This study aimed to foster development of the 21st-century five core competencies, including Creativity and innovation, Critical thinking and problem solving, Communication, Collaboration, and Computer-information literacy using Student-Centered Active Learning in an instructional design in which student groups created their own virtual reality content. Fifty humanities students participated. Mixed-methods data collection included a questionnaire, VR artifacts grades, student reflective journals, and focus group interviews. The most important findings were that (1) the instructional design of the study led to improvement in all of the five competencies of 0.01 significance or better (2) additional cycles of VR artifact production led to increases in empirical quality, and (3) the participants also found the hands-on VR creation projects to be distinctive and motivating. This VR content creation project provides detailed implications and guidance for instructors seeking to replicate a hands-on technology-oriented instructional design in order to strengthen the 21st-century core competencies.