Virtual reality (VR) is transforming education through completely immersive environments in which students can interact with content in dynamic and meaningful ways. The future of education lies in leveraging immersive technologies to build highly engaging and interactive learning environments. Integrating visual effects (VFX), such as lighting, colors, and animations, is essential in building emotional engagement and fostering impactful learning experiences. Despite these advancements, integrating artificial intelligence (AI) to adapt VFX in response to the user’s emotions has not been widely explored. This survey investigates the potential of AI-driven emotion recognition and adaptive VFX to enhance engagement, motivation, and learning retention in VR education. This survey reviews the latest developments in AI, VFX, and VR technologies, highlighting the significant gaps, such as a lack of frameworks that combine these elements for emotionally responsive educational tools. While this study does not involve direct experimentation or implementation, it aims to offer valuable recommendations and insights for researchers, educators, and developers. The goal is to guide the development of inclusive VR learning environments that serve the diverse emotional and educational needs of the learners.