Here is the distinction.
A truly offline VR system has the learning content on the device. The student puts on the headset, chooses the experience, and learns. No internet required.
True offline means:
- Student finishes. Next student up.
- Still no internet required.
- Tomorrow's class arrives.
- Still no internet required.
- That is offline.
Then there is something else.
- Connect to the internet.
- Find the lesson.
- Download it.
- Disconnect.
- Use it.
- And proudly announce that the experience is now “offline.”
Then the next student needs something different.
- Reconnect.
- Find it.
- Download it.
- Disconnect again.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
That is certainly capable of playing content while disconnected.
But is the system really offline?
Offline should describe the system, not a moment in time.
Turning off Wi-Fi for ten minutes does not transform an online-dependent system into an offline one. At best, I think we could call this temporary offline playback.
But that is not particularly catchy.
So perhaps we need a better term.
- Conditional offline?
- Inconveniently offline?
- Download-and-disconnect offline?
- Pretend offline?
Or perhaps my original offline-ish was right after all.
My current favourite may be The Offline Shuffle:
Connect → download → disconnect → call it offline → repeat.
There is a serious point underneath the joke.
For a teacher managing a classroom, a trainer managing dozens of devices, or an organization working somewhere with poor or expensive connectivity, these are not equivalent architectures.
One removes the internet from the operating equation.
The other temporarily steps away from it. Those are very different things.
So, I am opening this up.
What should we call something that can operate offline... if it requires you to keep going online to make that possible?
