By: Michelle Lange
Virtual reality (VR) has the potential to change the trajectory of learning, and also brings up some logistical questions:
Carlos Ewing, CompTIA Future of Learning Think Tank member and expert in education design, is watching technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) change training and learning.
In the corporate environment, he says people are over learning on drag and drop slides. In younger people — like the kids he teaches technology to — he’s seeing a loss of interest in standard teaching methods.
“We're past that era of learning, in my opinion,” Ewing said.
Whether it’s kids in school or workers in mandatory training, people want immersive lessons, and technologies like augmented reality (AR) and VR can offer that – at a price.
There’s one hurdle bigger than visually induced motion sickness: The infrastructure is expensive. Even at a large company, the CFO is going to raise an eyebrow at the cost. Will the investment pay off?
Let’s take a look at an airline example. One airline used VR to identify five areas to look for damage on an aircraft or something on the ground by using gamified training to engage learners.
“They had people sitting inside looking out at the ramp workers working,” said Ewing, who worked as an instructional designer for Disney, designed Navy and Air Force simulations and even wrote a book, “From High School to Careers,” to help students navigate their educational and professional careers in technology. Throughout he’s been an advocate of AR and VR in education, learning and training.
During the airline simulation, there was a noticeable increase in the skill set of participants after just two sessions. Due to those results, the airline is investing in ways to enhance the training system, like adding virtual rain to the simulation, Ewing said. An expert in instructional systems and workforce development, Ewing studied the project with interest and found the content was helpful even for people who had been doing the job for years.
“This is required training that people do year after year,” he said. “Someone who had been doing this for 30 years learned something new when they did this in VR.”
VR can even be used in micro-trainings for one-off events like Black Friday, things you can’t recreate in training. Healthcare workers are learning realistic scenarios with contagious patients using mixed-reality and augmented technology.
“I love technology. I love the next big thing. I've always been trying to push this VR type of technology and training at every job. I always mention it,” Ewing said.
VR can also be used for collaborative training to engage remote and in-person teams. It offers the dual benefit of not only learning new skills, but also talking about what was learned in person. It’s a shared training situation.
CompTIA’s Future of Learning Think Tank has heard from many experts on the ways emerging technology is changing the landscape of training, education and hiring. For more on how emerging technology is being used in learning, read more from CompTIA’s Future of Learning Think Tank member Catherine Curtis.
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