Designing Effective Learning for Interesting Times

It’s no secret that our world is in flux—in fact, “flux” is a bit of a euphemism. 

The convergence of geopolitical, economic, social, health, and climate emergencies makes for a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) global environment, also known as a polycrisis. Polycrisis occurs when numerous “shocks, deeply interconnected risks and eroding resilience” add up to an impact exponentially greater than that of any single factor alone. 

No wonder so many of us are feeling a “pervasive sense of unease and uncertainty.” 

We face an additional layer of uncertainty at our workplaces in the form of rapidly evolving technology, procedures, and client expectations. (Exhibit A: The impact AI has had in the span of a few months). 

As much as we L&D folks value professional growth, it can be overwhelming to consider how much we need to learn and adapt just to keep current…and we’ve got to do it all while building solutions that help learners do the same. 

Antidotes to Unease: Agility, Adaptability, and Resilience

Learning the ins and outs of any one technology isn’t the answer: L&D leaders need a change-friendly mindset and nuanced skills to help us identify “patterns among the noise” and “look at the world through multiple stakeholder perspectives.” 

L&D professionals recognize this need, citing agility and adaptability as the No. 1 skills in demand at their organizations in 2022 and 2023. 

Adaptability and agility are vital to learning teams and the learner audiences they serve…and they have a prerequisite: resilience. This ability to detach from reactivity and switch on the higher-order thinking we need to navigate our VUCA workplaces and world. And we need to cultivate it before we even think about adding role-specific skills and knowledge to our own to-do lists…or those of our learners.  

But here’s the conundrum: During VUCA times, when humans are most in need of new ideas, mindsets, and competencies, we’re least able to take them in.

How can we help our learners (and ourselves) grow as people and acquire needed skills and knowledge, when uncertainty takes such a high cognitive toll?

Friends, we need to go vertical. 

Going Vertical: Growing Resilience 

It’s no secret that the stress of a VUCA environment decreases our capacity to take in new skills, knowledge, and methods. This type of learning, known as horizontal development, is the type of professional development offered by most workplace learning solutions. 

In contrast, vertical development helps us cultivate the personal adaptability, agility, and resilience that expand our minds and create the space to accommodate those new skills, knowledge, and methods. 

Vertical development expert Nick Petrie describes the relationship between vertical and horizontal development as akin to a cup and water: Whereas horizontal development fills our “cup” with more concepts, techniques, and skills, vertical development enlarges the capacity of the cup. 

We grow our cups, or develop vertically, over the course of encountering, navigating, and reflecting upon a wide range of life experiences—an open-ended process that requires time and perspective. 

Yet learners need future-ready skills…yesterday. Here’s how to grow their capacity without overfilling their cups. 

Virtual Reality: Experience and Perspective, from Concentrate

What if we could speed up the learning process by distilling life’s most teachable moments and allowing learners to go back and replay?

That may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but plenty of L&D leaders are doing just that…with virtual reality (VR).

Learning in VR provides learners with the rich experiences, practice, and reflection that contribute to vertical development—with zero “noise” from irrelevant information. And when delivered via a headset with hand controls, VR experiences help learners shut out the pings, tasks, news alerts, and other distractions that shrink their “cup.” 

In VR, learners can be transported into a digital twin of their workspace, an emergency situation, a fraught interaction, or an impossible scenario—and the 360-degree environment gives them the illusion of “being there,” or a sense of presence. Because it’s more like our 3D physical world than a 2D screen, VR learning content also helps to boost learning transfer. 

The (VUCA) reality is that the skills learners need most are the ones that they (and their organizations) can least afford to get wrong. Yet learning requires practice, trial, and error. 

L&D teams, too, are under pressure to find ways to upskill learners faster and better, without risks to safety, property, or relationships. VR helps minimize these risks by providing a safe practice environment where learners can practice, get feedback, and refine their skills at their own pace.

Here’s a fun paradox: The self-paced nature of VR learning experiences actually reduces time to proficiency. A PwC study focused on empathy training found that learners trained in VR develop new skills four times faster and feel 40% more confident in applying what they’ve learned. 

This level of competence and confidence would normally take months or years to acquire. However, VR content empowers learners to confront a wider range of situations and challenges than they could experience in real life, at a pace that allows for the vital reflection that supports their vertical development. 

The (Virtual) Reality Principle: Common Obstacles to a VR Learning Strategy

Here’s another reality of learning and skilling in a VUCA world: L&D leaders are increasingly asked to do more with less, and faster. Though they recognize the benefits of learning in virtual reality, they face a few common obstacles to implementing a VR learning strategy. These include: 

• Scalability: VR works well with a smaller learner population, but can be a challenge to distribute to a large global audience. The hardware investment can be prohibitive, as can the learning curve in how to use VR headsets and hand controls. 
• LMS compatibility: For better or worse, many organizations are married to a specific LMS or LXP, and all learning content needs to live under the same roof for reasons of security, practicality, and/or maintenance. 
• Data analytics: Tracking learner completion and performance is another must-have, especially for compliance training and other high-stakes content. L&D teams, too, need access to the data to respond to learners’ needs, refine learning experiences, and demonstrate the ROI of learning solutions. 

Read on to discover a solution that empowers L&D leaders to overcome all of these challenges and bring the benefits of VR to every learner. 

Introducing WebXR: The Gateway to Immersive Learning

Meet WebXR, the web-based immersive learning solution that empowers L&D teams to create immersive experiences for every learner, with or without a headset. It’s also great for augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) content—but, for now, we’ll focus on VR. (Looking for an in-depth introduction to WebXR? Check out our comprehensive guide.) 

Here’s how WebXR helps us clear those common hurdles: 

• Scalability: WebXR experiences live on a server, like any website or web application. Learners can access them via a headset, for a fully immersive experience, or via their laptop or desktop computers, for an engaging, first-person video game-style experience. There’s no need to invest in hundreds (or thousands) of headsets up front; your organization can ramp up its immersive learning strategy over time. 
• LMS compatibility: Thanks to our LMS Integration Tool (LIT), WebXR content can live happily in your LMS. Learners can even launch WebXR experiences from existing eLearning courses for a seamless experience. 
• Data analytics: Immersive learning content generates rich data far beyond scores and seat time. Thanks to LIT’s customized Analytics Dashboard, your LMS and your WebXR experiences can “talk” to each other and capture the learner performance data that matters most to you and your stakeholders.  

If you’re like lots of L&D leaders, you might be wondering how WebXR content looks on a desktop computer versus a headset, how it compares to a native VR application, and whether you’ve got a use case. We’ve got answers to these questions and more!

If you’re looking for a full walkthrough of WebXR, our expert hosts are here for you with this comprehensive webisode. 

WebXR: Brought to Us by Interesting Times

Our current VUCA moment has some silver linings: As L&D leaders and innovators rise to meet it, we’re discovering new ways to meet the skilling needs of our organizations and learners. These strides in learner-centered design aren’t just effective; they’re also engaging, enjoyable, and a welcome respite from the traditional training to-do list. 

As learners, technology, and the workplace continue to co-evolve, WebXR content empowers us to bring growth experiences to more of our people and help them build skills and resilience amid rapid change. It also empowers us to serve our learners better by providing them a virtual practice space where it’s safe to try, reflect, and try again—all while preserving their time and bandwidth.  

Looking for ways to start the conversation about meeting evolving workplace needs with WebXR content? Inspire your stakeholders and leaders with talking points from our in-depth guide to this versatile learning technology. You’ll find a rainbow of use cases, success stories from fellow learning innovators, and details about WebXR’s data and LMS superpowers.

Or: Why No Headset = No Problem

L&D leaders and innovators are more aware than ever of the benefits of immersive learning: Who wouldn’t want to upskill learners faster, better, and for the long term? 

But even the most forward-thinking L&D folks can face challenges to implementing their immersive learning strategy. Here are a few we heard from our client-partners: 

Friends, we’re happy to introduce a learning solution that clears all of these hurdles: WebXR. 

If you’re anything like our client-partners, you probably have a million questions! Let’s start with 18 of the most frequently asked questions they ask us about WebXR. (Prefer to stump us straightaway? Reach out! We love a challenge.) 

1. What is WebXR? And what’s the difference between WebXR and native VR?

Let’s start with the ”XR” part of WebXR, which is short for “extended reality.” XR is an umbrella term that covers virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) experiences. See the image below for a tutorial on the five types of reality.

Now let’s talk about the “web” part of WebXR—as you may have guessed, WebXR technology gives us the ability to create VR, AR, or MR experiences that can be accessed via the web, no special equipment required.

Though WebXR technology can be used to create any type of digital environment, we’ll focus our Q&A on VR learning experiences created in this versatile immersive technology. 

So, what’s the difference between Native VR and WebXR?

• Native VR applications offer a fully immersive experience delivered via an application that must be downloaded and installed on a headset. 
• With WebXR, learners access immersive content either via a VR headset or via a laptop or desktop computer. A headset offers full immersion, just as native VR application would; a computer offers an engaging 3D experience much like a first-person game.

This flexibility is the main reason learning leaders are leveraging WebXR—and why we’ve affectionately nicknamed WebXR “the gateway to immersive learning” (See Questions 3 and 4 for more details).  

2. What types of experiences are best for learners new to immersive technology?

Immersive technology allows us to create a safe, authentic 3D practice environment that lends itself to a wide range of use cases, from hands-on to heartfelt. That covers everything from hazardous waste cleanup and machinery maintenance to difficult conversations. 

Once upon a time, technical training was the dominant use case for VR. Imagine a native VR application featuring a digital twin of a manufacturing environment where learners could get the hang of specialized equipment, machinery, and procedures—all without harming people or property. 

That’s still a great use case! The safe, immersive practice environment speeds learners’ time to proficiency, reduces errors, and enhances retention.

But as workplaces and job roles continue to evolve, learning innovators are embracing VR solutions for a wider spectrum of use cases, including nuanced interpersonal skills like empathy and de-escalation. 

In the most immersive VR learning experiences, features such as voice recognition, movement tracking, and eye tracking can help learners review and learn from missteps. But all levels of immersion can help learners walk (or work) a mile in someone else’s shoes. 

3. My organization isn’t quite ready to invest in headsets for our distributed learner audience. Can I still use WebXR? 

Absolutely! Many of our client-partners face challenges with headset logistics but still want to leverage immersive 360° content for a more engaging, authentic learning experience. We launched WebXR to help them overcome that challenge.

Unlike native VR applications, which need to be downloaded and installed on a headset, WebXR learning experiences live on the web (See Question 1). Learners can access these experiences either through a headset or their laptop or desktop computers. (That’s how we’ve developed our reputation for saying, “No headset? No problem!”)

We recently worked with a global retailer who shared this concern: We partnered with them on a WebXR solution that they distribute to their learners via tablets and mobile phones. The experience is much like an advanced web simulation: Learners click through to explore the virtual space, engage with activities, and receive feedback as they upskill and apply their newfound knowledge. 

4. Which devices can be used with WebXR content?

Learners have the choice of accessing WebXR experiences via a VR headset or a laptop or desktop computer. We call this choice device optionality, and it’s one of the reasons WebXR works so well for organizations looking to gradually ramp up their immersive learning strategy…without investing in thousands of VR headsets all at once.

5. How do the hand controls work on the desktop? 

Learners use a mouse, trackpad, or keyboard to move around the experience, just as they would any website or application. The desktop experience offers a level of immersion much like that of a first-person game or an advanced web simulation (See Question 2.) 

6. Can learners access WebXR experiences from my LMS? Can it track data?

Yes, they can! Thanks to our leading-edge LMS Integration Tool (known to fans and friends as LIT), your WebXR experiences can live in, and launch from, your LMS—all while gathering, storing, and displaying the learner performance data you and your stakeholders care most about. 

With LIT, learners can launch a WebXR experience directly from an existing eLearning course. When it launches, it cues learners to choose the device they’ll be using: headset or computer. They then proceed seamlessly to the WebXR experience. 

While they’re immersed, LIT and the LMS share data about learners’ identities and performances; The WebXR experience “reads” learners’ identities from the LMS and reciprocates by bringing in-experience performance data back to the LMS. 

What kinds of performance data, you ask? We’ll work with you to customize what matters most to you and your stakeholders. Say you’re interested in sentiment analysis to help your learners improve their communication skills within a customer service interaction. 

Chances are, your LMS doesn’t know how to process these metrics. But LIT solves that problem with its handy sidekick: the LIT Analytics Dashboard. The Dashboard captures and displays a customized set of learner performance data. 

Your next question is probably, Will LIT work with my LMS? From our experience deploying content on hundreds of LMSs, our working answer is “yes.” We’ll work with you to help your immersive learning content build a beautiful relationship with your LMS.

7. In terms of data analytics, can we track the users’ movements, gaze, etc., within the experience? 

This question is a bit of a “yes, and”: It depends on several other pieces of the immersive learning puzzle. 

The “yes”: We’ll absolutely work with you to customize the learner performance data you collect to provide insight on the metrics that matter most, from tone-of-voice analytics to gaze tracking and reaction time. 

The “and”: The data you need to track and the skills you need learners to master will influence the type of immersive experience we build together. We describe these variables in terms of three levels of activity:

• Active: Learners need full presence to interact physically with objects within the 3D environment: for example, to learn how to operate a machine. Active experiences are best as native VR applications, in which learners use a headset and hand controllers to interact with objects in a fully immersive 3D environment. With an active experience, you can track performance data that help you track the learners’ responses to their full environment, from gaze to gesture to physical posture. 
• Semi-Active: Learners have some agency to move around, explore, and identify items within the 3D environment: for example, identifying hazards in a manufacturing environment. Semi-active experiences work well in either WebXR format or as a native VR application. 
• Passive: Learners observe the environment and interactions around them as they travel through a 3D environment: for example, by taking a virtual tour or making decisions. Passive experiences work well in both WebXR and native VR formats. 

When we create an immersive experience for the web, we need to design for what Adriȧn Soto, Director of Immersive Technologies, calls the ”least common denominator” (LCD), or the lowest level of immersive technology learners might use to access the experience. 

In the case of WebXR experiences, the LCD is the mouse and trackpad, which limits the level of immersion and interactivity we can offer. WebXR is the perfect choice if our goal is to create a great conversational simulation that doesn’t require full-body interaction with the environment. 

But if we need to create an experience to teach full-body, fine motor skills such as machine operation or hazardous waste removal, our LCD can’t go any lower than the VR headset and controllers. That’s why active experiences call for a native VR application: there’s simply no way to learn these skills via a laptop or desktop experience.

8. Are voice analytics available in the desktop experience, or just within the headset? 

They’re available in both! In a recent WebXR project with our client-partner Hilton, we used a built-in AI voice recognition tool to coach learners through high-stakes interactions with dissatisfied guests. This amazing tool provides real-time feedback not only on the words learners choose and their strategy for solving guests’ issues, but on their tone of voice as they connect with the guest and express empathy. Best of all, they’ve got unlimited attempts to get it right: In WebXR-world Hilton, there’s no risk to real guest relationships as learners practice thinking on their feet (and with their hearts). 

9. How are the scenarios, characters, and interactions in a VR experience created?

Though we love geeking out over new technology, we’re learning experience designers first and foremost. We start with curiosity about you and your learners: We’ll analyze your existing content, talk to your subject matter experts (SMEs), and clarify the learning need and performance objective(s). All of this analysis culminates in (drum roll)…a high-level design document.

Once we’ve landed on a high-level design, we’ll storyboard your immersive experience and build the scenarios that will give the learner firsthand experience of how it looks, sounds, and feels to get things right (or wrong!). Then we script those out, creating periodic demos and prototypes for your review. Once we’ve landed on the right design and experience, we literally sprint into production. 

It takes a village to produce an alpha version of an immersive learning experience, and our team of 3D tech artists, 3D animators, developers, and engineers rise to the occasion by building custom 3D assets and interactions using the tools and software that best fit your needs. 

Then, User Experience and User Interface (UX and UI) specialists review the overall experience to ensure that the overall flow—and the position and placement of instructions, controls, and other elements—are intuitive. Because many learners will be new to immersive learning, onboarding them to the technology is a vital part of the learning experience. 

10. How does low bandwidth affect a WebXR solution’s performance?

Like any web content stored and accessed from a server, WebXR content relies heavily on internet connection and speed. If bandwidth will be a challenge, a native VR application might be a better fit. It can be downloaded and installed on a headset in a location with a strong signal and utilized anywhere the headset can travel. (Of course, you’d need to repeat this process for any updates.) Striking a balance between scalability and bandwidth can be complex—we’d love to help you figure it out!

11. How could WebXR be used in employee engagement activities?

A multiuser WebXR environment can help us collaborate, enjoy more engaging learning experiences, and meet the next generation of workers with the level of technology they expect. We love building multi-user WebXR spaces that help people gather in real time to whiteboard, brainstorm, prototype, and workshop ideas. 

In these immersive “third spaces,” we can mingle naturally with one another and experience more of one another’s unique personalities (dare we say quirks?). But they’re not just for goofing off: They also allow us to get curious about what our peers are doing, tag along, and learn from them. 

We can also use WebXR for more structured multi-learner experiences. One of our favorite modalities is what we call Virtual Reality Instructor-Led Training (VR-ILT). VR-ILT not only brings us together for the live learning experiences we’ve all been missing, it also provides immediate opportunities to practice new skills and receive real-time feedback. 

In VR-ILT, the instructor has the ability to control variables in the environment and use real-time data to differentiate instruction for every learner. These data also show when learners have reached proficiency and when they need additional practice (pp. 32–34).

12. Can WebXR be used for marketing and trade? 

Absolutely–that’s a great use case! In fact, many of our client-partners find plenty of creative ways to share and leverage their 3D digital assets across teams and functions at their organizations. 

To help them maximize the ROI of their 3D assets, we use an end-to-end consulting process called strategy mapping. Together, we explore potential use cases that could add value to the employee, client, and community member experience. 

Here’s an example of how a hospitality client might leverage a digital twin of a hotel: 

13. How many learners can use a particular WebXR solution at a time? 

The number of simultaneous users a WebXR experience can support depends on server capacity. Project scope (and budget) grows with server capacity needs.

Need to strike the perfect balance between server capacity and scope? We can help!

14. Where is WebXR content hosted? 

WebXR experiences are hosted by a server, like any website or web application. Unlike native VR applications, WebXR content does not need to be downloaded and installed on a headset. 

15. What about privacy?

Like so many variables in WebXR solutions, the security of proprietary content and learner data depends upon your organization’s privacy policy. Our default stance is not to handle personally identifiable learner information—unless a client-partner absolutely needs us to do so. In those situations, we work together to build safeguards into the WebXR solution to protect both learners and the organization. Because privacy and security measures can significantly impact a WebXR project’s complexity, scope, and budget, we start that conversation early…and revisit it often!

16. Does everything need to be custom-built? Are there off-the-shelf WebXR learning experiences, or would we need to partner with a third party?

As with traditional eLearning, the choice to buy, build, or blend has everything to do with the learning content and experience you want to offer your learners—as well as your timeline, budget, branding, and creative needs.

Off-the-shelf WebXR content can be great to meet a general skilling need. For example, if you’d like to upskill your employees in public speaking, our client-partner Coursera offers a highly engaging course featuring nail-bitingly realistic experiences that deliver real-time feedback on learners’ ability to engage an audience. 

Custom WebXR content might be the best answer for a skilling need involving an industry-, environment- or brand-specific process and finely honed learner performance data points related to that process. For example, if you’d like to upskill your employees in your branded consultative sales model, you’ve got a case for a custom solution.

See below for our helpful buy/build/blend cheat sheet. It works for WebXR experiences, eLearning…any learning content at all!

17. Can L&D leaders and practitioners create their own WebXR experiences using a tool, or do we need an external vendor-partner?

Unlike traditional eLearning, which can be created in an authoring tool by one person, it takes a village to create amazing WebXR experiences (See Question 8)…and each villager uses highly specialized skills and tools to do their part. To name a few, our 3D artists create the environment and characters using 3D creation tools; our animators use their respective animation tools to bring avatars to life, and programmers use another software entirely to put the build together and create the interactions. 

If you have the in-house tools and talent to assemble your own WebXR content creation village, go for it! If not, and you have a complex learning need that requires a custom solution, we’d recommend channeling that carpe diem spirit into a relationship with a vendor who can rally their ready-made village to support you.

18. What about updates and maintenance?

Once again, how you choose to handle these depends on your needs, in-house talent, and tools. Our process is that, at the conclusion of every project, the files belong to the client-partner. If they want to maintain them in-house and have the coding expertise on their team to do that, they’re off and running! If not, we can create a maintenance package to manage periodic or as-needed content updates. 

Thanks to our Talent Solutions service, we can also offer a third option: Finding a professional with the skills to manage immersive learning maintenance and updates. Our recruiters have placed hundreds of purple squirrels in highly specialized temporary, permanent, and seasonal L&D roles and have earned the satisfaction and trust of our world-class client-partners. 

We’re so glad you’re getting curious about WebXR and its many superpowers! We’re incredibly excited about this opportunity to bring highly effective and engaging immersive learning experiences to more learners than ever before. 

What we love most about our partnerships with our world-class clients is the opportunity to increase access to high-value skills and knowledge…and do more good in the world. 

If you’re looking for a deeper dive into WebXR’s learning, LMS integration, and data analytics superpowers, download our comprehensive guide, No Headset? No Problem! Launch Your Immersive Learning Strategy with WebXR. 

If you’re curious about the opportunities in your world or are looking to talk shop about WebXR or immersive learning in general, we’re all ears!

Virtual reality (VR) training can transform traditional learning, increase engagement and retention, and enable scalability and cost savings. Emily Cooper, SweetRush XR Producer, and Tobias Washington, Head of Talent Technologies, Innovation, and Creative Solutions at CHRISTUS Health have answers to important questions about the development and successful implementation of a VR safety training program.

At our webinar, VR Training Program Case Study: Aggressive Behavior De-escalation at a Healthcare Sector Organization, SweetRush and CHRISTUS Health shared the behind-the-scenes story of a VR learning program aimed at de-escalating aggressive behavior in healthcare settings.

Emily Cooper, SweetRush XR Producer, and Tobias Washington, Head of Talent Technologies, Innovation, and Creative Solutions at CHRISTUS Health, covered the insights and the benefits of VR as an essential, effective, and safe training solution. 

We want to thank the webinar participants for their excellent questions. As promised, here are answers to the questions we didn’t have time to answer live!

General VR Training Questions

What do you think of cardboard single-use headsets?

Cardboard single-use headsets were, at one point, a popular VR delivery method. As we explored their use for VR training, however, we came across some important factors to consider:

• Lowest common denominator. The delivery device for a cardboard headset is the smartphone. Therefore, when designing VR, you need to think about the lowest-performing smartphone in your target audience. This often calls for simplifying the experience and creates limitations on what you can design.
• Immersion. Without a doubt, immersion is a big factor in the VR training experience because it heightens engagement, which is certainly part of the formula for achieving an effective training program. It’s difficult to create a sense of immersion with the level of content you can produce for a cardboard headset.
• Price. Even though cardboard headsets are inexpensive, you will still need a smartphone to run the VR training. So if you need to provide all the equipment (and can’t rely on BYOD), the Oculus Quest VR headset, a premium stand-alone device, will cost you less than your average smartphone.

What do you think about VR training experiences? Are they more efficient than the traditional approach?

VR training is often more time-efficient than traditional training. VR is best suited to short burst training—10 to 20 minutes is the sweet spot. VR is not one-and-done training. Instead, learners can repeat the training and log multiple practice sessions. Learn more in Your Guide to VR Training Programs: Virtual Reality for Our New Reality.

We are looking to develop VR training programs. Personally, I have an Oculus Quest, and it makes me very dizzy. I can stay in my headset for only about 10 minutes. When thinking about deploying VR to an employee population, how do you mitigate that? Do you create a separate non-VR training for those who can’t tolerate VR? Also, are there any Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) concerns to consider?

We’re sorry to hear you’re experiencing sensitivity in your headset; it’s true that it does happen for some people. Fortunately, a fair amount of research has been done in this area, and we monitor the latest findings to help optimize our VR learning programs. After all, our goal is to create VR experiences that are comfortable and enjoyable! 

In the research, there are strong correlations between how the VR content is created and optimized and the potential for experiencing dizziness. Technical elements, if done correctly, can help mitigate these adverse effects. Additionally, headset technology is getting better and better, which has reduced this problem over time and will continue to do so as the technology advances.

An alternative for people who are highly sensitive is a WebVR version. WebVR has limitations and isn’t the right choice for every learning program, but it can be used to create an experience that can be accessed through a browser rather than a headset.

Regarding ADA, understanding your audience members and their needs is your first step in determining whether VR is the right solution for your learning program. If designed with ADA needs in mind, VR can be a great solution for many people with disabilities; at the same time, as a visually driven platform that often requires physical movement, it can exclude some people. The World Wide Web Consortium has a good article about the issues and opportunities of VR accessibility. The article mentions some interesting disability-related uses for VR—for example, simulations that help people adjust to new disabilities or help learners empathize with people who have disabilities. 

Typically, which VR training approach is more expensive to develop? 360 video or computer-generated imagery (CGI)?

It depends! We recommend keeping an open mind as you define your performance and learning objectives at the start of your project. This will help you determine what VR environment you need and what you want learners to be able to do and practice in your program. A simple live-action 360 video experience may suffice. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, you may need a stereoscopic 360 camera and many actors, or you may choose something in between. The same goes for CGI: you may be able to use inexpensive stock assets, or it might be necessary to go full-blown motion capture style. Or, again, you may find a happy medium. Both 360 video and CGI can be done simply and relatively inexpensively, and both can be more complex and expensive. Your desired learning outcomes should always guide your choices.

How should I build a business case and persuade the business and budget owners (especially in the COVID-19 era) to invest in VR solutions? And what’s the best way to start an implementation in a company? Small group? Big program?

We have a great section on building a business case in our eBook Virtual Reality for Our New Reality. Here are some of our key recommendations:

• Invest in a few headsets for key team members. VR is a “see it to believe it” technology!
• Introduce VR as a Learning and Development (L&D) opportunity. We’ve had several clients do this by bringing us in for an XR workshop. Your stakeholders get to learn about the technology, and there’s time designated for brainstorming VR training use cases for your organization. (Note: We can do this workshop virtually.)
• Choose a performance challenge that’s significant and ongoing, as Tobias mentioned in the workshop.
• Start with a proof of concept—many of our clients have had great success doing this. This often means creating a small part of a bigger program. A proof of concept gives stakeholders a taste of what’s possible, gives you a chance to test the process (and your vendor), and results in a tangible program you can share.

Since you mentioned COVID-19, it’s worth stating that there are many new strong use cases for VR that allow people to practice together safely. Think about redirecting unused travel funds toward an investment in VR equipment and content.

About the CHRISTUS Project

Program and Project Management Questions

How many people were involved in this amazing project, and what roles did they play?

Thank you—we’re very proud of the collaboration! At SweetRush, we had one Instructional Designer, one XR Producer, one Project Manager, five 3D Designers and Animators, four Programmers, and two Audio Engineers. We also had a QA team that performed play testing.

On the CHRISTUS side, about 20 stakeholders and associates participated in the on-site XR Workshop with SweetRush. Throughout the development of the project, stakeholders were kept abreast of progress and weighed in at key milestones. Associates, who represented the target audience, shared ideas, experiences, and feedback. Throughout the process, it was important to engage those whom the training would affect. The specialized team of five to six people who worked permanently on the project with SweetRush was in weekly communication throughout the entire project. As the VR safety training is rolled out, we expect this team to grow.  

What testing techniques did you use throughout the process to make sure you were building the right user experience?

Great question. Put together, the members of the SweetRush SPARK team have deep experience in instructional design, game design, and VR and app development, so all of these disciplines inform our process and approaches to ensure an optimal learner experience.

Our process for any learning program starts with deeply understanding our audience, which we do by working closely with our client. The amazing stakeholders we worked with shared important insights about the learners at CHRISTUS and how we should tailor the experience to meet their needs.

At SweetRush, we’ve merged instructional design with game design, and our iterative design process lets us test approaches with our client and users and identify the approaches that resonate with learners.

During development, we look to optimize the experience from a performance perspective. In this case, each activity had many components, so ensuring that the experience ran smoothly in the headset was important.

Finally, we invest significant time in play testing, both internally at SweetRush and externally with our client. Play testing can show us where we need to tweak the user experience. One part of the program we focused on was getting the body movement tracking correct to give the user the accurate feedback. 

Development/Technical Questions

What engine did you build this VR training in? Unreal or Unity? How did you make this decision?

Unity engine. In our experience, Unity is more flexible with third-party technologies, which were essential for the voice and tone recognition and analysis requirements of this program. We also find that Unity enables faster custom development and implementation of new technologies. We use Unreal Engine in other situations, but in this case, given the requirements of the project, the Unity Engine was the right choice.

Program Design

Is the scoring directly related to how people are evaluated?

The goal is to tie the two parts of this safety training program (the classroom training portion and the VR training portion) to an overall clinical de-escalation program that CHRISTUS is implementing. Through the point system and data tracking of the VR, CHRISTUS will be able to see which individuals can correctly apply the proper approaches and techniques. As the program rolls out, CHRISTUS expects to see how it integrates into evaluation. 

Was timing a metric in completing an activity/exercise?

We considered using a timing metric during the design phase of the project. We tested how this could be implemented in each scenario and decided that a timing metric did not support our learning objectives. One of our goals was to give learners an environment in which they could learn at their own pace. The program definitely has stakes and consequences, but we chose to design them without integrating a time factor. 

Was there any decision-based branching in the simulations (e.g., going down a different path based on a particular response)?

The verbal de-escalation scenario includes “mini” decision-based branching narratives based on the learners’ answers. For every step of the scenario, the avatar reacts to what the learner says. Because the learner cannot progress to the next step without giving the correct answer, the scenario does not branch as entirely different narratives, but each step can have a narrative. 

Avatars

Aside from the facial diversity, was there a challenge in terms of the users’ spoken language (e.g., English, Spanish, European, etc.)?

The target audience for this project is hospital health care and security professionals, which is primarily an English-speaking audience. For this phase of the program, we decided to focus on processing one language. There has been some discussion about integrating additional languages into future versions of the program. 

Analytics

What tool did you use for analytics? Did you hand-code them or use a plug-in, off-the-shelf, or third-party tool?

The VR Dashboard was built internally by our SweetRush SPARK team. VR analytics and reporting have exciting potential for L&D. Compared with other training delivery methods, the VR headset lets us track more data about the learner experience. We can also use the data in real time to provide immediate feedback to the learners or trigger events in the headset based on their actions. Combined with a great assessment strategy outside the headset, analytics presents a significant opportunity as a pathway to improving learner experiences and learning outcomes.

Was this dashboard built specifically for this project, or is it a customized learning record store or learning management system that multiple projects are hosted on?

We customize the VR Dashboard to meet the needs of individual clients and projects, so it can be deployed separately, rather than living in a single platform. Because we created the code, we can adjust the way information is gathered and presented.

Distribution and Maintenance

Did you distribute the headsets to the trainees, or did they purchase the VR headsets?

The CHRISTUS team purchased the headsets and will distribute them to several of their ministry (hospital) locations, where training rooms will be created. 

Do you have designers/developers now that can update or make changes going forward?

As we shared in the webinar, the VR learning program created for CHRISTUS is a higher-complexity experience. It has a custom CGI world/environment, many avatars, and several integrated technologies for voice and tone recognition and analysis, body movement tracking, and analytics. Given its complex nature, the program will require an experienced VR team to maintain the program moving forward.

That said, some organizations are dedicating resources to exploring VR development internally, and some authoring tools coming on the market can create VR learning experiences with simple interactivity. As the technology advances and more organizations adopt VR, it’s easy to imagine a model similar to eLearning, in which organizations can create and maintain a certain level of complexity internally and can call on great vendor-partners to help with more complex and interactive programs.

For this project, CHRISTUS will work with SweetRush if any updates, changes, or additions are made moving forward. 

Applying the VR Training to Other Uses

How could the VR training solution be useful in a manufacturing environment?

The manufacturing industry is rich with opportunities for using VR as an L&D tool. VR training can help develop the specialized skill sets needed in the sector and to conduct safety training in manufacturing environments. If you need training in the use of specific machinery, you can replicate that training in a VR environment. Not only can you create a place to interact with expensive machinery safely, but you can also use haptic feedback to create sensory input within the training. Because of its immersive nature and ability to evoke emotional responses and offer interaction that mimics real-life behaviors, VR is a great solution for the manufacturing industry. 

Can this type of VR solution be used in community settings?

VR can be used in many settings, including education, community outreach, entertainment, and enterprise. If your community is trying to shift a thought process or behavior, VR could be a great option. For example, if a small community wants to promote acceptance and understanding, a VR experience that addresses unconscious bias may be the answer. The possibilities are endless. You could set up a VR center at a library, sanitizing headsets after each use, so people can participate.  

How can the Oculus Rift be used for health care?

The Oculus Rift can be used for technical and safety training simulations and soft skills and empathy training. Live training that is costly or dangerous is a good candidate for VR training. Read about VR training use cases in Your Guide to VR Training Programs: Virtual Reality for Our New Reality.

How can VR training improve health care?

In the VR world, learners have a safe place to practice, receive real-time feedback, and replay scenarios and activities multiple times. Instructors and peers can be “in the room” observing or providing guidance. Read about VR training use cases in Your Guide to VR Training Programs: Virtual Reality for Our New Reality.

VR Trends

What’s the next step in virtual reality?

Learning trends in VR include multilearner experiences, instructor-led learning experiences, voice recognition and tone analysis, body movement tracking, facial recognition, integration of biometrics, and learning analytics. Learn more in Your Guide to VR Training Programs: Virtual Reality for Our New Reality.

Could you talk more about biofeedback in VR training? How would it work, and what data could you gather?

Biofeedback is an exciting element of data capturing and tracking in VR. How biofeedback is used can range widely. It can include simplistic heart rate monitoring, in congruence with the training program, to see how learners react under different conditions. Or it can involve mapping brain activity and breathing patterns, tracking muscle contraction, and using this data and feedback to help change behavior and mental patterns in patients through VR training programs. 

For the most part, to track biometric feedback, you need wearable devices: outside trackers, monitors, or equipment to add biofeedback to your VR solution. This is an exciting advancement in our field, and we’re seeing several head-mounted display (headset) manufacturers explore how they can integrate some of this tracking in their headsets without the need for additional equipment. Because of the excitement and potential for enterprise around biofeedback, we can expect leading companies to put time and resources into this effort—meaning we can look forward to advances in this area. 

If you are eager to learn more about VR training programs, use cases, and success stories, download the Virtual Reality for Our New Reality eBook. 

EXPLORE THESE ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Top Emerging Technologies Trends and Their Impact on L&D

Leading Remote Teams: Free Learning Resources

Whether you’re a VR learning newbie or virtual pioneer, there are insights to be gained from the groundbreaking work produced by the SweetRush SPARK team and its clients. In this article, SweetRush’s experts answer questions that came up in its recent virtual reality case study webinar.  

Hello, everyone—JC here! I hope you had a chance to join us on June 20 for our virtual reality case study webinar—if you didn’t, you missed my feeble attempts to say “hello” and “thank you” in multiple languages, which may ultimately get my passport revoked.

If you missed our lively session, I encourage you to check out the recording available over at eLearningIndustry.com.

Before we jump in, I want to give a big shout-out to my co-presenter, Blaire Bhojwani, Senior Director of Learning Innovation at Hilton. Not only is Blaire an incredible partner, she’s a generous and caring friend, and we really appreciate the time she took to share the work we’ve done together. Thank you, Blaire!

Thank you also to our friends at eLearning Industry and their webinar hostess with the mostest, Mel Chambers! 

Now, on to your burning questions.

Virtual Reality! What is it good for? 

Several questions came in during our virtual reality case study webinar about use cases for VR for specific industries—health care and professional services among them. Truth is, I doubt there is an industry out there that could not come up with a good reason to apply VR as a delivery modality for learning.

VR has always been a great solution for re-creating environments to practice skills safely—especially environments that are dangerous or costly to create, or travel to, in real life, and many companies are piloting VR for these use cases. However, where we’re seeing a lot of interest—and this ties to the two projects we showcased in the webinar—is VR learning for soft skills and empathy-building.

Collaborating with Hilton, we created two VR learning programs for two different audiences, yet they share a key objective: increasing empathy and appreciation for others. 

• One helps corporate team members appreciate the physicality and complexity of their fellow team members working in the hotels, through hands-on activities that give them a taste of those jobs.
• The other helps the hotel team members empathize with guests encountering problems during their stay—and through scenarios has them experience the wrong and right ways to respond to a guest’s challenges. 

There are other learning modalities that address these objectives, from role plays to branching scenarios and simulations. What makes VR an attractive—and effective—option is the ability to fully immerse learners into situations, where they can literally walk in the shoes of others and generate a real sense of empathy.

Just as research has shown the connection between engagement and retention, I predict we’ll see more research on the connection between immersion and retention. “Being there” is an experience that’s hard to forget.

What advances are you working on for VR learning programs for soft skills?

OK, I’ll be honest: No one really asked this question, but I have some cool stuff I want to share with you. The pace of advancement in VR is incredibly fast and (shout-out to the SPARK team) we’ve got a lot going on.

Sentiment Analysis

With sentiment analysis, we’re picking up differences in the learner’s tone of voice and adapting the experience based on that input. 

Let’s say in the VR world you’re giving your “colleague” a performance review. You say the right thing, but your tone is abrupt or lacking warmth. The VR program can give you that feedback and ask you to try again, once again monitoring your tone to see if you got closer to the best practice.

In the near future (yes, AI), I predict we’ll have the ability to program the avatar to react based on your tone. Amazing!

Body Tracking

With body tracking, we have the ability to “see” the way learners are holding and moving their bodies, including hand and arm movements and posture. Body language is such an important part of how we communicate, and now we can monitor that within a VR experience.

Again, at this point we can incorporate that information into feedback and remediation, and in the future we’ll very likely be able to program a real-time response to body movements.

Rift, Go, Quest, VIVE, Cardboard . . . What headset should we be using?

Unlike many VR developers, we’ve done our very best to remain headset-agnostic. (As eLearning developers, we are also authoring tool- and LMS-agnostic.) This forces us to stay on top of the headset race for supremacy, and for our clients it means that we’re flexible to use whatever system works for you.

If you’re new to VR, you may not know which system you need, and all of these options can be pretty overwhelming. And, here I am writing this in the summer of 2019, and three or six months from now it could be a different story. 

So let me share what we’ve seen from our experience as of today. Fair warning: this is by no means a comprehensive comparison of headset features—just a quick hit on some of the bigger players that our clients tend to gravitate toward.

Cardboard

Many people want to get started with Cardboard. I get that—it’s (seemingly) an inexpensive way to get started. And that’s what it’s best used for—getting started. It’s a quick way to get people into experiences and trying VR very easily. Good use cases for Cardboard might be marketing, prototyping, and tours of environments. 

For VR, it’s very limited in terms of complexity and experience. It’s 3DOF (3 degrees of freedom), which means you can’t walk around, you can only look around. It’s limited by the phone’s CPU and the available Wi-Fi.

Here’s the real kicker if you’re thinking about Cardboard for enterprise: the equipment is really the phone. So you need to look to your mobile learning strategy—are your employees using their own phones? Are you providing the phones? Phones are as expensive as a nice VR headset!

Oculus Rift

When Rift came on the scene, it was really exciting to see a system with some real horsepower and 6 DOF (six degrees of freedom), which means you can also walk around in the VR space, not just turn your head. That’s because it’s designed to work “tethered” (connected) to a nice gaming laptop (which gives us the horsepower) and has external sensors to track the position of the person wearing the headset. Our first VR learning program for Hilton was designed for the Rift.

Today, the new headsets on the market are untethered (mobile VR), and don’t require a gaming laptop, meaning they store the VR programs on the headset itself. An untethered 6DOF experience is obviously a lot more convenient, but for high-end VR experiences we may still choose the Rift (or HTC Vive Pro) to utilize the horsepower of the connected gaming laptop. Though, generally speaking, especially as untethered devices become more powerful, that is clearly the way of the future.

Oculus Go and Quest

Go, and the latest addition to the Oculus family, Quest, are these types of headsets—mobile, untethered. Just like the evolution of phones, each new headset is able to store more data and process more information faster—which makes the VR experience richer and more interactive.

The Quest is more powerful than the Go—and more expensive. And, for now, higher quality is more expensive. But because overall the headsets are getting more powerful, that won’t be a limiter for long.

Others: VIVE, Pico

VIVE is a strong competitor of Oculus and has its own line of products doing battle with Oculus—and that’s a good thing for the consumer. While more options means more to consider, it also means a continuous push for better products and market forces driving  prices down.

Our first VR learning program for Hilton was developed for dual delivery: the Rift and the VIVE, and that’s entirely possible if that meets your needs. Often VR development is happening in multiple areas of the company (sales and marketing, learning and development) targeted for different equipment, and there’s a definite advantage to sharing among these teams.

Pico is a new player coming online with a focus on the enterprise market—one that we’re watching closely.

How to choose?

When we work with clients who are new to VR, we often recommend starting with our SPARK XR Workshop. This is a full-day session in which we bring the different headsets to you, so you can try them hands-on.

The decision you make about headsets should factor in both your enterprise needs (and budget) and the learning experiences you want to provide. We can help you find the sweet spot! As consultants immersed in a quickly changing technology-driven marketplace, we have to pay close attention and advise clients. Our leaning at this time is that Oculus is emerging as the market leader and they have a lot of momentum . . . but the game is on, which makes being on the playing field challenging but also engaging and exciting. 

How many VR users can you have at one time?

OK, let’s start here: Each user needs to have his or her own headset. 

Now, let’s talk real estate. If you’re using the Rift, remember you also need a laptop setup, so that’s going to take more space. The untethered headsets require less space, but you still need some room. For example, the Quest recommends a 6.5’x 6.5’ space for game play.

Let’s say you have a big room—like a ballroom—for your VR location, and you want to pack ‘em in. Now you need to consider sound and voice. Each user needs to be able to hear the VR program, and, assuming there’s voice recognition in your program, the program needs to be able to hear the user clearly.

Now let’s say you want all of those users to be “inside” the same virtual world at the same time. Totally possible! How many users are in that experience will depend on what makes sense for your learning objectives and the activity we design.

Can you see what the user is doing when they’re inside the VR program?

We’ve learned that being able to direct users—particularly those new to VR—is often an essential need for facilitators. Our Controller App includes some cool features to help you do that.

Facilitators will be able to connect to a headset and see what the users see, as well as cast that to a TV screen with Apple TV. Imagine using this technique in the classroom, with one user in the headset and the others watching what’s happening on the screen. Great stuff.

Do I need a developer to get started with VR?

If you’re at least somewhat familiar with eLearning authoring tools, you know there are many, many tools available out on the market to help you create eLearning. The easiest tools to use—that just about anybody with pretty good technical skills can pick up and get started with—are also the most limited in terms of their capabilities. If you’re trying to accomplish something more complex and interactive, then typically, yeah, you do want to get some help from a developer.

The same is true(ish) for VR tools. The majority of the easy authoring tools are designed to work only with 360-degree video or photography. If you’re interested in using 3D environments, having users interact with 3D objects (as we showed in the case study webinar), that will most likely require a more sophisticated tool.

The greater the complexity and quality, and the more interaction you desire, the more you’ll need to start using more complicated tools that require more and more advanced programming skills. The VR design and development space and the tools that support it are just not as mature as the eLearning space, and the pace of change is daunting. This may sound self-serving, but I believe it to be true: Except for doing rudimentary development, you’ll need a developer. In every project we’ve taken on we’ve encountered problems and challenges that are technical, creative, and even extend to how instructional design fits in. At this point in the evolution of this modality, all these things demand highly skilled teams that have the expertise to work through the inevitable issues that will arise. 

Yeah, but how long is a VR project going to take?

Again, just like eLearning, the design and development timeline is really going to depend on the complexity of the end product.

At the low-complexity end, you’ve got your basic tour. That means you pop on your headset and explore a virtual environment. Tours use 360-degree photography and/or video that is shot and then “stitched together.”

At this end of the spectrum, we’ll do a storyboard, the shoot, the stitching, and then upload the final experience. That can take as little as a few weeks, assuming the environment you want to shoot is generally available.

So that’s very simple. Moving up the spectrum of complexity, you might add actual scenes with live actors and interactive elements. That will require storyboarding, casting, shooting, stitching, and programming. And of course all of this means more testing. Now you’re looking at closer to a few months to produce your VR learning program.

To create a custom 3D environment and 3D objects with which you can interact, you’re moving up the spectrum of complexity quite a bit. 

You’ll need to take pictures of the environment and then recreate them in 3D at the level of quality you want—the higher the level of quality, the more time it will take to get the textures and details just right. You might also add characters (avatars) and objects,  which also will need to be designed.

And if you’re using 3D, you most likely want to make it interactive, so there’s programming involved as well. These projects are typically four to six months, but depend a lot on the complexity and quality.

Where should I go to learn more about VR?

The community of VR users and developers is rapidly expanding. Here are some resources to keep you up to date on all the latest:

Well first, a shameless plug for our Emerging Technology Trends for L&D eBook, which I hope you’ll download—lots of good insights on VR, AR, and AI. And please do subscribe for regular updates from SweetRush.

Within L&D specifically, the Realities 360 conference is a great way to see some of the work that’s going on. We’ll be at Oculus’s OC6 conference in September participating in various ways . . . perhaps we’ll see you there! And the XRDC conference in San Francisco in October has a training track—we’ll be speaking, so if you attend, please come say hello!

Medium is subscription-based, but does tend to have a lot of articles published about VR and AR. The social media platform Reddit has a subreddit (discussion forum community) for virtual reality.

Also, follow the headset manufacturers on social media for the latest announcements about their products: Oculus, VIVE, Pico.