No bus? No worries! Explore Australia’s forests and wood processing facilities virtually
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Every teacher knows the power of a great excursion. Those moments when students step beyond their textbooks and worksheets to experience learning firsthand. It’s these real-world encounters that spark curiosity, deepen understanding, and create lasting memories. 

But with growing time pressures, rising transport costs, difficulty securing relief teachers – not to mention the hours of paperwork, risk assessments, budgeting, and logistics – excursions can feel almost impossible to organise. For many teachers, the scale of planning means getting out of the classroom regularly just isn’t feasible.

That's where ForestVR comes in.

What is ForestVR?

Developed by ForestLearning, ForestVR offers an innovative alternative – delivering immersive, 360-degree virtual excursions that bring Australia’s forests and wood processing facilities directly into your classroom. Suddenly, Australia’s diverse native forests, the renewable cycle of pine plantations, high-tech timber mills, and even a sneak peek at trees at work on farms are just a click away.

While these experiences are best enjoyed with a VR headset, the ForestVR 360-degree videos can also be explored on any desktop computer, tablet, or smartphone using a ‘magic window’ – just click and drag your mouse, or swipe with your finger, to look around each scene. 

ForestVR is free to access on both Vimeo and YouTube.

 

Why choose ForestVR?

ForestVR isn't just another educational video series – it's also a virtual excursion. Using cutting-edge 360-degree video capture, it allows students to explore forestry sites that would normally be out of reach due to distance, cost, or safety restrictions.

ForestVR was awarded ‘Winner’ in the Best Reference Resource category at the 2022 Australian Geography Teachers Association (AGTA) Awards. AGTA Chairperson, Dr Susan Caldis, described the resource as: ‘ForestVR – Learn through Immersion is a high-quality series of videos which makes tangible links to a variety of case-studies across syllabi. The high-quality videos provide explicit value to the classroom with their technology-rich product design, presenting a highly engaging and accessible resource for students.’

Teachers have echoed this value: 

As excursions become harder to organise – risk assessments, bookings, costs, WHS requirements, clashes in school calendars, etc. – it’s great to have varied experiences that expose students to different environments and activities within the classroom. The ideal scenario is using virtual activities like these alongside real-world fieldwork to enhance learning.

It is important to get the whole picture from plantation to mill, and then into wood products. ForestVR is a helpful tool that supports intentional programming to teach about forestry.

There are a lot of falsehoods and misconceptions about forestry and using timber. Students need to know where timber comes from and how forests can be managed sustainably.

What virtual tours can my students go on?

ForestVR offers a growing library of immersive 360-degree experiences. Students can explore different types of Australian forests and see how they are managed sustainably for a range of values – including timber production. They can follow the journey of wood as it’s grown, harvested, replanted, processed, and used in everyday products.

These tours are flexible learning tools for both primary and secondary students, especially when paired with ForestLearning classroom activities and units for a multi-modal learning experience.

Here’s a sample of what’s available:

 

Enhancing excursions and incursions

ForestVR is also a powerful complement to physical excursions. Use it: 

Before the excursion

  • Introduce forest landscapes and key concepts with a pre-visit VR session.
  • Use the ‘Teacher sync’ function in the app to pause-and-discuss strategies to unpack unfamiliar terminology.
  • Help students set observation goals with KWL (Know, Want to Know, Learned) charts.

During the excursion

  • Provide an alternative experience for students who remain at school.
  • Integrate stills or clips into on-site handouts or observation sheets. 
  • See the forest cycle in full – beyond that ‘one day in time’ captured during the field trip.

After the excursion

  • Rewatch ForestVR videos to reinforce key locations or processes.
  • Use as a prompt for reflection, comparison, and creative tasks.

Getting started with ForestVR

Getting started is easy and flexible. You can access via: 

ForestVR makes immersive, real-world learning more accessible than ever. Whether you're preparing for an excursion, planning a unit on sustainability, or just want to bring fresh energy into your classroom, ForestVR is a powerful tool to support learning that sticks.