Want to know if VR is truly effective in training? Here’s the science:
As this article is published, in 2018, it is undeniable that Virtual Reality is disrupting the training and skills development industry worldwide. Much has been made in the world’s press in the last couple of months of the high profile story of Walmart, the world’s largest company, with 2.3 MILLION employees, rolling out VR training to all of their US training centres.
The Walmart training programme is being seen as something of a milestone in the long journey that VR training has been on, from the depths of military combat training, to elite sports stars and highly qualified individuals such as pilots and surgeons, to mainstream employees. In Walmart’s case, this is predominantly Sales Associates.
So why have the biggest company in the world gone all in on VR?
Well it’s simple really, it works! VR has long been known to be an effective training medium and, now with companies like Oculus and HTC making high quality VR widely available at affordable prices, the training and development world is taking action.
Jeremy Bailenson is a professor of communication at Stanford University, founding director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab and a leading expert in the use of VR in training. Additionally, Professor Bailenson is a co-founder of the VR Training company that has developed the VR training programme for Walmart. His recent book, Experience on Demand details many studies, conducted by his lab and others, relating the the effectiveness of Virtual Reality as a training medium.
Here is a selection of some of these studies:
| The Effectiveness of Virtual Reality for Administering Spatial Navigation Training to Firefighters
James P. Bliss, Philip D. Tidwell and Michael A. Guest – 2006
Participants were required to rescue a mock baby (a life-sized doll) following the specific trained route. Measures of test performance were compared among groups by using analyses of variance. The results indicated that firefighters trained with virtual reality or blueprints performed a quicker and more accurate rescue than those without training.
| Virtual reality training in laparoscopic surgery: A systematic review & meta-analysis
Medhat Alaker, Greg R.Wynn, Tan Arulampalam – 2016
Thirty one randomised controlled trials that compare virtual reality training to other models of training or to no training were included. The results of the meta-analysis showed that virtual reality simulation is significantly more effective than video trainers, and at least as good as box trainers.
| Virtual memory palaces: immersion aids recall
Eric Krokos, Catherine Plaisant, Amitabh Varshney – 2018
Virtual reality displays, such as head-mounted displays (HMD), afford us a superior spatial awareness by leveraging our vestibular and proprioceptive senses, as compared to traditional desktop displays. This study demonstrates that virtual memory palaces in HMD condition provide a superior memory recall ability compared to the desktop condition.
| Virtual Reality Training Improves Operating Room Performance
Seymour NE1, Gallagher AG, Roman SA, O’Brien MK, Bansal VK, Andersen DK, Satava RM – 2002
Surgeons trained via the Virtual Reality method, to perform operations, performed 29% faster and made 6 times fewer errors than surgeons trained via alternative methods.
| Using Serious Game Technology to Improve Aircrew Training
Dr. Tricia Mautone Dr. V Alan Spiker Dr. M Ron Karp – 2008
Results of an independent sample test indicated that participants who received the game-based version of the training scored significantly higher on the accuracy measure than those who had received the conventional version of the training.
Interested in finding our more about VR Training?
VR is just beginning in the corporate world and we will be talking about this more and more over the coming months and years, discussing how it can be used in all sorts of training scenarios. If you have any thoughts or experiences of VR training, then leave a comment or send us an email. We would love to start a conversation and get your thoughts on how you think this technology may help shape the future.
If you would like further information about this or any of the topics we cover, please leave your comments below, or email us at info@certifiedskills.co.uk
