Calgary EdTech company franchising into the US and Europe with its virtual reality field trips

A few months ago, a Calgary EdTech company launched the world’s first in-school virtual reality field trip. Now, it’s expanding into the US and Europe.

VRCORE Education is revolutionizing how students learn. By transforming a school gymnasium into an educational experience where every student wears a virtual reality headset, students can be transported to any space, size, or time in history to learn about school subjects.

Jason van Hierden, CEO of VRCORE Education, says the current educational world being offered blasts students into outer space where they learn about the solar system.

“All the students can see the solar system and each other. These students, more often than not, are literally bouncing six inches off the floor, out of excitement,” he says.

A virtual reality

Not only do the students love it, but van Hierden says the teachers love seeing the high levels of engagement students have during the experience.

The experience can be offered for up to 35 students at a time. Van Hierden says one of the challenges in transforming the gymnasium is that everything happening in the real world needs to be replicated in the virtual world.

“We've got something completely covering the students’ eyes,” he says.

To ensure their safety, everything in their physical space is replicated in the virtual reality space. Building the software to do this was a technological feat, he says.

Future experiences

The next virtual reality experience van Hierden plans to offer will transform students into the size of an atom.

“The next one that we're looking at building is the atoms and molecules experience. Then we want to bring biomes and ecosystems. Then we're hopefully working with a museum out of Holland to create the human body experience.”

Van Hierden estimates that each project will take about 12 to 18 months to deploy.

Expanding

In addition to creating more experiences, VRCORE is also expanding to Texas and Holland.

With virtual reality arcades across Western Canada, van Hierden has many industry connections.

When news about the success of his virtual reality field trips in Calgary spread, he was contacted about franchising.

“They were wildly excited,” he says about his industry partners. “We provide the name, the systems, the software, and then they just execute it in their respective places.”

Being so easily transferable, van Hierden is excited about how quickly and smoothly they can expand.

“Given the nature of the software and the education that we're providing, it would be difficult for a franchise to give a poor experience.”

A world-class team

With the growth of the company, van Hierden has put together a new leadership team of highly-seasoned individuals who have been forerunners in the technology industry.

Joining the team is Ron Shurter as chief operating officer, Bob Carr as vice-president of marketing, Bruce Finlayson as vice-president of operations, Fred Ketcher as capital strategist, and Doug McNabb, who will be in charge of franchise development.

With his world-class team, van Hierden says it will be easy to expand further than Texas and Holland.

“We really want to get this into many schools throughout the world.”

Revolutionizing, not changing

Although the potential for learning through virtual reality is endless, van Hierden doesn’t see it taking over the way education is taught.

“There are still elements of education that can't be taught in a virtual reality headset, but I think it could alleviate a lot of the technical pressure from teachers, because virtual reality does lend itself incredibly well towards education,” he says.

Education is more than the tactile things in front of you, van Hierden says. There is emotion, community, and connection.

“I think it will make huge waves in the education market, but it won't replace traditional education entirely.”