There is much discussion and hype around virtual reality and whether it offers an engaging and immersive experience for learning and development, but just how much of the hype around it is founded? Is there a danger that corporate learning and development will miss this most impactful transformation of learning technologies?

How New is Virtual Reality?

Virtual reality is not new, the technology goes back as far as the late 1980’s/early 1990’s, as this clip from the popular UK stand-up comedy series “The Mary Whitehouse Experience” shows – https://youtu.be/rrHN9f0zjLQ. (NB – I need to cut the clip from this episode that is relevant to virtual reality, we will not use the whole thing). Headsets have been around for many years, but it is only recently that it has matured enough to become a proven mainstream technology.

In the past virtual reality was plagued with issues such as latency and the headsets often had less than perfect performance, and it was not difficult to see why virtual reality did not take off in a learning and development environment. However, organizations today such as Microsoft, Samsung, Sony and Facebook have all launched headset products that promise a problem-free and accessible virtual reality platform.

Despite this, many CLO’s have been cautious about adopting virtual reality technologies believing that it would be a hard sell to the decision makers within their organization. While this was once true, it is now an outdated view as the hardware that drives virtual reality works and not only that, it works well. A competitive market among vendors of virtual reality hardware will eventually lower prices while increasing innovation in the technology.

Where is Virtual Reality Entering the Mainstream Within Learning and Development?

An area where virtual reality is booming is in Elearning, as many developers are now skilled in building virtual reality learning materials that are very impressive compared to how they used to be. Studies into the effectiveness of virtual reality as a learning platform have been conducted since 1998, and it was found that learning in a virtual reality environment greatly increases engagement and learning retention rates. While a simulation is only a small representation of real life, virtual reality offers features that can enhance the real-life learning experience. A virtual reality simulation can offer relevant and authentic learning scenarios and make use of a pressurized situation that can tap user’s emotions and ensure that they act. This clip from Star Trek shows how virtual reality could be taken to its extreme in the future – https://youtu.be/m6tWmSckE40. While fictional, this clip of the “Kobayashi Maru” maneuver is a great depiction of how learning could develop using this technology.

The use of virtual reality for learning and development within business is expected to go mainstream, with numerous applications across a wide variety of industry sectors. It is also expected to become mainstream for video gaming, and its usage will infiltrate a huge amount of interactions from product design, sales, entertainment and marketing, as well as skills, training and leisure pursuits. It is predicted that virtual reality together with augmented reality will overhaul television by 2025.

What will this mean for learning and development and virtual reality?
Video games will no doubt play a huge role in the development of virtual reality in learning and development with companies such as Sony and Facebook driving this market forward. Other vendors may seek to address different segments of the virtual reality learning and development market, for example, there may be learning games built for use in virtual reality environments.

Several Elearning companies have built huge libraries of virtual reality courses to show the potential of the technology in areas such as fire safety, mobile phone mast maintenance (not for the faint hearted or those who suffer from issues with vertigo) and courses on improving presentation skills and public speaking in business.

The Uses of Virtual Reality in Learning and Development for Businesses

There are many areas in businesses and organisations where virtual reality may emerge within the learning and development and skills development space. Virtual reality can add a reality beyond video and turn a passive learning experience into a fully immersive and active one, with numerous studies finding that the more active and immersive the learning experience is, the quicker the learner will absorb the material they are learning.

However, compliance in virtual reality is still a major issue for Elearning and it is possible that a premium compliance sector may emerge for critical tasks in high risk environments, especially where evidence of learning is required beyond just an end of course online assessment.

There is also a huge potential for virtual reality to enhance the personal development training market, although it has been the hardest market for the Elearning industry to crack so far. However, it is double in size to the compliance market, and virtual reality is very much suited to it. The virtual reality experience is compelling in delivering real and immediate feedback that is highly relevant and will be of huge benefit to the learner. Selling skills is vital as it is common within many organizations that sales teams will enjoy large training budgets with the impact of training being measured and learning analytics integrations between the LMS/LRS and CRM quickly emerging to fully leverage the full potential of virtual reality-based learning.

Learning and Development With Virtual Reality in the Healthcare Industry

Using simulations in the healthcare industry is not new, and typically has involved simulation suites and mannequins in purpose build facilities which lead to capacity, scheduling and locational issues. Virtual reality can sole many of these problems. Other high-risk activities are obvious settings for engaging learning through virtual reality, where each procedure or process can be analyzed and evaluated, and individuals equipped for things that may not be often experienced. Virtual reality may not replace more traditional forms of Elearning in medicine and healthcare, but it will play a growing role.

Driving The Market For Technology Enhanced Learning

Virtual reality is a driver in the market for technology enhanced learning in softer skills, and high quality bespoke virtual reality developments for mission critical learning look set to emerge. Projects could well be quite sizeable with medical simulated virtual reality learning and defense related simulations already in use.
Virtual reality represents up to one third of the value of the present Elearning market, as much as $270 – $320 million if the capacity for their development can meet demand by 2025.

Conclusion

Although virtual reality is not new or experimental, it is now entering the mainstream and transitioning to being a leading learning genre for many organizations and industries with the main ones being in coaching, soft skills and premium compliance as well as high-end mission critical training in medicine, healthcare and defense.

Virtual reality for learning and development has been ten years in the making, and has now become a stable technology. There has never been a better time to factor this technology in your learning and development strategy within your organization.

To Book and to Find out More

Virtual Reality will be one of the key topics during our Chief Learning Officer conference from May 15 to 17 2018. To find out more and to book please visit https://coriniumintelligence.com/chieflearningofficerusa/