Potential customers often think that VR training is more expensive and less effective than a computer.
To dispel the doubts, check out the main educational formats on the market:
- behavioral simulation;
- interactive simulation;
- educational game;
- virtual seminar;
- video lecture;
- educational animation;
- visual instruction.
Let’s take a closer look at each of the listed points.
Behavioral Simulation
In this format, the user practices the rules of conduct in specific places and situations. There are three options of varying accuracy and freedom of action: simulation of a working situation, VR-sandbox, and digital double.
Simulation of The Working Situation
This format of virtual reality involves a linear scenario and practicing a specific action. For example, Deutsche Bahn created a simulation of an electrician’s perspective on a train. It is used to attract staff and for primary education. Simulation allows them to learn without the use of real equipment. This is convenient for entry-level training specialists and practicing emergency actions. An additional advantage is the ability to analyze hidden execution parameters.
Educational Sandbox
This is virtual reality, where nonlinear interaction with most surrounding objects is available. This VR format is used for practice and experimentation purposes.
Medical education is the most popular example of such sandbox practice. It allows carrying out standard experiments or randomly mixing substances to make sure of the adverse effects in any given situation without harm to health. EON VR Labs is one of the popular variants.
Chemical Laboratory EON VR Labs
Digital Double
A digital double is an exact copy of a production site or individual equipment in virtual reality. The structure, indicators on devices, and other details correspond to the real ones and change in real-time.
The digital double in virtual reality is the computer extension often used for calculations. The visualization provides opportunities for a holistic vision of processes and their connection with individual work operations.
It is very expensive to create such a project, so it is technologically and economically justified in the conditions of hazardous production processes that require high accuracy. For other purposes, it would be cost-effective to use more simplified models.
Interactive Simulation
Interactive simulators of communication skills are somewhat different from the behavioral. A user learns about the created case and then tries to have a productive conversation with the virtual person.
It can be an ordinary everyday conversation in case of learning a foreign language. You can easily find it in the MondlyVR application.
Mondly VR Promo
This virtual reality format is suitable for practicing conversational techniques – nonviolent communication exercises, statements about feelings, pedagogical research-conversation, etc.
The conversation is aimed at practicing corporate skills such as:
- negotiating with a supplier;
- retail;
- product presentation;
- employee feedback.
Mondly VR created an “employee feedback” interactive simulation for Sberbank Corporate University. In the process of communication, a user discusses existing errors in the work and ways to solve them with a virtual interlocutor. The training focuses on testing the application of the “Fact – Consequences – Behavior in the Future” methodology during a conversation.
Interactive employee feedback simulation
The main advantage of this VR format is the possibility of a natural dialogue: a user speaks out loud, the bot responds.
Educational Game
Educational use of virtual reality provides ample opportunities for remembering and learning skills that usually require a lot of routine repeating.
For example, Luden.io developed a game about the structure and functionality of a brain — InMind 2, it shows neurons and the signal transmissions between them. The game clearly explains the anatomy and cognitive sciences at the level accessible to a student.
The team at Kaspersky Lab developed a small smartphone game called Virus Hunters. Its purpose is not to teach anything specific, but to point to the fact that the phone is as much of a computer and requires a certain level of protection against viruses.
This format can be used in corporate training for the development of meta-competencies. Many require creativity, teamwork, analytical and conflict resolution skills. These abilities can be practiced far from working scenarios.
Games with meta-competency testing can be used for selecting candidates and their further assessment. In such cases, it is possible to design a game that doesn’t give an employee any hints as to what they are being checked for, and therefore it is difficult to cheat.
Educational games are taking quite a lot time and effort to develop, so they are economically viable only for teaching universal and sustained competencies.
Small games with learning elements are a marketing tool as well as a means for the initial selection of candidates.
Virtual Seminar
This is an umbrella name for a group of formats designed for co-education in the virtual space. The peculiarity of these methods is not only in the ability to gather people from different places online but also in the use of additional tools for moderation and analysis of the joint discussion.
The most basic virtual reality format is a seminar in a virtual room. It can be an office, a place for a future joint meeting or some fantasy space. Participants see virtual subjects of study, such as a device model or speaker’s presentation.
Such VR workshops were among the first to appear in AltspaceVR. The presentation is uploaded to a virtual screen, and the participants discuss the topic together or listen to the speaker. Workshops for women startup founders are still held there.
Recently, this platform has, unfortunately, almost stopped developing. But the virtual reality market is rich on options, for example — vTime, Bigscreen, and Doghead Simulations’ rumii, etc.
Video Lecture
The 360 video format allows users to cover more visual space and gives freedom to a viewer. While the similar video lecture from MOOC shows a lecturer with his presentation, the 360 format allows capturing more space and details from all sides. It includes a lecture tour, demonstration and separate visualizations. Unlike other kinds of VR training in the video lecture format, the accent here is made on the personality of an author and his way of communicating to the listener.
One of the most popular computer science MOOC at Harvard was launched in 360 lecture format.
A more advanced option is a lecture tour. Along with the passive listening, it includes an independent examination of the environment, for example, from different sides of the building. A saturated panorama with the participation of a virtual lecturer makes the presentation efficient for different audiences.
Educational Animation
An animated video that demonstrates the structure and dynamics of the phenomenon and allows for visualising abstract entities or processes that are difficult to perceive due to their inconvenient size or the need for additional equipment for demonstration.
This is a non-interactive format with a well-written script and dynamic animation, it can clearly explain the nature of a certain phenomenon.
VR physics lessons are among the spotlight projects in the dynamic infographic format. It incorporates an experiment that schoolchildren usually watch, as well as electron motion models.
Virtual Instruction
A 360 video with overlay infographics about a device and its features. Unlike a virtual lecture, the focus here is not on the teacher, but on informative highlightings and tips on objects during the presentation. Separate headings and dimensional specifications are available.
You can highlight specific objects or details in the environment, as shown in this video.
Such a training method is convenient when a distanced showcase of an arrangement is needed, whether it be another country or a remote production site. A more advanced option would be to explain the operation of complex expensive equipment that not all organizations have at their disposal or it is too expensive to transport it on the leaning grounds.
The combination of different formats provides various multi-component simulation and course options. There is one more format that is gaining in popularity — network simulation combining the formats of a virtual seminar and working simulation. This allows for developing of the teamwork skills in regular and emergency situations, which is especially important in manufacturing.
Our team offers all of the training formats available on the market. We are virtual reality professionals with many years of experience and numerous satisfied customers. Our work is based on mutual understanding with our clients. All you need is to give us a gist of the task. We will develop the best option for a corporate training program for your company, within the approved budget.
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