As educational technology rapidly advances, virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a crucial tool for reforming various sectors, including education, medicine, and entertainment. This study focuses on the application of VR in education, particularly its potential to enhance students’ visual cognition abilities, cultural dissemination, and campus community identity. Through a series of VR teaching experiments conducted at Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, this research aims to assess how VR technology can help students better understand and perceive campus culture, as well as its application in environmental design teaching. Quantitative analysis methods were used, collecting data through surveys and statistically analyzing feedback from 300 participants. The results indicate that the VR experiments significantly improved participants’ understanding of educational content (understandability), enhanced sensory experiences (perceptibility), and improved information memory and recognition (identifiability). Notably, in the areas of historical education and campus cultural dissemination, VR technology effectively deepened students’ understanding of and emotional connection to campus history through immersive interactive experiences. The study reveals that while VR technology demonstrates great potential and positive effects in educational applications, it still faces challenges such as technological costs, hardware facilities, and teacher training. Future research should explore how to overcome these barriers to broaden the application of VR technology in education. The findings of this study provide a basis for educational policymakers to incorporate VR technology into educational system planning and also guide the further development of educational technology.