Beyond the Classroom Walls: What Research Says About Virtual Field Trips

By: James Fester

Without thinking too hard I’m sure most of us can recall one or two meaningful days we spent outside of the classroom at a museum, theater, or nature center that provide us with a learning experience impossible to re-create from inside our classroom walls. The field trip is a time-honored part of the K-12 student experience, and yet its value is continually questioned.  

While some may consider them a break from learning or a “treat”, field trips are in fact an essential part of a well-rounded education, and research supports this notion. Studies show how the learning that takes place during a field trip supports better academic performance, re-engagement with bland subjects, and that they provide important opportunities for acculturation, empathy building, and the creation of pathways to lifelong learning, especially for those furthest from opportunity. Despite all of these benefits, students today are less likely to experience field trips than previous generations owing to factors, such as logistical challenges, emphasis on test performance, and the shifting world of museum education.

But with this shift has come an explosion in virtually accessible content. A survey conducted by the National Art Education Association showed that starting in 2021, 91% of art museums began creating educational content that can be accessed from anywhere. While no virtual experience can ever fully in person experiences, the opportunities presented by virtual field trips still warrant their regular integration into the classroom especially when barriers to museum field trips persist.

Recent research backs the assertion that the benefits associated with in-person field trips can also translate to virtual ones. Improved concept recall, better engagement, and heightened peer interaction are all benefits associated with in-person trips that are also associated with trips taken from a desk. A 2025 case study also suggests virtual field trips offer accessibility options for learners with special needs that in-person ones can’t easily replicate, making them a better choice for classrooms with diverse needs.  

Designing a lesson that delivers on all these outcomes doesn’t require a lot of expertise in e-learning or large amounts of classroom time. It can be a one day, self-contained lesson or a larger multi-day experience where students return to the resource to confirm details or take a second look at things as their knowledge grows. Below is an example of what it could look like in a typical elementary classroom focused on a tour of a coastal fishing village to help students better understanding state history;

Before the computers even open the teacher previews the lesson with the student, especially the learning goal, which is articulated in the form of a student-friendly Anchor Question. This question helps students understand the purpose of the virtual field trip and “anchors” the learning to the location. In the case of this tour, the anchor question is; “How does the way people used the land at China Camp tell us about California History?”  

The tour selected by the teacher, like many virtual tours, isn’t built exclusively for 4th graders meaning some age-appropriate scaffolding is essential. This might include pre-teaching complex vocabulary or providing a “guidebook” that helps unpack bigger concepts mentioned in the tour that the students haven’t learned yet as well as some focus questions they can use to unpack the larger Anchor Question shared at the beginning.  

The teacher then opens her own device and provides a short preview of the tour. This includes providing some navigation support and showing a portion of the tour to “prime the pump” and get students curious. Mentioning how historians don’t just study books and documents, but that they also study places helps frame the task within a real-world context. The China Camp tour includes a short preview narrated by three experts, so after the teacher shares these resources with the whole class, she asks her students to complete a short “See-Think-Wonder” routine to help the class produce some inquiry questions which she places on an anchor chart. These questions will guide the exploration and will be used to assess student knowledge and participation throughout the experience.

After leading the first part of the exploration, the teacher allows students to explore the rest of the experience at their own pace or with a partner. Students are guided by the teacher as she circulates the room, their own need to know questions, and a list of open-ended questions provided by the teacher that includes open-ended prompts like;

• What evidence shows how people used this place in the past?
• Why did they choose to live here?
• What has changed? What has stayed the same?

About halfway through the exploration time the teacher calls the class back together for a quick “refocusing” period. This gives the students a chance to reflect on their pace, allows the teacher to clarify questions or challenges that pop up over and over, and refocuses students who might be off task so they can more effectively utilize the time they have remaining.

At the end of the exploration period, students form small groups or are called back to the front of the class for an all group discussion. This helps provide a unifying experience after the independent exploration time. The teacher might go over the discussion questions or use questions from the need to know list generated at the start of the lesson, allowing for assessment and meaning making.

As a final assessment, students might submit their questions or be asked to complete a quick write in response to the anchor question as a way of demonstrating their newfound understanding.

The example shared above helps to illustrate how a virtual field trip can be used as a stand alone lesson, but that isn’t the only way that they can be utilized in a classroom. They can be used to spark small-group discussion, serve as the entry event for a PBL project, or added to a list of other resources to spice up independent inquiry-based research. What is most important to recognize is that like all of these examples, virtual field trips are one of many instructional resources and alongside other strategies.

Virtual field trips that deliver on the evidence-based outcomes we’ve outlined above require more than simply parking your kids in front of a Chromebook and opening up a virtual tour of Mesa Verde or Mount Vernon. As the same 2025 case study goes on to discuss, “The role of educators in this process is pivotal” meaning that in order to get the full benefit, teachers need to know how to integrate specific elements and practices into their virtual trip experiences. Programs such as the Tapestry Certified Educator program are helpful in supporting the planning and facilitation of quality trips and programs like these alongside the rise in virtual experiences over the last five years provide us with a roadmap of the essential elements students need to achieve related outcomes.

1. A clear, upfront, student-friendly learning goal. What are you hoping that your learners will build knowledge of as a result of this experience? Providing a clear goal in the form of an essential question with student friendly language is an important touch point as they progress through the experience. The opportunity to periodically self-reflect on whether or not they are finding information that will help them progress towards the learning goal is key to maintaining the exploratory nature of the trip that is so engaging. 

2. Highlight important connections. Like any field trip to a museum, there are exhibits that are strongly connected to your learning goals and standards and there are others that are interesting, but not as relevant. Find ways to highlight and pick out the things that you really want them to notice and “double-click” on them by sharing their thoughts or reactions. This could come in the form of an organizer you could create. It could take the form of a series of turn and talk routines with a partner or a well written summative response to the initial focus question.

3. So what? Now what?  Virtual field trips that have no clear application or are not integrated into the unit of study can feel like a treat or a break from learning as opposed to a serious part of it. Make sure that there is a follow up, next step, or a clear application for the knowledge following the experience. Consider what it could look like to debrief, process, or synthesize the information and incorporate it into the project or next learning experience in the sequence and make sure your students move to that next thing expeditiously so they are not left questioning its purpose.  

James Fester is an internationally recognized expert in project-based learning (PBL) and a full-time National Faculty Member with PBLWorks. His educational career began in California as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, and technology integrationist before moving to Minnesota, where he spearheaded initiatives leading to Apple Distinguished School designations. Through his consulting work, Fester collaborates with educators, school districts, public land agencies, and informal educational organizations across the globe—from rural Idaho to Shanghai—emphasizing community-centered, place-based, and experiential learning methods.

An accomplished author and speaker, Fester has contributed to publications for organizations such as TED-Ed, Edutopia, KQED, and National Geographic. He is the co-author of Environmental Science for 6-12: A Project Based Approach to Solving The Earth’s Most Urgent Problems and author of The National Park Classroom: A Guide to Designing Project-Based Learning Adventures. Fester holds numerous certifications—including Google Certified Innovator and UNESCO-MGIEP Master Teacher—and actively supports public land education through his work with the National Park Service, California State Parks, and the Classroom Ranger Collaborative.

Research/Case Studies

(Doore, S. A., Dimmel, J., Kaplan, T. M., Guenther, B. A., & Giudice, N. A. (2023). Multimodality as universality: Designing inclusive accessibility to graphical information. In Frontiers in Education (Vol. 8, p. 1071759). https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2023.1071759)

McGivney, E. (2024). Designing for playful learning in formal education: A case study of virtual reality field trips. Proceedings of DRS. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.945

University of Arizona Science Activation Program (for connecting panoramas – https://docs.google.com/document/d/102uB9rB9eeLbbfCBUE–D3YLYMrSQhz3GzR6x74ovPk/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.33t8bdazpmjn)

Panwar, K. & McDowell, S. (2025). A Design Case for Virtual Field Trips using Place-Based STEM Instruction for Pre-service Teachers. In Reese, R. M. & Lomellini, A. (Eds.), Advancing Accessibility : Practical Strategies for Instructional Designers and Educators. EdTech Books. https://doi.org/10.59668/2204.23920