Is Immersive Learning Here to Stay?

In immersive training, the learners acquire and practice new skills inside a simulated environment. The setting encourages your employees to get completely consumed and experience the actual learning environment in the virtual world. With immersive learning, you can hope to replicate realistic scenarios your employees may encounter in the workplace. The main goal of this kind of learning is to engage and involve the learners enough so that they care about what they learn and how they use it.

How can we implement immersive learning?

There are several options when it comes to immersive technologies. The most common ones are virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and interactive 360-degree videos.

VR and interactive 360-degree videos can recreate a real-world environment in the virtual realm. Learners participate in realistic experiences without the associated risks. Therefore, your employees can practice without any inhibitions. They are allowed to make mistakes without having to face consequences since everything is in the sandbox environment.

AR is basically a computer-generated interactive improvement that you can layer on top of existing reality. It provides information to your learners at the time of need. With AR technology available, employees do not need to memorize all of the information they use in their job roles. This makes AR a great performance support tool that helps in reducing errors.

What are the benefits of immersive learning?

Here are five benefits of using immersive learning in your learning strategy.

Learning through application is the best way to learn something. It is one thing to read or watch videos on a topic. And, it is another thing to actually get your hands dirty and apply the knowledge to real-life scenarios. When your employees apply their knowledge to work on or resolve something, they are engaged.

The real-world feel helps your learners empathize with the situation. An environment that replicates their workplace is a better connection to them than having to read or watch a scenario. What they learn in the virtual environment sticks and they can retain important knowledge for later use at the workplace.

It’s not real - it’s just life-like. That means, whatever mistakes they commit in the environment stay there. There is no real-world damage. Let your employees make as many mistakes as necessary to learn from them. It is much better than making errors on the job.

The learning is online. Your employees can take it whenever they are free without any time or location restrictions. Imagine the time and cost you can save! And, it’s convenient for the learners too as they balance their daily tasks with professional training.

Immersive learning provides instant feedback, unlike some forms of face-to-face training. Your employees need not wait until the entire training is over or their assignments are checked. Immediate feedback ensures your employees are aware of their strengths and weaknesses immediately, and that they are not committing wrong behaviors to their long-term memories.

Where can you use immersive learning in corporate training?

Well, the options are endless! Be it customer, process, or sales training, VR and AR work well with almost all departments. Create a potential conflict situation and ask your learners to resolve it in the interactive environment. The simulated environment provides the learners with a real-world feel. It encourages them to get involved in the scenario. As a result, they remember the experience longer and can replicate it when actually dealing with a crisis.

You may also use these technologies for engaging your employees with success coaches, virtually. The speaker and the audience need not be in the same room to be able to collaborate. They can be anywhere in the world and yet have a face-to-face discussion.

Immersive learning is not a conventional form of training. It focuses primarily on the learning experience. Immersive learning is changing the way employees learn and apply the knowledge to their jobs. Instead of asking why we should embrace it, organizations should ask why not adopt it as a part of their learning strategy. Although, you may have to invest heavily in the onset. But over time, the return-on-investment will justify the investment.

At Designing Digitally, Inc., our realistic custom training simulations and virtual reality experiences are the perfect way to immerse learners and teach skilled procedures that are dangerous or costly to perform. Learners can practice in a safe environment and gain confidence without the fear of substantial consequences. We can help you create your customized solution.

Ready to see how these learning approaches can elevate your training? Get in touch with our experts today!