Learning leaders know VR creates immersive learning experiences that drive business results. But how can they get started? And how can they integrate VR with their current technologies?
A little-known fund manager called ARK Invest has made a big bet on virtual reality. That is, they were little known until their innovation-focused ETF scored 107% returns last year. Why does that matter for chief learning officers (CLOs)? Well, because ARK’s research in the latest Big Ideas Report 2021Opens a new window indicates that cost reductions in AR and VR technology will scale the industry to a mass audience, achieving a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 59% over the next five years, growing the market from $3 billion to $28 billion by 2025.
That means the time to get into VR was yesterday. But how can VR really help learning leaders and their people? The recipe for success is experimentation coupled with integration.
The difficulty I see with VR adoption for learning leaders is that they’re not sure how to use and integrate the technology for real into the learning environment they have already established in their organizations.
Despite huge growth for VR in the coming years, learning leaders find that virtual classrooms have some of the lowest customer satisfaction ratings, according to research from Fosway Group last year. Yet the same research suggests that nearly 80% of those leaders believe an Opens a new window integratedOpens a new window ecosystem will be the most influentialOpens a new window in managing the organization’s learning experience.
So, how do you stitch all these systems together to create a holistic learning experience for your people? And perhaps more importantly, how do you drive business results and make a meaningful impact?
VR is the way.
Experiment and Integrate
Let’s say you’re the head of learning for a 10,000-person company, and you believe the future of learning is through VR and other immersive learning technologies. However, you likely already have a sophisticated learning tech stack, from the enterprise LMS to the communications and governance processes that support it, from the C-suite to frontline managers.
That tech stack shouldn’t get ripped and replaced with the latest and greatest — you need to think about the entire ecosystem in which you’re implementing cutting-edge technology. Instead, I advise learning leaders to start small around specific use cases, figure out what you need to build, and then work your way through those needs in concentric circles, starting with the most urgent. After learning and experimenting, then you can start to consider how and where to integrate the VR experiences into your learning tech stack.
For example, a statewide CareerTech sought to enhance their learning systems using VR. We began with one department and one use case — their meat processing program. Meat processing is critical to the nation’s food supply, focusing on safety for workers and food. CareerTech wanted to create a training program, using 360º immersive tours and VR training, for helping students better understand its processes, workflows, and equipment. After that successful implementation, CareerTech officials could more easily imagine how to use VR and content services across its many departments and technologies, such as aerospace and law enforcement education.
Other examples include police departments using VR to train their new recruits on decision- making skills in tense situations, whether to intervene, and how to interact with civilians and fellow officers to de-escalate situations. Another VR firm creates content for children with cerebral palsy: Because their physical training exercises are painful, children struggle with motivation to get through them. Yet by gamifying their exercises with flying spaceships and NBA shootouts, they’re able to have fun while improving their bodies.
These are just a few of the ways I’ve seen VR technology make the world a better place in real, practical ways right now, today. Following initiatives like these, learning leaders can then build out supporting content and integrate it, repeatedly.
Learn More: VR Learning Can Lead to Smarter and Faster Workforce Transformation: Q&A With PwC’s Emerging Tech Leader
Create Quality Content Quickly
Use cases like the above sound great, but many leaders I talk to struggle with creating content to facilitate them. Where do you even start? One framework helps with those decisions: RIDE.
The RIDE framework stands for Rare, Impossible, Dangerous, and Expensive training applications. Think of police departments needing to experience real-world situations that are rare or dangerous. Mistakes in that environment are expensive, even deadly. Or think of Walmart training its associates for skills in empathy, giving them an opportunity to step into their customers’ shoes: This is almost impossible without actually recreating that experience with their eyes and ears.
By focusing on the RIDE elements of your training program, you can get a jump-start on the most important applications for VR to fit into your tech stack and the broader organization.
I’ve written many times elsewhere that the speed of content creation is absolutely critical for learning leaders in our current business environment. The days of taking months to build programs or even a single course are over. Change is accelerating, and the half-life of skills is decreasing every year, meaning your people need to learn new things quickly when they need them.
The same applies to VR-enhanced content. However, I find that many CLOs are overwhelmed at the thought of creating VR content, both the quality and quantity demanded. To be sure, there are more components in a VR-enhanced program than a traditional lecture-based approach, but it’s not as difficult as many believe. The key is to dive in and start the learning process.
Learn More: Using Virtual Reality To Improve Training Processes
Long-Term Benefits Outweigh the Costs
Yes, VR technology and content can be expensive investments for enhancing your learning initiatives. However, the research from ARK Invest mentioned above argues that following a model called Wright’s Law will greatly reduce these costs in a few short years, leading to widespread adoption. Wright’s Law states that for every cumulative doubling of units produced, costs will fall by a constant percentage. This function has held true for 60 technologies over the last 100 years. In other words, early adopters will see outsized benefits in the medium and long term.
Additionally, evidence in education, as one example, suggests that VR creates more engaging learning experiences and reduced time to competency. At Lockheed Martin, technicians reduced their spacecraft drawing interpretation time by 99% and build times by 35% to 50%. VR also creates better retention and focus, reduced risk and cost, all while creating a safe, asynchronous learning environment for hard-to-teach tasks.
These cost reductions confirm research from PwC that estimated VR and AR’s impact on the global economy by 2030: a $1.5 trillion boost for business and societyOpens a new window .
Virtual and augmented reality is the future of learning, helping us all dare to dream a better reality. Put simply, it’s here, it’s here to stay, and those who get on board will reap the benefits.