FacilityVR
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Quick Start for Educators

Get up and running quickly delivering engaging learning with 3D virtual reality simulations

Signing In

  1. Go to your organisation’s FacilityVR console URL.
  2. Enter your organization email address.
  3. Check your inbox for a 6-digit verification code.
  4. Enter the code to sign in — no password required.

Collapsible Sidebar

Click the collapse arrow at the top of the sidebar to minimize it on smaller screens. This gives you more space for the main content area. Click again to expand

Creating Facility Layouts

  1. Navigate to My Facilities in the sidebar.
  2. Browse templates: Click Browse Templates to view the Template Gallery. If you find an existing template that meets your needs, select it by clicking Use Template to create your own copy that you can then customise.
  3. Create from scratch: Click New Layout to define a facility layout manually or use the AI Layout Builder.
  4. Publish layouts to make them available in the VR app’s facility selection lobby.

AI Layout Builder

When creating or editing a layout, the AI chat panel lets you describe requirements in natural language:

  • “Create a data center with a server room with 6 racks in two rows”
  • “Add a fire extinguisher near the entrance”
  • “Make the thermal scanner buttons more visible”

Tips for AI Layout Builder prompts:

  • In create mode, the AI Layout Builder is creative — it suggests improvements and asks clarifying questions.
  • In edit mode, the AI Layout Builder only does what you ask — it won’t add or change things you didn’t request.
  • The AI Layout Builder can create custom equipment types with 3D geometry and interactive hotspots.
  • Use the AI Layout Builder to fine-tune equipment appearance: adjust colours, sizes, and hotspot positions.
  • A green Ready indicator shows when the AI Layout Builder has finished. Click Save Layout to persist changes.
  • Always publish your layout after saving so it appears in the VR headset lobby on paired devices.

Template Marketplace

Save your facility layouts as templates and share them with other organisations:

  1. Open a published layout and click Save as Template.
  2. Set a price (in credits), description, and keywords for discoverability.
  3. Public templates are visible to all organisations in the template gallery.
  4. When another organisation purchases your template, a 10% platform fee is applied and the remainder is credited to your balance.

Creating a Scenario

FacilityVR supports 2 scenario modes:

  • Task Mode scenarios take the learner through a structured task that can involve multiple sequential steps, navigating the layout and interacting with equipment.
  • Build Mode scenarios enable the learner to learn through designing enhancements to a facility - e.g. adding, moving or removing equipment; configuring equipment state and reactions; adding labels and safety signs; adding connectors (pipes, chains, cables etc.) to show the flow of materials or the interrelationship of equipment.

Task Mode Scenarios

There are two ways to create a scenario:

  1. Navigate to Scenarios in the sidebar.

  2. Click AI Builder.

  3. Select the facility layout the scenario will use.

  4. Describe the learning procedure in natural language. For example:

    • “Create a beginner scenario for inspecting server rack A1 and checking the UPS battery level”
    • “Create an intermediate scenario for responding to a fire suppression alarm”

  5. The AI will:

    • Read the layout’s equipment and rooms.
    • Generate task steps with MOP procedure instructions linked to specific equipment hotspots.
    • Set appropriate pre-conditions (initial equipment states).
    • Create state reactions (cause-and-effect chains between equipment).
    • Define new custom equipment if the scenario requires tools not in the layout.

  6. Review the scenario preview on the right panel. Send follow-up messages to refine.

  7. The AI also generates a how-to guide — a preparation guide for learners to read before starting.

  8. A green Ready indicator appears when the AI is done. Click Save Scenario.

Tips for AI prompts:
  • Be specific about which equipment to interact with (e.g. “rack B4” not “a rack”).
  • Mention the difficulty level and number of steps you want.
  • The AI knows what equipment and hotspots are in your layout — you don’t need to list them.
  • If the AI creates new equipment, it will also create the 3D geometry and interactive hotspots.

Option B: Manual creation

  1. Navigate to Scenarios in the sidebar.

  2. Click Create Scenario.

  3. Fill in the scenario details:

    • Title and Description — what the learner will see.
    • Category — group related scenarios together.
    • Difficulty — Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced.
    • Facility Layout — select which virtual facility this scenario uses.

  4. Configure Settings:

    • Time limit — optional, in seconds.
    • Hints enabled — whether step hints are shown in practice mode.
    • Ambient audio — enable environmental sounds.
    • Cooperative mode — enable for 2-player scenarios.
    • Tickets enabled — attach a support ticket to the scenario (available in single-player and cooperative modes).

  5. Configure the Ticket (if tickets are enabled):

    • Subject — a short title for the work order (e.g. “Investigate Overheating at Rack B4”).
    • Description — detailed instructions or background information.
    • Category — select from: General, Incident, Maintenance, Inspection, Safety, Change Request.
    • Priority — select from: Low, Medium, High, Critical. Shown as a colour-coded badge in the VR HUD.
    • Due Date — optional deadline for ticket resolution.
    • The ticket appears automatically when the learner starts the scenario. Learners can add notes to the ticket during the exercise, which are saved and visible to you on the results page.

  6. Configure Spawn rooms — select which room Player 1 and Player 2 start in.

  7. Add Pre-conditions — set equipment to specific states before the scenario starts:

    • Select the equipment from the dropdown.
    • Select the property (hotspot) to set — the dropdown shows the interaction type (e.g. LED, Display, Toggle) to help you choose.
    • Enter the initial value (e.g. “true” for a lit LED, “OVERHEAT ALERT” for a display).
    • Example: set the fire panel’s armed LED to “on” so it starts in the armed state.

  8. Add State Reactions — define cause-and-effect chains:

    • WHEN an equipment hotspot changes to a specific state…
    • THEN SET another equipment hotspot to a value.
    • Example: WHEN dcim-workstation.acknowledge-alarm = Pressed → THEN SET dcim-workstation.main-screen = “ALARM ACKNOWLEDGED”.
    • Use this to make button presses update displays, toggle LEDs, or trigger alarms.
    • For display text (LED displays), use free text input. For switches and buttons, use the dropdown.

  9. Add Scenario Equipment (optional) — place temporary equipment that only appears during this scenario (e.g. add cartons and pallets to a warehouse for pick/pack exercises):

    • Specify the target space, equipment type, ID, label, and position.
    • Use pre-conditions to set initial values on temporary items (e.g. barcode numbers on cartons).
    • Use Equipment Move task steps to validate pick-and-place operations.
    • Examples: cartons with barcodes for pick & pack training, ingredients for assembly exercises.
    • Temporary items are removed when the scenario ends.

  10. Add Task Steps — the sequential steps the learner must complete:

  • Title, description, and optional hint text (shown in practice mode).

  • Validation type determines how completion is detected:

    • Object Interaction / Button Press — learner interacts with equipment. Add MOP entries with target equipment, hotspot, and expected state.
    • Location Visit — learner walks to a specific zone.
    • Equipment Move — learner picks up equipment (X button on the left VR controller, X key on desktop) and drops it (Y button on the left VR controller, Y key on desktop) near a target. Select the equipment to move and the destination equipment. Set the snap radius for valid drops.
    • Observation — learner looks at equipment for a minimum duration.
    • Knowledge Check — multiple choice question.

  • MOP entries are procedure instructions linked to equipment hotspots. Each MOP specifies what to interact with and the expected outcome. All MOPs must be completed to finish the step.

  • Step Video (optional) — select a video from the Video Library to play as a centre-screen overlay when this step becomes active. The video auto-plays, and the learner can pause, restart, or dismiss it.

  • Steps can be marked as optional.

  1. Click Save to create the scenario as a draft.
  2. When ready, click Publish to make it available for assignment to learners.

Build Mode Scenarios

Build-mode scenarios change the model: instead of learners walking through a pre-built layout, they construct one and their placements are graded against rules you author. Each student gets a per-attempt clone of the layout — their work never affects the original.

When to use build mode

Use it when you want to assess design or layout decisions, not procedure-following:

  • “Rack two production servers with redundant power.”
  • “Lay out fire safety signage for this floor plan.”
  • “Wire a power chain from junction box to rack PDU.”
  • “Design a server room hot/cold aisle layout.”

Authoring

  1. Create Scenario > set Scenario Type to Build. The form reshapes to hide task-only fields (pre-conditions, state reactions, scenario equipment, cooperative).

  2. Pick the facility layout the student will fork.

  3. Add one or more Build Steps. Each step has a title, description, and a list of rules that grade the student’s clone. Pick one of:

    • item_count — count placements of equipment or decorations with min/max. “At least 2 server racks placed.” Filter can also target a specific sign type (e.g. fire_extinguisher, emergency_exit) when decoration type is sign, so you can require a specific ISO safety sign per space.
    • spatial — every subject within (or none within) a distance of a target. “Every rack within 5 m of a CRAH unit.”
    • coverage — every subject is covered by a nearby target. “Every aisle has a smoke detector overhead.”
    • spacing — minimum pairwise distance between matching items. “No two racks closer than 1.2 m.”
    • connectivity — A and B linked by a connector decoration of a chosen style. “Every PDU cabled to a rack.”
    • sequence — a connector path walks expected items in order. “Power flow: junction box → switchboard → UPS → PDU → rack PDU” with mode: 'each' to require every PDU is reached, or mode: 'any' to require just one good path.

  4. Pick a pass mode for each step: all rules must pass, at least N pass, or weighted score ≥ threshold.

  5. Leave Min/Max blank to skip that bound — the form maps blank to “no bound”. Zero is a real value (max: 0 = “place none”, so clear the max field if you specify a min and don’t want to specify an upper bound).

  6. Save and publish.

The rule editor pulls equipment-type and space drop downs from the layout you picked, so you select from real equipment instead of typing strings.

Assignment + grading

Same assignment flow as task scenarios — push to a learner or attach to a course step. The assignment detail page shows a Build Attempts panel:

  • Learner clicks Open Editor, builds, Submits.
  • Submit locks the clone, runs the rules server-side, and returns per-step pass/fail with rule detail.
  • You see every attempt in the panel with status and score; click View to walk through any submitted attempt read-only.
  • Reset is allowed in practice mode (learner can self-reset to retry); in assessment mode it’s educator-only.
  • In-editor Start Assessment — if the assignment was created in practice mode, the learner sees a yellow Start Assessment button in the editor toolbar. Clicking it flips the assignment to assessment mode and forks a fresh clone so practice-mode progress can’t carry into the graded attempt. The switch is one-way; only you can revert the assignment to practice mode.
  • Re-evaluate lets you re-run the rules on a submitted attempt without unlocking. Two modes: snapshot (rules-as-they-were when the student submitted — reproduces the historical score) or current (whatever the rules say today, overwrites the score). Useful when you discover a rule was wrong after students have already submitted.

Self-paced course steps

Add a build scenario to a course module step. When a self-paced student reaches that step, the course-learn page shows the same Build Attempts panel — no manual assignment push needed. The assignment is created on demand.

How-to Guide and Learning Resources

On the scenario edit page, you can add supplementary materials that learners see on their assignment detail page before launching the exercise:

  • How-to guide: Use the TipTap WYSIWYG editor to write a preparation guide explaining the procedure, safety considerations, and what to expect. Alternatively, click Generate with AI to auto-generate a how-to guide from the scenario content.
  • Learning resources: Upload PDFs and images (e.g. reference manuals, diagrams, photos) on the scenario edit page. learners can click these resources to open them in a new tab on their assignment detail page.

Equipment Labels

Floating text labels above equipment help learners identify equipment. Label visibility is controlled at three levels:

  • Layout setting — toggle labels on/off on the facility detail page (Settings card). Default: on.
  • Assessment mode — labels are automatically hidden during assessment exercises.
  • Hints disabled — labels are hidden when hints are turned off in scenario settings.

Animated Equipment

Some equipment has parts that move in response to interactions:

  • Forklift lift lever — pulling the lever raises the forks smoothly.
  • Pallet jack pump handle — pumping raises the forks.
  • Reach truck lift lever — raises the fork carriage up the mast.

Animations are driven by state changes. Use state reactions to chain equipment animations together (e.g. pressing a start button activates a conveyor).

Assigning Scenarios to Learners

  1. Navigate to Assignments in the sidebar.

  2. Click Create Assignment.

  3. Select a published scenario from the dropdown.

  4. Choose the learner**(s)**:

    • Single — select one learner from the dropdown.
    • Bulk — tick multiple learners from the list.

  5. Choose the exercise mode:

    • Practice — hints shown, task checklist visible, suitable for learning.
    • Assessment — hints hidden, formally scored, suitable for evaluation.

  6. Set an optional due date.

  7. Click Create — learners receive an email notification and see the assignment on their dashboard.

Setting Up a Cooperative Session

  1. Create an assignment for a cooperative scenario (one where cooperative mode is enabled).
  2. Open the assignment detail page.
  3. Click Start Cooperative Session — a 6-character session code is generated.
  4. Share the code with both players.
  5. Each player enters the code on their VR headset and taps Join.
  6. The assigned learner is automatically the field technician. The other player is the control room operator.

Monitoring Live Sessions

While a learner is completing a scenario:

  1. Open the assignment detail page.
  2. The Spectator View panel shows a live feed of the learner’s session.
  3. For cooperative scenarios, dual spectator panels show both players’ views.

Reviewing Results

  1. Navigate to Results in the sidebar.
  2. View results By Scenario (aggregate) or By Learner (individual).
  3. Each result includes: pass/fail status, time taken, steps completed, and MOP completion details.
  4. If the scenario had a ticket, the Ticket & Notes section shows the ticket subject, category, priority, description, and a chronological log of all notes made by the learner(s) during the exercise. This provides insight into the learner’s observations and decision-making process.
  5. Click Export to download results as a CSV file for compliance records.

Courses

FacilityVR supports organising your learning & assessment resources into Courses and Modules — ideal for structured programmes, qualifications, and multi-topic learning.

  1. Navigate to Courses in the sidebar and click New Course.

  2. Add Modules to structure the course (e.g. “DC Fundamentals”, “Cooling Systems”).

  3. Within each module, build a sequenced learning journey using the step builder. Six step types are available:

    • Narrative — rich text content with images and links (introductions, transitions, summaries).
    • Video — link to a video (Vimeo or YouTube).
    • Resource — attach a PDF or image for download.
    • Scenario — link to a FacilityVR learning scenario. Scenario steps only tick complete when the learner passes in assessment mode; practice passes don’t count.
    • Quiz — multiple-choice / true-false / matching questions with per-answer feedback, pass threshold, and attempt limits. Add an Instructions preamble shown above the questions.
    • Activity — free-form submission: rich text answers, file uploads, voice recording, or a mix of discrete short-answer questions. Add an Instructions preamble for the learner.

  4. Enrol Learners — enrol learners in bulk so the course shows on their My Courses page. Scenario assignments are created on demand the first time each learner opens a scenario step.

  5. Analytics — view enrolment stats, step completion rates, and quiz question difficulty.

  6. Sequential module completion — optionally require learners to complete modules in order (locked modules show a badge).

  7. Learner progression — manually lock/unlock modules using the lock icon on each module card.

  8. Course lifecycle — draft → active → locked → archived. Structural edits are allowed while active; transition to locked to freeze content once a cohort is running.

AI History

View past AI conversations in the sidebar under AI History. Browse conversations by layout or scenario. Click any conversation to view the full exchange in read-only mode. This is useful for reviewing how scenarios or layouts were generated and understanding the AI’s reasoning.

Pairing VR Devices

Pair VR Device is a self-service page available to every signed-in user (learners, educators, admins). Each user pairs headsets to their own account — whoever enters the 6-character code is the account the headset becomes associated with. Admins and educators typically use this page to test headsets against their own account, or to walk a learner through the pairing flow; they do not pair on behalf of learners (the headset would end up linked to the admin, not the learner).

  1. Navigate to Pair VR Device in the sidebar.
  2. The VR headset displays a 6-character code on its lobby screen.
  3. Enter the code and confirm — the headset is now linked to the account you are signed in as.
  4. Codes expire after approximately 5 minutes. The headset automatically generates a new code if the previous one expires.
  5. Disconnect all paired devices removes every active session on your account — useful after a learner borrows a headset or if you want to force re-pairing.