriving at their regular school."
In the virtual reality class setting, students represent themselves as avatars and can speak with teachers and other students in real-time. Vice Chair Kim Tafiti explained that while a lack of socialization can be a concern for home-based learners under regular circumstances, VR allows students to interact more similarly to a classroom setting.
"I think what is unique about the Virtual Horizons Charter School is that while it is a virtual, home-based school, we are bringing back that social aspect of being in the class and attending class with your classmates and having a teacher that facilitates that learning," Tafiti said.
"Picture a physical building, if you will, where a student goes into their math class at the time that they're scheduled to enter their math class," she continued. "The concept is the same here: Everyone will go into their virtual classroom inside of the VR headset at that same time to participate in their math class. But one of the wonderful, unique things about the virtual realm is that while they're in their math class it's going to be experiential learning; it's going to be learning by doing.
"So, we're adding this element of hands-on experiential learning into a virtual school, which is just very innovative."
Virtual reality education may be beneficial to students who struggle with the traditional learning model set in a classroom due to disabilities or other challenges, according to Tafiti. Because the program used for virtual learning is customizable, it can help teachers meet a variety of student needs from the comfort of their homes. It also allows flexibility for teacher aides to join and support students as needed, similar to a traditional classroom.
Tafiti also explained that the customizability of the platform the school uses also allows teachers to create boundaries for student safety as needed within virtual reality.
"There's all kinds of classroom management controls that the teacher and the aides have inside of VR to ensure that whatever the need of that student is, it can be met," she said. "The teacher can create perimeters around people so that if we have students that need more space, they can have more space from one another, but they can still hear the teacher. The teacher also has the ability to lock students in place and mute students or give them a little more control."
Virtual Horizons is likely to be attractive to students who desire a future in technology-related fields such as technology, engineering and scientific research. VR education is used in many college settings, allowing students to get an early start, using the technology to learn more effectively.
The Department of Mining Engineering at the University of Utah, for example, has used an immersive virtual reality program to train students on mine safety protocols and operating underground equipment. There is also potential for Virtual Horizons to offer courses in robotics, artificial intelligence and VR development.
Virtual reality learning also has the potential to resonate with students as a way to gamify their education and learn in a way similar to the video games they already enjoy, says Elinkowski.
"There's been billions of dollars spent in the technology and VR for the gaming industry. Now, it's taking that technology and using it to educate students," Elinkowski said. "It is going to be much more the environment they're used to, and they're going to be excited about it and they're going to be more motivated and more engaged because this is the world that they're used to and enjoy.
"So it is really leveraging all of that technology and development that was intended originally for gaming, and now we can take it and use it for education. ... It's going to really revolutionize education."
Utah is currently the second state in the country to offer fully immersive virtual reality education. Elinkowski explained while it is a fairly new industry, much of the research on VR education shows an increase in engagement and improved information retention and recall.
A 2024 literature review by Frontiers in Psychology on the impact of virtual reality on student engagement in the classroom determined that immersive learning through VR has been shown to improve information recall and understanding of complex topics. The review also acknowledged the challenges of VR in education, including a lack of teacher literacy in VR and the need for the education system to keep up with the rapid pace at which the industry is developing.
Still, educators hope this new approach to learning will address current concerns in schools, such as chronic absenteeism, while also enhancing accessibility to experiential learning for students of all ability levels.
As a tuition-free charter school, Virtual Horizons will provide equipment for learning, including laptops and Meta Quest 3 VR headsets, free of charge. In cases where families qualify, they may also be provided internet access as needed. The school currently offers curricula aligned with Utah State Core learning for grades four through eight. Eighth-grade students joining this year will be able to continue at the charter school through high school as they plan to expand each subsequent year up to 12th grade.
Similar to most district and charter schools, Virtual Horizons is publicly funded through state and federal education funds.
Virtual Horizons is set to begin classes in August and is currently accepting applications for enrollment to fill the 350 spots available for the school year. They will hold an enrollment lottery on Thursday, March 20, to give applicants an equal opportunity to be selected. Applications will continue to be accepted after the enrollment lottery, but the school encourages families to apply early since there are a limited number of spots.
Virtual Horizons Charter School hosts weekly informational meetings over Zoom to provide families with regular updates and more information. The next meeting will be held Thursday at 6 p.m. and the full schedule can be found here.
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