Learning is one of the most critical elements of the employee experience. As the workplace changes and new skills are needed to succeed, the importance of learning to the overall business continues to grow. The rise of learning experience platforms reflects the expanding use of technology to meet corporate learning needs.
Virtual Reality (VR) is helping enterprises meet this challenge through scalable, effective practice in simulated virtual environments from day one.
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Getting started with Virtual Reality
Through dozens of customer deployments, Strivr developed the proven framework on how to select, create, deploy and scale Virtual Reality training at the enterprise level. The following five steps will help you in getting started with Virtual Reality training in your organization.
Five Virtual Training Best Practices
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Step 1: Identify company-wide goals.
Virtual training best practices start with good planning. Think strategically about your organization’s key business objectives. Things like building a culture of safety, creating a consistent customer experience, or standardizing operations all qualify as organizational goals at the highest level. Starting here, we’re able to use those goals as our guiding light as we explore training at your organization.
Key point: Business objectives must be measurable and quantifiable so we can set a baseline for success.
Immersive Learning works best when it can impact the greatest number of associates in your workforce, so these business-wide initiatives are the best place to start – even if it’s just a pilot. The process to determine which initiatives to tackle takes critical thought and cross-functional support, but helps ensure the greatest impact on your business.
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Step 2: Build a curriculum tailored to VR.
In the instructional design phase, enterprises should look at each business objective and break it down into specific and measurable learning outcomes. Then, use behavioral learning science principles to begin developing a curriculum that will teach your associates the right things that: a) should be taught in VR, b) can be measured, and c) tie into your overarching goals.
One virtual training best practice is to use spaced learning, and a cadence of test, teach, practice, re-test. Using intervals between training helps add to already high retention rates for VR training.
Strivr’s instructional designers are expertly trained on how to tailor learning in Virtual Reality. As they develop the curriculum, they work with Immersive Content Specialists, who are essentially directors for VR filming. Together, they create a vision for the shoot, which is entirely done on 360-degree cameras in realistic locations.
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Step 3: Create Immersive Learning experiences.
One of the biggest strengths of virtual training is that it allows enterprises to simulate real-world experience more quickly and cost-effectively than relying on on-the-job learning. But in order to truly capture the efficiency and scalability of VR, virtual trainings must be built on Immersive Learning principles. Instructional designers should strive to simulate engaging scenarios that give employees the chance to apply what they’ve learned in a safe yet realistic learning environment.
At Strivr, instructional designers actually build the experiences in the Strivr software platform after 360 filming and post-production. They sequence and create the experiences, layer in voiceover, and more – all according to the agreed-upon curriculum. Your team will review before we deploy at scale.
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Step 4: Deploy across the enterprise.
Next, it’s time to deploy VR training across your organization. You want the training to affect more than a handful of people in one location, and to do this requires expertise in both VR software and hardware.
This is why another virtual training best practice is to work with a partner that’s enterprise-ready, and comfortable planning and executing large scale deployments, including:
- Hardware fulfillment
- Provisioning
- Shipping
- On-site installation
- Training instructions
- Internal communication
- Connectivity
The goal is that as soon as the VR headsets are set up at each of your locations, all that you need to focus on is getting started with Virtual Reality training.
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Step 5: Adoption, adoption, adoption!
Like many business units, L&D is quickly being disrupted by technology innovations. Leaders are under pressure to keep up, and VR is one way to work toward digital transformation. In the long term, L&D’s ability to tap into the modern workforce and offer a differentiated employee experience is key to activating talent.
From there, it’s all about adoption. Every associate for whom it’s relevant should experience the training because that’s when you’ll really see and feel the impact.
What makes adoption come to life at your company?
Every organization is a little different: for some, they reworked their onboarding curriculum and integrated Immersive Learning alongside other types of training that weren’t suited for VR. Other companies roll out new processes periodically, so internal facilitators lead the VR training sessions at each location.
What’s most important is that VR becomes embedded in your training methodology. L&D leaders are often amazed at how engaged, proficient, and confident their employees are after getting started with Virtual Reality. Immersive Learning becomes an integral and memorable part of the work experience.
The amount of confidence that [associates] gained was just astronomical.
-Lou Tedrick, VP of Global Learning & Development, Verizon
At Strivr, we’re really focused on helping you go far and wide with the training because we believe that VR has a unique ability to influence behavior in a way unlike any other. This is the future of work, and it’s our mission to help get you there. If you’re ready to try a solution built on the latest virtual training best practices, learn more about Strivr’s platform today.
