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It’s easy to enjoy working at Optima Academy Online.

Imagine teaching in your fuzziest slippers alongside a purring cat or a snoozing dog, and, for staff based in Florida, spending evenings gazing at killer sunsets and weekends relaxing away stress at beaches that consistently rank among the world’s best.

Trust us, it’s not a bad life.

But as hard as it might be to believe, the perks don’t end there.

Once 8 a.m. arrives and we’ve dispensed with the pledge, announcements and other remnants of the traditional school-day routine, we cut to the front of the cutting-edge line.

The headsets go on. The virtual reality kicks in.

And the obstacles that teachers at brick-and-mortar schools perpetually encounter while trying to boost engagement and enhance understanding? They vanish.

“Compared to traditional teaching, VR education gives our scholars the opportunity to learn in a hands-on way without the added cost of travel and materials,” said veteran math/science teacher James Foster. “We can create any scenario, from a trip to the streets of Paris to a surgical procedure, that just cannot be replicated in a brick-and-mortar school without significant time and financial expense.”

Online Immersion: Optima Academy Online Head of School Kim Abel and her staff will host the VR Immersive Classroom Experience at in January in Orlando, Florida.

Foster spent nearly a decade in traditional school settings from second to eighth grade before joining the Optima Academy team soon after the start of the 2024-25 school year.

He teaches live math classes and works with on-demand science students, blending the personable style that yielded face-to-face success along with enthusiasm and appreciation for his new tech toolbox.

“The immersive nature of VR is what sets it apart from a lesson in a traditional setting,” he said. “If we are working through word problems, our scholars can use their VR tools to actually build the scenario in the problem. If we are learning about space, we can take a virtual trip to the Moon or Mars.

“These immersive experiences help our scholars to build a more concrete understanding of the content.”

Creating a coral reef

One of those scholars, seventh-grader Mila Wolfe, relishes those opportunities. She spent elementary school and began middle school in the Oasis Charter system in southwest Florida, then transferred to Optima Academy to begin seventh grade.

Wolfe is one of Foster’s on-demand students and was particularly excited by a recent lesson in which she created a reef ecosystem in the VR setting while learning about factors that can positively and negatively impact living organisms.

“I got to build a reef and add fish, then add dead coral and explain about temperature changes,” she said. “I feel that doing research on it and then building my own was more memorable than just reading about it.”

Designing lessons in VR

Now in its fourth year, Optima Academy provides teacher-led classes from kindergarten to high school with real-time instruction in a structured environment that’s ideal for students who thrive on interaction and collaboration.

On-demand courses allow students to access pre-recorded lessons and complete assignments at their own pace, with teachers available during office hours and via email for additional support.

Virtual reality is available to all students from fourth grade and up, but that doesn’t mean the younger kids can’t at least get a taste, thanks to Danielle Fitzsimmons.

Fitzsimmons is another second-year Optima Academy employee, having won awards during her seven years in the Lee County school district. She introduces VR to first graders by putting on the headset and recording herself reading stories that were introduced in class.

The stories are uploaded to the school’s learning management system so students who were present for class can relisten to them—and absent students can access them—while seeing and hearing their teacher in a VR setting that mirrors the story.

“Instead of a random person with a YouTube link, they can hear their teacher’s voice,” Fitzsimmons said. “The benefit is more connection with students. Absent students hear my voice, and it doesn’t feel like they missed class. Also, kids love to reread or relisten to stories, and this allows the teacher-student connection through the screen.”

And in three years, they’ll begin fourth grade with a feel for the equipment and its potential and perhaps a little less apprehension about the learning curve.

The latter is a genuine concern, even for adults. But Foster said the transition from smartboards and fire drills to IFX and social hours wasn’t as daunting as he’d feared.

“I was surprised at how easy it was to learn how to design lessons in VR, and how much scholars benefit from this type of hands-on learning approach,” he said. “I’m not sure I could ever go back to a brick-and-mortar classroom.

“The VR-based teaching model allows flexibility to meet the needs of every scholar while delivering meaningful outcomes through an immersive learning environment. It would be difficult to replicate the experience efficiently and cost-effectively.”