Immersive Studying In Company Coaching
Understand what immersive learning is about
Today’s learners are easily distracted. While it is easy enough to get their attention in the short term, keeping them busy for a long period of time is indeed a challenge! In a technology-driven world, distractions are everywhere and pockets keep buzzing. Fascinating popups from SnapChat, hilarious Instagram feeds, and even mundane hellos from WhatsApp require immediate attention and encourage borderline addictive behavior.
Corporate employees today have the short end of the stick. Technological progress is advancing at a rapid pace, and you have to do everything possible to stay up to date. It’s a do-or-die situation: team upskilling and retraining is no longer an option, but a must.
What’s the answer? Immersive learning and its myriad uses in corporate training have proven to be the right boxes. By offering an exciting and engaging learning journey, immersive learning leverages real-world experiences that learners put in the driver’s seat. Each trip is personalized, with powerful tools that assess, hone and hone the skills at each stage.
Accenture’s report, Immersive Learning for the Future Workforce, promotes experiential learning as the most effective form of learning because it increases the quality of learning and improves retention rates by up to 75%.
Let’s understand what immersive learning is all about.
Employees accepted into their new role typically have to go through a learning curve that often unlearned everything they learned in college or in their previous job. On-the-job learning takes time, low productivity, and can lead to costly mistakes.
Immersive learning replaces workplace practice with experiential learning opportunities that are safe and controlled. It provides realistic scenarios that will help learners understand the application of concepts and get them used to making decisions that will lead to favorable outcomes without fear of actual failure. There is a lot of room for error and since learners absorb knowledge and skills at their own pace, the organization does not have to pay the price for inexperience.
Immersive learning increases engagement many times over and arouses the learner’s curiosity. By offering measurable results and instant satisfaction, they want to improve. As a company-wide learning solution, it can be tailored to the company’s vision, practices and culture.
And the numbers speak for themselves. Research shows that learners can remember up to 75% more when they use virtual teaching labs instead of traditional learning methods. A study published in Medtech innovator on surgeons who have completed VR-based training shows that their performance has increased by 230% compared to conventional training methods and received higher ratings on the Global Assessment Five Point Rating Scale; a clear differentiator.
While there is undeniable hype around this new method of learning, there is also a plethora of misconceptions and myths that keep it from becoming the preferred choice of all learners everywhere. As someone who has been in the edutech industry for over a decade – and experienced firsthand the profound impact immersive learning can have on corporate L&D strategies – I want to try and debunk these theories!
6 myths about immersive learning
Myth # 1: Immersive learning is all about AR and VR
For those unfamiliar with these terms, Virtual Reality (VR) offers an immersive experience with headsets that create a replica of the outside world. while Augmented Reality (AR) uses clear lenses to add virtual elements to a live environment. These innovative techniques are engaging and fun, and make learning effortless – simply because the learner wants to learn.
While AR and VR are cutting edge, hip educational strategies, they don’t encompass the entirety of immersive learning tools. Simulations, real scenarios, gamification and cloud labs are older forms of training that have already proven to be extremely successful. Experiential learning enables learners to absorb and retain knowledge with ease rather than forcing concepts that are easily forgotten.
Myth # 2: Immersive learning is very time consuming for employees
To be honest, any form of learning takes time. However, immersive learning platforms offer the flexibility and convenience of learning anytime, anywhere, making it very easy to insert bite-sized snippets of valuable learning on the go.
In contrast, traditional forms of learning require employees to leave their work half done and attend training at set times, hand in tasks with tight deadlines, and neglect their regular work while they continue their education.
Myth # 3: People with low attention spans will not benefit
But on the contrary! If people are actually preoccupied with what they are doing, they will be completely absorbed in the learning journey. Even those who have been written off as attention deficit individuals!
Immersive learning programs allow the narration to unfold gradually and effortlessly capture – and retain – the learner’s full attention through relevant micro-learning nibbles filled with information. Traditional content is magically transformed into enticing competitions, creative activities and challenging simulations, all based on real life rather than hypothetical scenarios.
Studies show that micro-learning, learning that takes place in short intervals of 5-7 minutes, increases retention rates by 70-90% compared to just 15% for traditional learning!
Myth # 4: Creating immersive learning content is expensive and requires hiring a hi-tech team
Immersive learning solutions such as simulations in mobile apps, game-based learning, 360-degree videos, coding platforms or interactive assessments do not require high-tech know-how for design and deployment.
While AR and VR can come with a high initial outlay, these tools make up for their cost by a multiple of reducing the ongoing L&D budget. They also generate a much higher ROI in the long term. Employees can gain end-to-end training experiences that help them find quick solutions to common problems.
Myth # 5: Immersive learning doesn’t just scale up
Many companies shy away from researching immersive learning because they believe it is not easily scalable. In fact, the opposite is true. The further training of the employees can easily be used in all regions in order to bring all teams on the same level and to increase the performance and productivity on a broad front.
Even if you have to equip yourself to convey AR and VR experiences, the tools you need are cheaper than, for example, transporting employees to personal training locations and having to pay company trainers over and over again.
Myth # 6: Only young learners can understand the process of immersive learning
The beauty of immersive learning lies in its simplicity. Just as much emphasis is placed on user experiences as on curated content, and regardless of which generation they belong to, learners can understand in no time how to navigate through the interfaces.
In fact, older adults – who fall into the 55+ age group – are fueling Facebook’s recent growth spurt. EMarketer reports that Facebook’s user base is expected to grow to 176.3 million by the end of 2022; a number that can be attributed in large part to the elderly population.
Conclusion
By balancing learning needs with technology performance, corporate educators everywhere are reshaping their approaches to employee training and reaping rich dividends in the process. We are on the cusp of a dizzying revolution in knowledge sharing and learning paradigms. And there is still a long way to go!
