Some suggested reading around the project topic, starting early, to give an historical perspective to more recent developments.  If you are unable to source any of these, Stuart can probably send you a copy.

Loftin, R. B., Engleberg, M. & Benedetti, R. (1993). Applying virtual reality in education: A prototypical virtual physics laboratory. Proceedings of the IEEE 1993 Symposium on Research Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 67-74.

Johnson, W. L. (1995). Pedagogical agents for virtual learning environments. Proceedings of the International Conference on Computers in Education, Singapore, 41-48.

Moore, P. (1995). Learning and teaching in virtual worlds: Implications of virtual reality for education. Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 11(2), 91-102.

Pugnetti, L., Mendozzi, L., Motta, A., Cattaneo, A., Barbieri, E. & Brancotti, A. (1995). Evaluation and retraining of adults' cognitive impairments: Which role for virtual reality technology? Computers in Biology and Medicine, 25(2), 213-227.

Usoh, M. & Slater, M. (1995). An exploration of immersive virtual environments. Endeavour, 19(1), 34-38.

Brna, P. & Aspin, R. (1998). Collaboration in a Virtual World: Support for Conceptual Learning? Education and Information Technologies, 3(3), 247-259.

Fang, X. D., Luo, S., Lee, N. J. & Jin, F. (1998). Virtual machining lab for knowledge learning and skills training. Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 6(2), 89-97.

Brooks, B. M., McNeil, J. E., Rose, F. D., Attree, E. A. & Leadbetter, A. G. (1999). Route Learning in a Case of Amnesia: A Preliminary Investigation into the Efficacy of Training in a Virtual Environment. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 9, 63-76.

Geroimenko, V. & Phillips, M. (1999). Multi-user VRML environment for teaching VRML: immersive collaborative learning. Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE International Conference on Information Visualization, 45-47.

Gorman, P. J., Meier, A. H. & Krummel, T. M. (1999). Simulation and Virtual Reality in Surgical Education: Real or Unreal? Arch Surg, 134(11), 1203-1208.

Johnson, A., Moher, T., Ohlsson, S. & Gillingham, M. A. G. M. (1999). The Round Earth Project: deep learning in a collaborative virtual world. Proceedings of the Virtual Reality, 164-171.

Slator, B. M., Juell, P., McClean, P. E., Saini-Eidukat, B., Schwert, D. P., White, A. R. & Hill, C. (1999). Virtual environments for education. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 22(3), 161-174.