Innovations in the immersive technology segment continue to revolutionize the approach of businesses and educational facilities to e-learning. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, telecommuting has become the new normal for all industries. Therefore, many modern companies have come up with reliable remote learning and working solutions.
Players like the Program-Ace company, Audi, Volkswagen, Bank of America, Uconn Health, and the rest continue to take advantage of VR training simulators to enhance their employee performance, reducing human error risks. Apart from mitigating the jeopardy of employee health issues, this training approach provides a broad variety of benefits.
By the end of this article, you will learn how VR training simulators contribute to workforce onboarding, what benefits this approach guarantees, and where you can use this technology to improve your corporate performance.
Table of Contents
What Is VR Training Simulation?
From a terminological perspective, a VR training app is a piece of extended reality software that simulates a particular working condition by displaying it in three dimensions via a respective headset, thereby ensuring hands-on practice. Inside a 3D environment, workers can get an actual-life training experience without putting their life or health in peril.
Fundamentally, any type of immersive experience delivered through a certain headset facilitates better learning, as research claims. According to PWC, employees trained with the help of virtual reality learn four times faster compared to the traditional training approach. There is no denying that old-school teaching and learning methods are already not enough to ensure the most effective exchange of information.
The Benefits of Using VR Training Simulators
Without a doubt, you can distinguish between a wide range of both pros and cons of referring to such a type of training for personnel or even students. In any event, present-day educational institutions still have identified all the advantages of e-learning, though the COVID-19 outbreak has influenced the industry significantly, changing the shift from an in-class teaching method to its remote counterpart.
When it comes to training newcomers in large-scale companies, the benefits of employing VR training simulators appear in the most beneficial light. So, why should you opt for it?
- Safe environment. Irrespective of how risk-free the training conditions of your real-life setting are, those of a 3D world will prove more secure. If you, for instance, use virtual training for healthcare practitioners, they will be able to get practical experience without posing a threat to anyone’s life or health.
- Engagement, immersiveness, interactivity. Extended reality technologies facilitate a more advanced immersive experience and help ensure engagement through the broad functionality of such apps. For example, manufacturing facilities often require workers who are able to manipulate complex machinery. So the training must be risk-free and provide hands-on experience, while VR training simulators can cover this need.
- Convenience. Buying a series of virtual reality headsets is simpler, quicker, cheaper, and more straightforward than arranging a learning space at your office or even renting it somewhere on the outskirts. Moreover, employees will not need to leave their homes or offices to obtain the new skills necessary to fulfill their duties.
- Cost and time saving. It is no secret that you will spend less time and money carrying out the onboarding phase inside a virtual environment instead of arranging all the settings in the physical world.
- Learning acceleration. When the experience is immersive, and there is sufficient room for hands-on practice, what you get in the long run is a higher speed of learning.
How to Develop a VR Training Program?
Since you already know all the pros of using the VR training solution, maybe you want to learn how you can build one or have it made for you. Fortunately, whether you will go with VR development services or launch the project on your own, below you may find a step-by-step plan on how to actualize this initiative:
- Discovery phase. Plan and estimate the project scope, research what competitors have, as well as agree upon the features you will require to train your personnel.
- Pick a software development lifecycle model and build a team. You will need such specialists as a project manager, UI/UX designer, business analyst, 3D artists, VR developers, etc.
- Formulate the core of your VR training simulator. Discuss the primary features you want your software to have and on what headsets it will be available.
- Develop and test your product. In this phase, you can already design and code your VR app, which is usually followed by a few sprints of testing.
Is Developing a VR Training Solution on Your Own a Good Idea?
Thus, do you really need to build such a complex software solution as a VR training simulator with your own in-house forces? In most cases, not. A better option is to address a professional custom software development studio that will build your app from scratch so that you will not have to hire experts, carry out myriads of interviews, estimate costs, plan the project, etc.
Making use of team augmentation or outsourcing services is the best idea if you require a quality VR training simulator for your in-house employment. It will respond to all of your burning issues and not drain too many resources from the budget.
Review How VR Training Simulators Change The Way We Teach Employees.