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L&D

AR and VR Are Coming Closer to Everyday Use in L&D

Instructional designers continue to explore virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology, as the applications become more common and practical. This growth is having a positive effect on the contributions learning and development (L&D) can make to the enterprise.

Immersive learning is disrupting traditional online learning approaches

Clark Aldrich, in his 2009 book Learning Online with Games, Simulations, and Virtual Worlds, suggested three reasons why highly interactive virtual environments (VR and AR) are effective for learning:

They put people “in the flow,” situating learning in the environment where it will be applied
They provide context and emotional involvement
They engage people through actual participation

Immersive learning eliminates the risk of injury, increases the immediacy of feedback, and makes it easier to track the progress of learning and identification of difficulties. Digital technology has facilitated all of these improvements.

JD Dillon has identified areas where newer technology has disrupted “old-school” L&D practices through improved methods:

Relating learning to day-to-day reality
Providing consistent, scalable learning and support experience
Getting better data and using it to improve solutions
Using AI and adaptive technology effectively
Showing impact on business results
Reducing „time to implementation“ compared to traditional training

What are the use cases for immersive learning?

There are current use cases in healthcare, equipment maintenance and repair, and safety, as well as in other areas that have traditionally been challenging for L&D such as compliance training, selling skills, and coaching and personal development.

The most obvious use cases for VR training are applications to the situations Clark Aldrich pointed out long ago: high-stress and emergency procedures; the opportunity to reduce job-related injuries; and to outcomes where training itself could present danger.

Some cautions about expectations

Not everyone agrees that VR training and AR are completely ready for primetime. Some highly respected learning leaders still have reservations about the limitations of VR and AR. However, with each passing year these objections are being overcome. The devices needed to interface with the virtual experience still suffer from two problems.

First, the devices themselves have problems with their form factors and appearance. They are large and odd-looking, and the VR devices require a screen that partially or totally obscures the wearer’s vision. The device manufacturers are developing workarounds but the consensus of users is that they are not ready for primetime, let alone for everyday use. Early adopters seem mainly to be curious and gamers.

The second objection is the cost of the devices. Some recent releases are now at a much lower price point for ordinary consumers, but the more advanced choices are still priced for developers. It may be some time before this objection is resolved.

Eventually AR and VR devices will provide opportunities to practice coaching, provide feedback, and even deal with harassment or bullying, as well as resolving difficult conflicts.

The important thing for L&D practitioners is to start learning now about the tools and techniques that support virtual reality and augmented reality, and to begin applying them. To delay this is to delay the benefits.

Realistic longer-term opportunities

When appropriate, virtual reality and augmented reality can be used instead of the didactic approaches to learning that have been the default of L&D. This is one of the opportunities that the evolving understanding of learning engineering may be helping us to see—“continual enterprise feedback and revision.“

As Will Thalheimer has pointed out, one of the fundamental shortcomings of the default approaches has to do with assessment of required skills and knowledge. The reason that virtual reality training can improve on the defaults is that people get continuous feedback on how they are doing, and continuous assessment that supports adaptive learning.

Opportunities VR and AR offer

Here are three ways L&D practitioners and leaders can begin to realize the benefits of virtual reality and augmented reality in training:

Future-proof investment in eLearning using VR simulations, together with SME-led training within blended learning.
Apply the BUILDS framework suggested by Chad Udell and Gary Woodill in The Shock of the New to evaluate the potential uses of virtual reality and augmented reality for best effect.
Use virtual reality as a way to capture and deploy the expertise of subject matter experts (SMEs) throughout an enterprise. By doing this, VR and AR can create dramatic change in corporate competency profiles

Quelle:

https://www.learningguild.com/articles/ar-and-vr-are-coming-closer-to-everyday-use-in-ld/

4. Dezember 2023 0 comment

Examples

Creating a New Reality in Training and Development

A major financial services provider is going through an organizational transformation that requires communication across all departments. It has become clear that teams in some departments are not communicating effectively, severely hindering the change process. Feelings of mistrust have surfaced. The chief learning officer (CLO) of the company has decided that an intervention is required. She needs to gain the confidence of the team members to improve the flow of information across silos in a constructive manner. Instead of hiring an organizational consultant or publishing an online tutorial, the CLO invites team members to participate in a virtual mission to the surface of Mars where they confront unexpected challenges. In the safety of their own workspace and without any travel expenses, participants put on a virtual reality (VR) headset and are instantaneously teleported to the Mars basecamp, where they receive their mission briefing.

Very quickly participants who are undertaking the mission stop asking themselves “What do financial services have in common with saving humanity on Mars?” and start asking constructive questions like “What aspects of information should be shared?” or “How should we reach an effective solution as a team?” It quickly becomes evident that participants are having fun and being creative while the immersive learning system collects crucial data about their choices and decision-making strategies as competing teams.

Immersive learning opens new frontiers and capabilities that have never been accessible before in corporate learning. Today, by virtue of accessible turn-key solutions, CLOs and education professionals can drive impact while boosting learning engagement, knowledge retention and learner compliance through data-driven synchronous and asynchronous learning.

Immersive Training Just Got Easier

Immersive learning is a simple yet powerful methodology that can engage learners in an absorbing virtual environment where they are active in a scenario that challenges them to make decisions and explore the environment in a truly authentic way. Participants can be immersed in ultra-realistic scenarios, where they can enter and act upon sensory rich environments by initiating a series of actions using different interfaces.

Most people would have seen or experienced people playing virtual games while wearing headsets covering the upper part of their faces and holding attachments in their hands. For entrepreneurs designing immersive interfaces, the challenge is to move the needle from commercial apps and games into the blue ocean of learning and development (L&D). In this article, we are going to argue that immersive learning solutions are on the cusp of a revolution.

Extended reality (XR) headsets have been around for years, but only recently have they entered anything approaching mainstream use thanks to all-in-one devices and reduction of costs alongside improved performance. In the early days of development, rudimentary desktop headsets were endorsed by pilot schools, airlines and Air Force academies. Participants got up to speed on flight controls and cockpits, takeoff and landing patterns. The systems were expensive to buy and the scenarios difficult to create. Furthermore, participants were expected to jump into real-life situations in parallel to their virtual training.

Breaking Down Corporate Silos

In the corporate arena, L&D professionals are continually challenged to train their workforce using traditional systems that were never designed for hybrid work, scalability and sustainability. Furthermore, L&D professionals are often constrained by a highly complex competitive and regulatory environment in today’s digital landscape. Breaking through traditional silos that weigh down employee productivity is exactly where immersive learning capabilities can provide added value.

Using an immersive learning platform, L&D professionals can measure the performance, cognitive abilities and personality traits of their employees to help them grow in the right direction, by personalizing the learning process. Moreover, L&D professionals can do this without having to get bogged down in individual questionnaires or self-reports which could, for example, trigger massive paperwork under personal data protection regulations.Immersive learning is a simple yet powerful methodology that can engage learners in an absorbing virtual environment where they are active in a scenario that challenges them to make decisions.

The Path to Immersive Learning

Given an introductory training course, L&D professionals can oversee the design, development, production and enhancement of a highly sophisticated and secure software suite dedicated to the needs of their workforce. At the same time, customized content is bundled into a software platform and distributed at the exact time and place designated by the L&D departments and learning professionals. Founded on advanced immersive technologies, AVRIS provides immediate access to data-driven knowledge and experience, which are strengthened by a global community of lifelong collaborators.

Groundbreaking? That’s a big claim for a startup. Let’s unpack that assertion. Traditional learning solutions typically begin and end with the final answers and response times of participants. By contrast, analytical engines that receive inputs from immersive experiences are able to measure every single interaction learners perform while wearing the headset. Simultaneously, the engine records behaviors by calculating gaze direction, time lapse, decision strategies, and the location and angle of the head and hands at an astounding precision.

When a participant exits an immersive environment, the immersive analytical engine goes to work at lightning speed and returns a richer and far more comprehensive data set than a traditional method could possibly provide. Having gleaned tens of thousands of data points per participant, the machine deep dives into the behavior of candidates, providing insights about them with far greater rigor, accuracy and robustness than other approaches, digital or human driven. Debrief and reflection are enriched as they are based on real-time data, ultimately impacting the participant’s capabilities.

Learning how to solve problems under stress, for example, is a skill that can be learned and enhanced in an immersive environment. In the past, L&D professionals used questionnaires and self-reports to discover an employee’s susceptibility to stress or other emotional situations. In a virtual environment, the engine can analyze human behavior itself. How is this achieved? Instead of asking individuals how stress affects their performance, learning professionals will let the behavioral analytics engine do the work for them. Participants enter simulated virtual experiences where real-world problems need to be solved. They gain knowledge through their interaction with other participants who have different skill sets and experiences.

Measuring Interactions Effectively

With the continuous growth of immersive learning solutions and offerings, corporate partners and individual learners are provided with a growing range of just-in-time training solutions. Such solutions can improve the experience curve of employees, thereby increasing the competitive advantage of their respective companies. Gamified, interactive and data-driven virtual scenarios can get employees up to speed on the job much faster than simply adding new development training components. They reduce the length of time it takes between existing training programs and their application by employees on the factory floor or in the boardroom. Costs are cut and quality is improved.

Moreover, the analytical engine can transform the lifelong learning experience of participants, making for a talent-retention story. A group of psychologists, neuroscientists and data scientists design simulations for specific situations, which are then subjected to an extensive internal validation phase. New and enriched learning experiences are being developed and added to the portfolio regularly.

Meanwhile, the virtual trip to Mars was a major success. As a result of immersive learning, the organizational transformation at the financial services provider was completed on time and within budget. Moreover, a lifelong learning process has begun within the firm as the CLO has implemented immersive learning solutions across the organization.

Investment in the development and growth of the company’s greatest asset is obviously a worthy effort. But it is up to learning professionals to choose impactful, engaging and cost-effective methods to fulfill organizational objectives. Immersive learning presents an unprecedented combination of these, and thanks to recent technological breakthroughs, has become accessible as well as affordable.

Gamified, interactive and data-driven virtual scenarios can get employees up to speed on the job much faster than simply adding new development training components.

Quelle:

Immersive Learning: Creating a New Reality in Training and Development

3. Oktober 2023 0 comment

Examples

Modernizing L&D: Technologies To Design, Develop, And Deliver Impactful Learning

Technologies adapt quickly to keep pace with today’s rapidly evolving business needs. In this article, we’ll explore L&D technology trends to help you develop, design, and deliver more impactful learning experiences for the modern workforce.

How Is Technology Transforming Learning?

Traditional learning approaches struggle to meet the dynamic demands of the digital age. Yet, in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, reskilling and upskilling have become imperative for individuals and organizations to stay competitive. As a result, the integration of interactive L&D technology in eLearning has transformed how businesses educate their learners. When it comes to modernizing workforce skills, technology has emerged as a powerful ally to facilitate rapid, effective reskilling and upskilling.

However, as businesses use interactive technologies to enhance eLearning experiences, it is also crucial to strike a balance by preserving the human aspect of learning. The human element contributes to the effectiveness of eLearning by fostering personal collaboration, “humanizing” communication, and injecting emotional intelligence into the L&D process. Technology also enhances human-to-human interactions through technology-driven coaching and mentorship. Transformation happens from technology’s ability to fully empower the human factor.

L&D Technology Trends That Future-Proof Learning

The relentless pace of technological advancements and industry disruptions has created a pressing need for businesses to reskill and upskill their workforce. Organizations must embrace emerging L&D technology to future-proof learning. Examples of trending and emerging learning technologies include the following.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) And Machine Learning (ML)

Benefits:

Greater learner engagement.
Increased visibility of learner performance gaps.
Dynamic learner data analytics.
Greater automation across learning ecosystems.
Customized learning pathways.

How L&D can leverage this technology trend to create successful learning:

Incorporating AI and ML via intelligent content curation helps create more personalized and engaging learning content and experiences.
Adaptive assessments dynamically automate the level of difficulty for testing learners.
The use of predictive analysis and learning data analytics helps identify learning and performance gaps. AI tools then highlight personalized learning pathways and provide individualized review, revision, and remediation recommendations.

When to use it:

Businesses should consider leveraging AI and ML to address large-scale training needs, provide personalized learning experiences, and support continuous learning efforts. These trending technologies can also help deliver complex or interactive content, aid with making data-driven L&D decisions, and automate administrative tasks. These L&D technology trends can enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, and scalability of learning initiatives, leading to improved employee reskilling/upskilling and performance.

Nano-Gamification

Benefits:

The use of nano-gamification in upskilling and reskilling efforts can lead to increased learner engagement, heightened motivation to learn, active participatory learning, and rapid skills development.
Through a data-centric approach, it creates a personalized, immersive, and enjoyable learning experience, albeit one that fosters competitiveness.
The use of small-scale (micro/nano) gaming supports unique gaming elements targeted at specific aspects, processes, or tasks for continuous growth. This keeps the workforce aligned with evolving skills and competencies.

How L&D can leverage this technology trend:

L&D teams can leverage nano-gamification in various use cases to deliver focused, targeted, and impactful learning programs. Some examples of this L&D technology include:

Onboarding and orientation.
Compliance training.
Product or service training.
Skill development and reinforcement.
Sales training and motivation.
Instilling a culture of continuous learning and professional development.

When to use it:

L&D teams can apply nano-gamification in various contexts, particularly when the target subject matter is especially drab and boring. Leverage it to make learning programs more interactive, engaging, and effective. Incorporate game-like elements on a micro scale to increase learner motivation, promote knowledge retention, and deliver impactful learning experiences. Use nano-gamification when you want your workforce to “learn through play” learning interventions.

Virtual And Augmented Reality (VR/AR)

Benefits:

Some of the numerous benefits of using L&D technology trends such as VR/AR come from the delivery of more immersive learning experiences.
Another innovative way through which workforces benefit from this technology is the ability for learners to receive realistic, hands-on experiential learning.
Learners also benefit from the fact that this technology provides them the opportunity to easily interact with AI-generated personalized and adaptable learning environments.

How L&D can leverage this technology trend:

Businesses can leverage this L&D technology to create virtual simulations to practice real-world skills.
It can help learners embark safely on virtual field trips, such as exploring deep inside a toxic mine or traveling through inhospitable climes.
It can also be used to incorporate complex language and cultural nuances into learning content to help learners interact virtually with unfamiliar cultures and environments.

When to use it:

VR and AR are ideal technologies to deploy in circumstances where learning in a real-world setting might be cost-prohibitive. It can also be useful to leverage such technologies in risky learning situations—such as dealing with toxic chemicals or operating on high-risk patients. It also lends itself well to situations that require repetitive learning and practice.

Nano- And Microlearning

Benefits:

Today’s workplace is extremely busy, with hallmarks being multitasking and a workforce on the go. Nanolearning and microlearning offer benefits such as:

Time efficiency, accessibility (on-the-go, anytime-anywhere learning), just-in-time learning, and continuous learning for the modern workforce.
Learning is shorter and gets more streamlined for today’s busy employees.
And because of its small footprint, businesses benefit from nano/microlearning L&D technology trends by creating focused, targeted training interventions.

How L&D can leverage this technology trend:

By incorporating targeted nano- and microlearning, organizations can deliver impactful learning programs that align with the needs and preferences of their learners. This results in enhancing skills, knowledge retention, and overall performance.
L&D can utilize these technologies to produce micro videos, infographics and visual summaries, flashcards, and knowledge checks/quizzes.
Businesses may also integrate this L&D technology through interactive and gamified modules, mobile learning applications, social learning and collaboration, data-driven personalized learning paths, and customized performance-based assessments.

When to use it:

Because of their small footprint, these technologies are ideal for use to deliver learning through mobile devices. They serve as highly effective job aids and support tools. Short-form learning content, such as “how to” videos and interactive PDFs, is also great to use for in-the-moment-of-need and at-the-place-of-need training.

Video-Based Learning

Benefits:

Shorter and more interactive videos are a trending technology in today’s L&D toolbox because they offer greater engagement and longer learning retention.
Accessibility of such content, hosted on AI-powered corporate learning platforms, also allows for the targeted discovery of learning on social media sites and corporate learning platforms.
Combining visual and auditory stimuli makes this technology great for catering to different learning preferences.

How L&D can leverage this technology trend:

Because of its dynamism, L&D can use it in myriad ways. These include:

Microlearning videos.
Interactive video-based content.
Podcasts, webinars, and live streaming.
Employee/user-generated content and social learning videos.
You may also use these L&D technology trends by creating personalized video playlists as part of customized learning pathways.

When to use it:

It can be highly effective when there’s a need for multimodal learning. Videos are an ideal tool for use when there’s a need to demonstrate complex processes, procedures, or skills. This L&D technology may be used when the learning need is for showcasing real-life scenarios and providing practical examples. It is also ideal to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and skills directly applicable to the workplace.

In the coming years, the interactive eLearning technologies discussed here will continue to play a pivotal role in creating a continuous learning ecosystem. These L&D technology trends go beyond just facilitating reskilling/upskilling of the workforce; they also enhance the learning experience by providing engaging and immersive platforms that facilitate active participation, feedback, and real-time collaboration.

Business Benefits Of Leveraging Technology In Learning And Development

The rapid pace of advances in eLearning has made leveraging technology crucial for L&D. The use of trending learning technologies promises a wealth of benefits to businesses that embrace them. These include:

Greater learning retention

Multimodal learning, through audio and visual content, and realistic virtual practice elements help increase learning retention. Technologies such as VR/AR and Mixed Reality also heighten learner engagement. This leads to increased on-the-job learning transference, which then increases the Return On Investment (ROI) through performance and productivity gains.

Accessibility and scalability

Nano/microlearning technology solutions help reduce learning time and make learning ubiquitous by facilitating learning anywhere, anytime. Tech-driven learning solutions are now more easily scalable and accessible across the organization, delivering cost-effective, personalized learning across the workforce.

Preserving the human factor

Tech-driven learning helps entrench the human factor by enabling person-to-person collaboration and knowledge sharing. Technology also facilitates human-to-human learning in the form of better coaching and mentoring encounters. And it preserves and enhances that human factor through person-to-person networking technologies, such as video-sharing platforms, social media portals, and learner-to-learner/peer learning groups.

Parting Thoughts

In the face of swiftly developing business requirements, interactive technology has become a vital tool in the eLearning toolbox to help reskill and upskill the workforce. It offers engagement, personalization, scalability, and practical application while also helping learning needs align with the needs of modern organizations. Most importantly, the L&D technology trends discussed here don’t supplant human-to-human contact; they help to enhance and empower the human factor in learning.

Quelle:

Foto: jacoblund/Envato.com

https://elearningindustry.com/modernizing-ld-technologies-to-design-develop-and-deliver-impactful-learning

28. Juni 2023 0 comment

Knowledge Metaverse

Into the metaverse: What does it hold for the future of L&D?

Leading organizations find better retention, skills and engagement for their employees in the metaverse.

For many, it’s hard to envision the role of the metaverse in learning and development without having experienced it themselves. As one of the buzziest concepts around, with so many promises for the future of work, it’s important to understand how leading organizations are beginning to incorporate the metaverse into the workplace.

With the state of the metaverse still emerging, some organizations are working to fulfill their vision and stepping into the metaverse to push L&D forward. It’s up to learning leaders to exercise the potential of their teams and take the first steps into the metaverse and the future of work.

A hybrid world

At its most basic, the metaverse is the “further blending of the physical and digital worlds,” says Derek Belch, founder and CEO of Strivr. It’s an extended reality space that becomes its own digital world through virtual and augmented reality technology. A “third place” beyond work and home, right out of the Starbucks’ playbook, Belch says. “For companies, whether it’s the way they interact with consumers or the way that they train and develop and interact with their own workforce, there’s going to be this third place.” A digital place that could act as a library of knowledge and offer immersive learning experiences for L&D teams to grow and connect.

Looking at the last two years, chief learning officers and senior HR leaders have a very different seat at the table than before the pandemic. With the workplace distancing overnight, it was left up to learning and HR leaders to figure out how to hire, train, communicate with and foster an engaging workforce. “They’ve been placed with a lot more responsibility than in the past and they hold the keys,” Belch says. “I really view the world of HR and L&D as one of the bridges to the metaverse.”

In its own role of helping bridge to the metaverse, Strivr offers a VR training platform with L&D scale in mind — unlike Meta, Microsoft and Apple, which target consumers to join virtual social worlds that are projected to become an $800 billion market by 2024. “We are probably the only company on planet earth that can actually deploy a headset at scale,” Belch says. To the learning leaders and the CLOs that require initiatives at scale, “It’s music to their ears.”

The benefits of immersive training in the metaverse start to pile up with the time and money it saves from onboarding to upskilling. “When you put a headset on for 20 to 25 minutes and learn by doing, you’re getting the same learning outcome as watching that PowerPoint lecture for three hours in that video from 1994,” Belch says. “There’s a really big ROI component there for organizations.” So it makes sense that with results like these, a transition into a metaverse-led workplace feels inevitable.

When augmented realities are more widely available, technology can truly bridge the third space and impact “flow of work tools,” Belch says. Situations such as working “on an assembly line for Ford where cars are going by every 15 seconds, and the glasses are telling me exactly what to do,” says Belch. “And now it’s like mistake-free work. That’s where I see all of this going.”

Instead of putting learners in front of 2D videos where they’re answering questions or just clicking boxes, the metaverse allows learners to experience what a job is actually like before accepting and will enable leaders to see if employees are ready for the next level of work. In the same way flight simulators can prepare pilots for many aspects of operating and flying an aircraft, through technologies like VR the metaverse can prepare employees for almost anything at work.

“This technology can impact every stage of the HR journey for an employee,” Belch says. “We all know the interviewing process is flawed and riddled with bias. Let’s have someone do the job and show us whether or not they can do the job.” And if they mess up in VR, they’re not going to take down the whole factory. From hiring and beyond, there is an abundance of potential spaces that the metaverse can capitalize on and improve.

New realities in action

The Academy, Bank of America’s onboarding, training and development organization, was built for its employees with traditional learning experiences and capable expert trainers. Five years ago, when The Academy was still relatively new, program feedback would, in nearly every case, be: “We want more practice,” says John Jordan, managing director and head of The Academy. “It didn’t matter if it was practice using technology, practice having difficult conversations or practice opening up an account for a client.”

So in they started leveraging technology to create a third space for practice environments. Beyond client-facing technology and AI coaches that prepare employees to communicate with clients, Bank of America was the first financial services firm to launch virtual training programs in its 4,300 retail financial centers last fall.

The VR space “is where we want to have the most real, immersive learning experience for the most important interactions that we have,” says Jordan. “Those can be important interactions because they’re high risk or they are sensitive conversations with clients where people want to practice interactions before they happen.” The Academy has launched about 30 VR learning modules this year, from conversations with a client or employee to de-escalating situations. “It creates a level of retention that you just can’t get anywhere else,” Jordan says. “It makes them feel more confident when they’re having tough situations or conversations that they may not have ever had before.”

Research in medical training has found that information retention rates can reach 80 percent after a full year of training through immersive simulated experiences compared to just 20 percent for traditional training. “People are picking it up and are much more comfortable performing their tasks after going through the simulation,” Jordan says. “It’s incredibly powerful.”

In situations where you need to practice empathy or deal with more soft skills — that many new workers are lacking despite increased amounts of education — “those interactive type situations are the ones that I’ve seen to be most effective,” Jordan says.

When they first piloted the program in 2019, 97 percent of participants felt more comfortable performing their tasks after VR training. “It’s the first time you hear people say, ‘I can’t wait to take the new training,’” Jordan says. “They’re really engaged with it.”

In addition, offering VR programs from onboarding and throughout training is a great way to increase the retention of skills and the retention of top talent. “Virtual reality is just the start,” Jordan says. “As we continue to work in close partnership across our company, we expect to learn a lot.”

Back to the future

Jordan says that if anyone’s considering how VR can play a role in their L&D program, he’d encourage them to “take the leap and explore slowly integrating how they upskill their employees.” He still vividly remembers the first three-minute lesson he had in the metaverse. “If I hadn’t done it myself, I don’t think I would have been quite as passionate about it,” Jordan says. “I was just immediately convinced that there’s a real future here.”

“If you’re a learning leader, you should start to put your toe in the water, if you haven’t already, to see how far virtual reality and even augmented reality technology has come,” Jordan says. “It is getting better and faster and more impactful every day.”

Looking to the future, Jordan says The Academy is not going to stop now that they have a VR headset in every financial center in the U.S. They’re exploring VR programs to address issues like mental health and helping people relax, empathy training and diversity and inclusion programs, among countless other prospective uses in the metaverse and VR.

While Jordan says there will always be value in real face-to-face interactions and actual handshakes, he doesn’t want to rule out the possibility of every employee having a VR device as new generations grow up with the technology at their disposal. “If you’re not ready for the expectation that today’s 18 to 23 year old will have when they’re your employee, you’re going to be left behind,” Belch says. “Within the next five years, this [VR] is going to be everywhere.”

The ultimate hope is that technologies like VR and spaces like the metaverse can allow for processes with limited human bias in approaches to hiring and promotion. Organizations can put mid-level managers in a feedback-heavy simulation to see how they perform based on data. “That data will be so much more powerful than what’s on their resume, or what they say in an interview, or what the color of their skin is or where they went to school,” Belch says.

The Academy expects to have a million practice sessions over simulated learning experiences by 2023 — Jordan sees it as a million opportunities to get better. “We’ve created this environment where we have a giant library of practice. Places where you can go practice and hone your skills,” Jordan says. “It will allow us to move people and have a much more flexible workforce in the future.”

Quelle:

Into the metaverse: What does it hold for the future of L&D?

7. April 2023 0 comment

Examples

Metaverse And L&D: The Next Frontier In eLearning Or Just Another Fad?

Though the Metaverse is in its infancy, it’s not a “fad”—with some real-world Metaverse higher learning already in flight. In this article, I outline some Metaverse-enabled real-world L&D applications and crystal-ball some futuristic use cases.

What Is the Metaverse?

Just as the term “cyberspace” connotes a concept of an online, interconnected digital world, separate and distinct from the real world, the Metaverse, too, is a digital construct. However, the Metaverse is a “hybrid” digital paradigm in which digital objects are used to represent real people, personas, places, concepts, and situations.

At a very basic level, avid video gamers already experience a version of the Metaverse as they explore their 3D gaming environments using avatars and holographic representations of themselves (their gaming personas/characters). Extending that use case further and into the realm of Learning and Development (L&D) isn’t such a stretch of the imagination.

How Will The Metaverse Impact L&D?

L&D is all about opening one’s mind to new thoughts and ideas. When combined, the Metaverse and learning make it possible for people to push the boundaries of their physical limitations and immerse themselves in new paradigms of learning.

Without the Metaverse, we’d be restricted to learning only what we can imagine. The Metaverse can help combine the currently practiced—physical classroom, digital self-paced learning, and virtual learning—and bring this into a single platform. Metaverse learners can then experience the real in a digital world, which results in bridging the gap between a virtual and real experience.

Thanks to advances in enabling technologies, such as 5G, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and 3D, we can escape beyond the realm of dragons and goblins. It’s now possible to escape into a virtual universe (the Metaverse) and get a better—more immersive and interactive—understanding of real people, places, and events. From science and the arts to medicine and history, the Metaverse takes learning to a whole new level.

A great early example of how the Metaverse may impact future L&D is India’s Museum of Art & Photography (MAP). Without a “metaverse experience,” students and art enthusiasts who wanted to learn more about the great masters and their masterpieces relied on traditional approaches to glean that knowledge.

The merger of the Metaverse and learning, conjoined with holographic technologies, now allow learners to experience a subject matter as it comes to life. They can even interact with artists and SMEs directly—even though many passed on long ago.

What Will Drive The Adoption Of The Metaverse In L&D?

One of the key drivers of Metaverse-based L&D is likely to be virtual, immersive learning. There’s ample evidence that points to the fact that Virtual Reality training is one of the most impactful training modalities in today’s learning environment. The world is now a global workplace, where employees cross geographical boundaries (virtually) several times a day to interact with colleagues. Metaverse-based L&D opportunities will, therefore, drive how employers universally train global workforces through seamless experiences.

Another driver is the post-pandemic popularity of hybrid workplaces. Now, with the hybrid workforce more entrenched than before, where learners and trainers aren’t colocated, virtual immersive learning has acquired greater importance. Even though time and distance separate hybrid workforces, the joining of the Metaverse and learning will help make real-life, interactive, hands-on, and face-to-face education more accessible to all participants.

Another driver is the need for trainers to deliver better training experiences. In an endeavor to keep remote employees engaged and motivated to training, L&D teams will leverage the Metaverse to deliver greater real-life-like training. And as major tech companies embed the Metaverse into their offerings, that’ll further drive learning-centric organizations to adopt it.

What Are The Advantages Of The Metaverse In L&D?

Because it brings virtual, simulated experiences closer to real-life experiences, combining and leveraging the power of the Metaverse and learning holds tremendous potential for L&D.

It gives learners more life-like experiences than current VR or AR training.
It offers a safe and more cost-effective alternative for learners to practice and fail while learning.
For hybrid learners, the Metaverse will act as a meeting point for people, processes, and situations—across geographies and time zones. Metaverse interactions will help bridge those divides.
The intermingling of learning and play will help learners embrace Metaverse-enabled eLearning more readily than they do with VR- or AR-based training.
Higher-quality visualization, more immersive content, and better interactivity in the Metaverse will make hybrid employees benefit from learning on demand and learning in the flow of work (LIFOW).

Studies have proven that VR-based training works four times faster, with learners 275% more confident in learning application [1]. With the Metaverse and its related collaborative and immersive training delivery modalities, the advantages to L&D are unlimited. Almost every aspect of L&D will benefit from the Metaverse—from instructional delivery to testing and evaluation, to feedback, and other forms of learner-trainer interaction.

Where Is The eLearning Industry At?

On a comparative scale, today’s Metaverse is still at an exploratory stage of what its eLearning capabilities will look like in the next several years. It’s likely at a similar level where email was to the internet—compared to today’s IM and texting capabilities. However, large technology companies have already launched tools and products, like Microsoft Mesh, that are delivering real-world business applications and are poised to change the eLearning industry.

In the near to short term, we expect organizations to take a “wait, watch, and learn” approach to Metaverse-based eLearning. Some business schools have already launched 100% digital campuses. There’ll be trial and error as corporations develop their own Metaverse-enabled responses to learner experiences and expectations. Eventually, over the next few years, as learning and collaboration technologies like Facebook’s Oculus and its Horizon Workrooms mature, Metaverse-enabled eLearning will become mainstream.

What eLearning Strategies Will Become A Mainstay In The Metaverse?

While there may be other, yet-to-evolve eLearning strategies coming to the foreground, here are some that are immediately set to become mainstream in the Metaverse:

Immersive Learning

VR/AR: Learners will move away from video, audio, and static PPT-based eLearning into more immersive AR/VR-based content.
Gamification: The “engagement” challenge with hybrid learners will be better addressed through Metaverse-based gamified content. Gamified VR and gamified microlearning will be a mainstay.
Simulations: Higher-quality digital and virtualization will lead L&D teams to make greater use of real-life-like simulated content.
Interactive learning strategies (SBL/IVBL): Developers will leverage next-gen learning strategies, including scenario-based learning, interactive videos, and gamified mobile apps.

Social Learning

Social media platforms already have a foothold as an effective eLearning modality. Expect the Metaverse to accentuate and transform social learning by integrating more immersive content and greater interactivity into peer learning platforms.

Learning Ecosystems

By combining the Metaverse and learning, we’ll see more adoption of learning hubs, learning and performance support tools, and personalized learning pathways. These approaches will firmly anchor continuous L&D as a bedrock strategy for all learning-centric organizations.

A Futuristic Example Of Training In The Metaverse

Since the Metaverse is in its infancy, the real world is still adapting to it. However, consider an induction program within an organization operating in a hybrid model, with distributed teams across the globe.

Here’s what combining the Metaverse and learning might look like:

New hires are asked to log in to the Metaverse platform.
They create their own avatars or holograms.
The induction program is divided into a daily schedule, with each day offering its own experiences that map to a similar induction initiative conducted in person.
The platform has options to interact with peers in real time, in a virtual environment that is a representation of the office and its various sections.
They can go to a room which consists of various resources that they can go through, as part of the self-paced training aspects.
They can go to breakout rooms and interact, chat, and have discussions—all in a virtual environment with the ability to leave and enter.
They can use their phones to scan image codes and QR codes to get into virtual tours of the office. They’ll do so while consistently maintaining the same profile throughout their interactions with the platforms and associated digital assets.
They can perform group activities and practice in scenarios that they may face in the actual job and, in the process, they receive feedback from managers.

Other real-world L&D applications from combining the Metaverse and learning might involve virtual project de-briefings so geographically dispersed teams may participate in life-like teachable moments and lessons learned. Other opportunities also present themselves in certification/recertification and continuous upskilling.

Parting Thoughts

Though it has moved way past the “fad” stage, L&D teams are watching the evolution of Metaverse-enabled eLearning closely. The incorporation of cutting-edge technologies such as AR and VR to simulate real-life-like immersive training scenarios in the Metaverse provide a compelling business case for its adoption. And while Metaverse-based eLearning is still in its formative stage, learning-centric organizations must start evaluating its use now, especially for remote and hybrid workforces.

I hope the real-world L&D applications and futuristic use cases mentioned in this article provide you with the requisite insights to consider Metaverse in your eLearning programs and create a new paradigm of learning.

Meanwhile, if you have any specific queries, do contact me or leave a comment below.

Reference:

[1] How virtual reality is redefining soft skills training

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Foto: XH4D/gettyimages

https://elearningindustry.com/metaverse-and-ld-the-next-frontier-in-elearning-or-just-another-fad

24. November 2022 0 comment

Examples

The Metaverse: Just A Fad, Or The Future Of L&D?

Summary: What is the metaverse, and what’s in it for L&D? This level-set shows you what’s there, how it works, and how you can leverage the learning potential of the metaverse to create immersive learning experiences that make a difference.

Metaverse Myths, Facts, And L&D Benefits

While many of us spent the past two years switching up our Zoom backgrounds, others were enjoying the sights, sounds, and atmosphere of a completely different world.

I’m not talking about interplanetary travel—yet. I’m talking about the metaverse.

From gaming to concerts, commerce, and even a multimillion-dollar real estate market, the metaverse has become a major source of headlines (and inspiration!) for artists, brands, and entrepreneurs. It’s not just a pandemic-era fad, either: People have been imagining and designing proto-metaverse experiences for well over a century.[1] In the past 15 years, the metaverse has become a source of person-to-person connection, a maker’s space, and even a virtual vacation destination.

At this point, you might be wondering, „What’s in it for L&D?„

I started with the same question—and I took it to my friends on SweetRush’s XR and Immersive Technology team. Here’s a condensed version of what they taught me about the language, logic, and learning potential of the metaverse. (Want the full travelog? Check out our eBook, Ready, Learner One? The L&D Innovator’s Gateway To Immersive Learning and the Metaverse!)

What Is The Metaverse?

Metaverse Myths, Facts, And L&D Benefits

In short, it’s a „shared, computer-generated world in which people socialize, work, and play“ [2]—and, yes, learn.

In other words, it’s „the internet, but also a spatial (and often 3D), [usually] game engine-driven collection of virtual environments.“ [3]

Ready to get more technical?

These virtual environments „can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an effectively unlimited number of users with an individual sense of presence.“ [4]

Though you might be most familiar with Metaverse (capital „M“) by the artists formerly known as Facebook, there are other metaverses (small „m“), including Fortnite, Roblox, Horizon, and even a few corporate metaverses. Going forward, I’ll use metaverse (small „m,“ singular) to refer to these immersive worlds in general.

A metaverse can use elements of augmented reality, virtual reality, or both. (See „The Immersion Continuum“ below.)

The Immersion Continuum: Augmented, Virtual, Extended, And Mixed Reality

Real reality (RR): Nope, that’s not a typo! RR is the non-digital world we experience directly, without smartphones or headsets.

Augmented reality (AR): A filter that displays digital objects in our real-life surroundings. AR experiences include Wayfair’s View Furniture in Room, Warby Parker’s Virtual Try-On, Instagram photo and video filters, and, of course, Pokemon Go. We often access AR experiences through our smartphones.

Mixed reality (MR): An experience that lays digital objects over our real-life surroundings and allows us to interact with them—through a headset that usually leaves our hands free. In MR, we can drop that new couch into our living room and layer new colors and textures onto our walls and floors. These same „covers“ can even turn furniture and fixtures into scenery for a 360° gaming experience.[5]

Virtual reality (VR): An immersive, 360° experience completely created with spatial audio and computer-generated imagery (CGI), 360° video footage, or still images. We access a VR space through a headset and perceive it instead of our real-life surroundings. We might interact with it hands-free or use controllers. (For safety, many headsets ask users to define a „playspace“!) The games Beat Saber, Eve, and Rec Room are examples of VR experiences, as are the meeting spaces Horizon Workrooms and SweetRush’s own TreeHouse.

Extended reality (XR): Any of the above, except for RR! The umbrella term XR covers every possible mixture of digital environments: AR, MR, and VR.

How Do I Get To The Metaverse?

There are a few ways in; you can get there through a:

VR headset
Smartphone
Desktop or laptop computer, using a keyboard and mouse to navigate

What Can I Do In The Metaverse?

Besides playing games, you can:

Work out
Meet up with friends and family
Attend a concert or other live event
Experience hard-to-reach environments all over the universe
Meet new people with common interests
Shop in a truly epic mall
Start a business
Make and sell art
Build and sell virtual real estate
Learn a new craft and skills
Meditate

The metaverse doesn’t have to be all play: A recent study by Microsoft found that more than 50% of workers of all generations are „open to using digital immersive spaces in the metaverse for meetings or team activities.“ [6]

Characteristics Of The Metaverse

Right about now, you’re probably wondering what it’s like to be in the metaverse. And though this digital space can be wild and wonderful, it offers a few characteristics you’ll recognize from everyday life.

Persistence: Objects stick around even when there’s no user to experience them.[7] That means that digital attractions are:

Mapped to a real-world space (like a public park) and
Still there after you leave

Synchronicity: Users can interact in real time, in unlimited numbers.

A fully functioning economy: Blockchain technology facilitates in-world purchases and sales of experiences, art, and even premium real estate.[8]

User-created content: Users can create digital art, experiences, buildings, and services—and earn real currency if they put these items on the market.

Continuity: You’re the same person from one day to the next, with the same digital possessions, accomplishments, and relationships. That means your party invites, impulse purchases, and the virtual mansion you built from scratch are indelible parts of your history.4 Bonus: Continuity creates good data that yield information that L&D folks can apply to assess progress toward business and learner needs.

Digital twins:

Your digital twin (also known as a digital self) isn’t a nefarious alter ego; it’s a consistent avatar that serves as a means of interacting with the environment and other users—and provides consistent in-world identity and presence.
Your organization’s digital twin is a consistent digital space that duplicates or enhances its physical presence.

Metaverse Myths

Myth: The term „metaverse“ applies to any online collaborative environment, including email and chat.

Fact: There are two absolute requirements for a metaverse:

A digital self, or digital twin, who represents the user and interacts with others (see above)
A live social component

It’s this digital self and „human-ness“ that qualify immersive environments like Fortnite and Roblox as metaverses. Chat and email alone can’t offer those qualities.

Myth: Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are the metaverse.

Fact: VR and AR can play an important role in a metaverse. I say „a“ metaverse because another misconception is that there is just one single metaverse; again, not true. There are, and can be, an infinite number of metaverses. In the end, one or a few will likely emerge as the most popular ones, but they won’t be the only ones.

Myth: The metaverse is just a new fad.

Fact: Not at all![9] Science fiction authors have been imagining metaverse-like digital environments since 1935, and innovators began developing proto-immersive digital experiences in the mid-1950s. Metaverse development has been rapidly accelerating since the 2010s, thanks to advances in technology and new immersive games and experiences.[10]

The Future Of L&D: Immersive Learning In The Metaverse

There’s no question that the metaverse is cool. But can this virtual venue help us learn?

In a word, yes! Here are just a few of the unique benefits of learning in the metaverse:

Transference: Learners are immersed in a digital twin of their actual work site. As complex situations unfold around them, they have only a split second to choose the right tool for the job. Whether those tools are cognitive, emotional, or mechanical—or a mix of all three—they think, act, and make decisions just as they would in their daily work.
Retention: Every L&D leader is familiar with the forgetting curve: the plummeting of skills and content recall with time. Solving complex problems in a digital twin of their work site helps learners develop the cognitive and muscle memory they need to retain their skills long term.
Minimal distractions: Whether your learners are remote, on-site, or hybrid, distractions are a fact of life—and a major obstacle to learning. Skilling in the metaverse and other immersive environments separates learners from their ordinary world, which helps them filter out distractions and concentrate on the content being presented.[11]

Joy: Unlike traditional eLearning or instructor-led learning experiences, immersive learning is built for—and upon—connection, gameplay, exploration, and storytelling. With ample space, resources, and opportunities, learners can literally follow their curiosity. It’s the ultimate „pull“ learning experience and a major win for employee engagement.[13]

Abundance: From limited editions to members-only events, we’ve all heard of manufacturing scarcity. Learning in XR helps us open access to hazardous, hard-to-reach, hard-to-replicate, or otherwise scarce experiences for more people.[14]

Immersive Learning: The Human-Centered Choice

At SweetRush, we believe that L&D leaders have the unique ability to offer learning and skilling solutions that help people elevate their craft and prepare for the future of work.[15]

When we offer immersive learning experiences, we empower learners to spend their limited time, attention, and energy meaningfully—and gain the skills and confidence that help them work productively and rewardingly.

We’re so glad you’re curious about how immersive learning can help you make an impact in your organization—and we’d love to share more!

That’s why we’ve created an L&D-exclusive journey through XR technology, needs analysis, and L&D use cases for immersive learning in the metaverse and beyond. Whether you’re just starting out or already an expert, our eBook, Ready, Learner One? The L&D Innovator’s Gateway To Immersive Learning and the Metaverse, will help you fuel conversations and advance your learning solutions for light-years to come.

References

A Short History Of The Metaverse
David J. Chalmers, Reality +: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2022).
Aaron D. Frank, „How to Explain the Metaverse to Your Grandparents,“ Medium, January 9, 2022.
Matthew Ball, „Framework for the Metaverse,“ The Metaverse Primer, MatthewBall.vc, June 29, 2021.
Google Has A New Favorite Phrase–Here’s What It Means
Great Expectations: Making Hybrid Work Work
Persistent AR Explained: Why It’s the Key to the Metaverse
Snoop Dogg is developing a Snoopverse, and someone just bought a property in his virtual world for almost $500,000
Current Trends In Learning And Development & Learning Experience Design
A Short History Of The Metaverse
Jacquelyn F. Morie, „The Promises and Challenges of Immersive Education,“ Handbook of Research on the Global Impacts and Roles of Immersive Media (Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2020), pp. 349–370
Workplace Distractions Statistics: Problems and Solutions in 2022
Be Our Guest: A Service Design Approach To Learner Experience
Azeem Azhar, „The Meaning of Life in the Metaverse (with David Chalmers). HBR Presents: Azeem’s Exponential View,“ Podcast audio, March 23, 2022.
It’s All About Your People! Embracing Human-Centered Business, Workplace Culture, And Learning Design

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Foto: Manuel Hidalgo/SweetRush

https://elearningindustry.com/the-metaverse-just-a-fad-or-the-future-of-ld

16. September 2022 0 comment

Examples

XR Can Tackle COVID-19 Work Crisis, XRA Finds

A leading organisation conducted research on the global workforce crisis to explore the potential of XR

The XR Association, a Washington, DC-based trade association representing the extended reality (XR) industry, released last week a new survey on the growing trends in human resources (HR) and learning.

The survey was conducted by the Martec Group and is the organisation’s second annual report, which explores views from HR workers on XR technologies across numerous sectors.

The news comes as workers reflect on career goals and employers face spiking workforce turnovers amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, sparking a crisis in employment figures across the nation.

Facts and Figures about XR, HR

According to research from the XRA, HR professionals prioritised training and upskilling, finding and securing high-quality talent, and boosting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) training at 46 percent, 42 percent, and 35 percent, respectively.

92 percent of 250 HR workers also overwhelmingly responded XR was a viable pandemic recovery tool, the survey reported.

Despite 81 percent of HR teams using XR to boost learning outcomes, just 41 percent saw it as an effective tool for DE&I training.

It added 48 percent of HR professionals responded XR technologies led to higher training and development outcomes, 46 percent said XR could boost working efficacy and save time, and 45 percent saw XR as a tool to expand distance learning.

Additional figures revealed transport and construction industries led in the adoption of XR technologies, with 92 percent and 91 percent adoption rates, respectively.

Public safety, manufacturing, energy, and healthcare followed in adoption rates at 88 percent, 79 percent, 70 percent, and 70 percent, respectively, the findings concluded.

The XRA also cited a 2020 McKinsey report, which revealed organisations with more diverse ethnic workforces were 36 percent more likely to boost profits than rival firms.

According to the World Economic Forum, firms with diverse employees received up to a “20 [percent] higher rate of innovation and 19 [percent] higher innovation revenues.

Statements on XR’s Potential for US Workforces

Elizabeth Hyman, Chief Executive of the XR Association, said in a statement the COVID-19 pandemic had fuelled digital transformation and automation across industries, which increased talent shortages and forced HR departments to seek “new ways to train and develop talent”.

She added,

“The XR technologies currently being deployed for workforce training are proving to be a game-changer”

Such tools allowed organisations to upskill workforces, prepare job candidates “on day one,” and reach higher learning outcomes to tackle the ongoing employment crisis in the US, she said.

Hyman added despite the “dynamic and impactful nature” of immersive learning, the emerging technology should be included as a tool for backing DE&I programmes to close skill gaps and allow HR teams to “look beyond recruiting for exact exptertise, opening up larger, more diverse pools of talent.”

The XRA Chief concluded,

“XR learning opportunities for new hires and long-term employees can be tailored to individualized needs, which are at the heart of workplace equity programs”

The news comes after the XRA hosted its Limitless Future Conference 2021, an inaugural event covering innovations in DE&I, innovations, and use cases for XR technologies across the industry.

Speakers at the groundbreaking event included Chike Aguh, Chief Innovation Officer at the United States Department of Labor, Cornelius Dowdell, Chapter President for the Association of Talent Development’s Greater Atlanta Chapter and Senior Talent Development Strategist, Marc Metis, Vice President, Enterprise Software and Global Head of Vive X, Kristina Francis, Executive Director for JFFLabs, Daniel Guenther, Managing Director of Accenture Extended Reality (XR), and numerous others.

Quelle:

XR Can Tackle COVID-19 Work Crisis, XRA Finds

28. Februar 2022 0 comment

Knowledge Research

Technology Virtual reality and augmented reality: overhyped or new industry standard?

For L&D professionals relying on hands-on skills, virtual reality and augmented reality could be invaluable training tools.

When you hear the words “virtual reality,” do you feel like you’re in a sci-fi film? I always envision the holograms from Star Trek. Except VR isn’t science fiction anymore. You can already enjoy a wide variety of immersive experiences from the comfort of your couch.

But do you? Most of us don’t use VR in our homes. So why would we use VR or it’s little cousin, augmented reality, in our training?

I posit that learning and development professionals should consider AR and VR training because they can be incredibly effective. In fact, I predict that this technology will eventually become as ubiquitous in training as video.

How Can VR Change the Training Industry?

Let’s take a look at how VR will affect the 70:20:10 model of learning. We know that classroom and e-learning modules only account for 10 percent of learning. Seventy percent of learning comes from tackling real-world tasks and problems. The other 20 percent comes from social learning via observation of others and feedback.
But what if learners could receive on-the-job experiences without actually being on the job? VR promises to do just that via a simulated environment.

Within the simulated environment, the learner must make on-the-spot decisions and respond to real-time stimuli. For example, learners in law enforcement will feel their hearts pound and their palms sweat during simulated live shooter scenarios. Your employees will stress over making the best possible decisions for your business by de-escalating angry customers or having difficult employee conversations. Even though it looks like a video game, it isn’t. It’s not about saving the world anymore, it’s about saving you money with the best trained talent. No other training medium can invoke authentic emotional responses like VR.

Is AR Just As Effective As VR?

Many of us have already experienced a primitive form of AR through Alexa or Google Home. Voice-activated tools augment our daily conversations by making the internet a conversation partner.

But AR is much more than voice commands. It can also superimpose virtual images onto the physical world. This augmented experience allows people to make different decisions. If we include chatbots, AR could provide a unique learning experience guided by a computer. It would be GPS navigation for learners.

Unlike VR, AR has already begun to change the daily practice of some professions. The FDA approved Opensight, a Microsoft AR-enhanced medical imaging product, which allows clinicians to overlay scans onto the patient and interact with the data in 3D. Similarly, Tradiebot developed an AR app for car mechanics that overlays the repair steps onto the physical car, then guides the mechanic through the repair. These innovations represent game-changing performance supports for certain professions.

Is the L&D Industry Adopting AR/VR Technology Right Now?

The 2019 Training Industry Report surveyed 240 U.S.-based education and training organizations. Here’s what they discovered about American AR/VR adoption:

15 percent of all organizations plan to invest in AR/VR technology.
1.6 percent of training is delivered with AR.
1.9 percent of training is delivered with VR.
23 percent of large companies use VR, and 11 percent use AR.
Less than 5 percent of small or mid-sized companies use VR, AR or AI.

As a whole, the industry is not seeing a rapid adoption of VR or AR. One widely used technological adoption model by sociologist Everett M. Roger suggests 5 phases of adoption: Innovators (2.5 percent), early adopters (13.5 percent), early majority (34 percent), late majority (34 percent) and laggards (16 percent). Currently, only innovators are using VR/AR.

However, if we only look at large companies, then the adoption picture changes. They appear to be entering the early adoption phase with 23 percent of them using the new technology. As the cost of AR/VR continues to fall, I predict more companies will adopt it.

Where does VR training give business the biggest boost?

Virtual reality training comes out of the educational method called “simulated training.” The aviation industry began using simulated training as early as 1929. They’ve continued to use simulated pilot training because the cost of fueling an airplane is still greater than the cost of an expensive simulation.

Like the aviation industry, educational institutions have been quick to adopt VR. Many schools and colleges cannot afford expensive laboratories. Virtual science labs provide a way for students to gain valuable laboratory experience without investing in high-tech lab equipment or materials.

For some industries, simulations allow employees to experience dangerous situations without actually endangering them. Construction workers can make dangerous errors in a virtual environment. Similarly, law enforcement officers can de-escalate life-threatening situations or react to emergencies virtually. Unlike a textbook, the simulated experience forces trainees to grapple with their own fears and emotional responses. Then, they won’t be panicking in a real-life emergency.

VR also represents an opportunity to quickly train medical professionals on new instruments or complex, new procedures. They can practice first using virtual instruments before performing the procedure on a live patient. Today, up to 30 percent of general surgeons are not yet ready to work independently at the end of their residency. VR training might help fill the gap for new surgeons.

Finally, large companies have begun to use VR for less dangerous, expensive or life-threatening skills. However, these skills still benefit from life experience. Walmart has created a VR Black Friday simulator to prepare their retail employees for the shopping holiday. Other companies have started to use VR to onboard employees by allowing them to experience their first day via VR before actually starting their job roles to reduce anxiety. Some of these skills, such as soft skills training, can be bought ready-made off the shelf.

Truly, the sky is probably the limit for the applicability of simulated training. That’s why I’m betting VR will eventually be a standard part of training like videos are today.

How do companies use AR now?

AR, unlike VR, requires the real world. AR simply enhances the real world experience.

The best example of AR in action are performance supports or job aids. Traditionally, when employees seldom used a process they would look at a laminated job aid. Today, with search navigation, we look it up. AR would take our walkthrough videos one step further by providing voice instructions and a virtual overlay to help guide us through the process.

What about processes employees do constantly? Can AR also improve them?

Research from the WHO on safe surgeries suggests using checklists improves surgical safety. AR could help perform safety checks in a variety of industries, such as general maintenance checks for machinery or safety awareness in warehouses.

AR also promises to engage learners during traditional coursework. Like Alexa or Google Home, learners could access more information to support personalized learning. They could also receive instant feedback by turning AR on to check their work. This feature could provide automated, scalable feedback to hands-on professionals in construction or manufacturing where assessing hands-on projects without expending a large number of resources presents a huge challenge. Voice-enabled AR could also lead learners through a process, even something as simple as onboarding.

Ultimately, this technology promises to improve the user-experience.

What do we need going forward for widespread AR/VR adoption?

Currently, AR/VR training tools need to be custom built by a firm or bought off the shelf. To be truly effective, companies need content authoring tools. Right now, instructional designers use tools like Articulate Storyline and Adobe Captivate. In the future, they’ll need tools for AR/VR.

Virtual and augmented reality have not seen wide public buy-in. VR headsets and AR glasses remain toys. Wider public adoption will facilitate wider adoption in the training industry, too.

From a design perspective, the headsets may also need to become more comfortable so workers like doctors or mechanics can use them for hours at a time. Prices for VR headsets and AR glasses also remain high.

Since only 1 percent of small-medium size businesses invest in VR training today, I expect we’ll see greater investment by these companies when prices drop. Given the return on investment for VR training, Josh Bersin suggests businesses focus first on the skills and competencies driving their core business. When trying to determine business-critical operations, I suggest small-midsize businesses think about where they stand to lose money. For example, manufacturing or construction companies lose money when employee errors create product defects. VR training on how to make those products could create substantial gains. Similarly, closing more sales would generate more revenue so it makes sense to invest in VR training for your sales team.

Should you invest soon?

Like most learning technology the answer is: “It depends.” Technology never offers a silver bullet. It’s a tool for your L&D team.

Invest in technology that will help your workforce perform business critical tasks more effectively. For professionals relying on hands-on skills, VR\AR could be an invaluable training tool.

Questions to ask before investing:

What happens if you don’t? Will you lose a competitive advantage because you didn’t?
Will this technology stop major losses for your business?
Could you wait for the cost to come down?
Can you buy it off the shelf or does it need to be custom designed?
Could it be a game-changing job aid for your employees or will they hate it?
Do you have the capital to invest in VR headsets or AR glasses?

As always, you know your business best. Invest in technologies that will create behavior change for your workforce in the near future. As for VR/AR, eventually it’ll either go mainstream making the decision less difficult or it’ll fade into the night like other technologies making it pointless to implement. I’m crossing my fingers I’ll have an AR eyepiece in the next few years.

Quelle:

Virtual reality and augmented reality: overhyped or new industry standard?

8. Juni 2020 0 comment

Examples

Why L&D Professionals Should Turn to Augmented Reality as Offices Work From Home

With the global pandemic, learning and development professionals have a unique opportunity to use AR to upskill workers.

The key question facing L&D professionals globally is how to effectively train their workers remotely during a pandemic. Whilst circumstances may have changed, their goals remain the same. L&D professionals still need to make sure that their workers’ skills are kept up to date, and whilst workers can’t attend a physical classroom, there are still skills that need to be learned.

Such dramatic changes in the working landscape call for adaptation and the use of new tools to deliver innovative and powerful experiences to help workers improve their skills. Augmented reality is uniquely positioned to deliver such experiences. It has the potential to be deployed across mobile devices meaning that teams can develop new ways to train their employees, in a cost-effective and direct way.

Here are four ways augmented reality can help L&D professionals in the current climate:

1. Provable Return on Investment (ROI)

ROI is a key indicator of success for any project. Measuring the success rate of a learning and development project isn’t always an easy task, as it requires measuring how successful an initiative was at teaching people. This also becomes more challenging when people work remotely, as the impact gets harder to track.

AR provides an engaging and memorable way to deliver information, which leads to a longer-term impact and therefore more valuable training. The more memorable the teaching method, the fewer times it will need to be repeated, and therefore the less money will need to be spent. Not only this but augmented reality can also be very cost-effective to produce, in many cases only needing a printed code to open the door to 360 walkthroughs, games, and tests. The type of experiences created, e.g. games, lend themselves to tracking and testing which is a great way to track the progress and their value of the scheme remotely.

These benefits can be shown to management, indicating the success of a project. No matter where anyone is based, the success would be traced back to the L&D team to assess its ROI.

2. Deliver Real-Time Data

Many augmented reality content creation tools provide real-time data on how the AR experience is used and when giving L&D professionals insight into how workers are engaging with the materials. These capabilities become invaluable as professionals track how they are working at home.

L&D professionals can track stats, from the number of times people repeat a task, to how long they sit reading a specific page. As they happen in real-time, teams can get an instant insight into the success of their work, which in turn feeds into their learning plan.

3. Provide Actionable Analytics

This data can then be used to provide actionable analytics. If one team member completes one task, but not another. Why is that? The pain points can be identified within the process, then tackled immediately to improve it going forward.

As an example, if the data indicates workers are spending more time on one particular training material, seen via an increased dwell time, then this may mean more resources are needed on that particular topic, or that the materials that exist are not fulfilling the workers’ needs.

4. Predict Workforce Trends

Using the data collected and analyzed appropriately, augmented reality can also be used to predict workforce trends. Once identified, further AR experiences can be developed to meet these needs, providing other impactful experiences that drive their skills further. Practitioners can access the information and use it to improve their work.

The current global situation is forcing companies to innovate on how they deliver learning solutions. In turn, L&D professionals have the opportunity to use new technologies to deliver their training in engaging ways.

With more people working remotely, augmented reality can be used to update old procedures, breathe new life into their existing programs, and ultimately deliver on their goals. Situations like this call for adaptation, and AR is the tool for the job.

Quelle:

Why L&D Professionals Should Turn to Augmented Reality as Offices Work From Home

21. Mai 2020 0 comment