Finding ways to make learning “stick” with technology is always a challenge. Augmented reality is one of those “make it stick” technology options available for education and training. However, AR can seem overwhelming, expensive, time-consuming, and difficult to use in everyday learning development. These assumptions cause developers to overlook the potential this technology holds for their learners.

In mainstream corporate learning, there is a lack of use cases for (and general knowledge of) applying virtual reality technology to help enhance learning outcomes. What works? What does not work? What have companies learned to date? How can you use VR most effectively in the enterprise? And why is VR, unlike the eLearning model, “community-based” and not vendor-driven?

As an instructional designer, trainer, or coach, how do you turn the lessons you develop into realities that the learner can appreciate, retain, and react appropriately to? Many training solutions struggle to simulate authentic experiences because the training is either designed to prevent something (like sexual harassment) or to prepare for a rare scenario (such as responding to a medical emergency).

VR isn’t new to the training world. For decades, high-end simulators and fully immersive VR experiences have been deployed and applied successfully to various fields. But these experiences have—until recently—been limiting, as few had access to the high-end equipment needed and, even worse, there can be an inherent disconnect between the virtual and real world, which can sometimes make applying knowledge challenging.

The world of work is shifting. As globalization and the gig economy continue to grow, there will be an increased need to improve the way people learn, collaborate, and innovate together while they are geographically apart. Virtual reality has great potential to address this growing need.

Virtual reality has exploded over the past year, extending to conversations in the mobile, gaming, and video landscape. There’s a rapidly rising interest in how to use this new technology for learning and performance. With “VR” now one of the hottest buzzwords, how much is hype and how much is substance?

Healthcare education about dementia typically focuses on increasing understanding through didactic methods (i.e., scripto-visual materials) that address knowledge rather than emotion and experience. A scan of educational technologies for dementia revealed limited products using animated VR and facilitated in-person or physically constructed simulations. These approaches are not cost-effective, sustainable, or easily scalable. Furthermore, these have not been evaluated for effectiveness or impact.

A new generation of virtual reality headsets is bringing immersion to new levels—the feeling of actually being in another place. Imagine strapping on a headset and practicing emergency response procedures in a realistic-looking computer-generated environment. Or experiencing racial biases from a first-person perspective. Or sending new employees on a virtual field trip to far-flung company locations. Evidence of the effectiveness of VR in learning is overwhelming, and both VR hardware and software are now becoming more affordable. Still, there are few case studies that demonstrate how to leverage VR for learning. What do you need to understand to use this medium more effectively in L&D?

Immersive learning experiences can be a large leap for organizations, instructional designers, and trainers who are accustomed to traditional classroom and online training methods. It can be overwhelming to think about how to go from creating eLearning to developing complex virtual reality experiences. However, there are other immersive learning options to consider: alternate reality games (ARGs) and mixed reality. These solutions can bridge the gap between the way you currently develop content and new methods, providing you an incremental entry into immersive learning.

As products and services become more complex, providing the right training or performance support has the biggest impact on improving proficiency. Augmented and virtual reality can be the link that enables you to deliver your valuable content directly to your audience when they need it most. 

Augmented reality is a trend that’s now becoming more tangible—along with the hardware that allows people to experience it. These shifts mean it’s increasingly important in L&D not only to understand how AR can work, but also to explore how to move forward and actually create content for this new medium. But for many departments facing limited budgets, it’s a challenge to create meaningful learning and performance support experiences in AR without having to spend a fortune on software, hardware, or developers.

Virtual reality is no longer just an expensive curiosity, but a real option for many trainers and educators. Like many new media, it runs the risk of being used badly. Strategies and methods from earlier media are not necessarily suited to new media. If you apply classroom methods to VR, what will you miss? If you apply video strategies to VR, what will you get wrong?

The ability to explore an environment in all directions offers exciting possibilities for telling stories and engaging audiences. But how do you make the exploration truly interactive so it opens up more learning opportunities? From hazard identification to virtual tours to situational decision-making, where will this exciting new technology prove most beneficial to workforce performance?

Moving your organization forward with new approaches to learning and development can be challenging—especially when the new approaches involve nontraditional ideas or technologies. Our Overcoming Barriers sessions bring together people who have already walked this path to share what they have learned. Join our panel of experts as they discuss how you can overcome the most common barriers to incorporating augmented reality into your training and development programs.

Eight out of 10 college graduates expect to receive formal training from their first employer. The training industry has struggled to satisfy this need—partly due to a lack of affordable and appropriate media, and partly due to training programs that ultimately lack engagement. With 24/7 availability of on-demand, high-quality media, the digital workforce is becoming even more disengaged from these outdated training solutions. Fortunately, the recent growth of virtual reality and of media and graphics has made top-shelf multimedia technologies more affordable and accessible to trainers. There’s now an opportunity to create training solutions that can compete with today’s entertainment media, making training much more engaging and effective.

Virtual reality offers a promising new strategy for training, engaging learners in a realistic and 360-degree environment. But while the skills transfer possibilities are enormous, there have been two major challenges with using this medium in L&D. The first was the technology cost: In the past, VR head-mounted displays were too expensive for most companies and schools to consider. The second was content creation: Most L&D professionals lacked the capability to design VR environments and integrate them effectively in training. However, a lot changed with the release of Google Cardboard, as this technology allows organizations to invest in affordable head-mounted VR displays. Cost has become less of a concern; now it’s just a matter of how to design effective VR content.

There is excitement in the air about augmented reality; but, just like with any new technology, different companies are approaching it from different directions. And while looking at the potential of AR from a number of angles will help push the technology further, this lack of a single development approach also means that, at this stage, some solutions will play nicely with others and some will not. To assist this technology in moving forward and becoming mainstream, the augmented reality space needs some established structure and standards.

When you begin to explore virtual reality programming, you quickly realize it requires learning many new things across several disciplines. It can be difficult to determine where to start, as the expanding list that begins with VR programming grows to include 3-D graphics, user interface conventions across varying VR hardware, how to set up and use a VR headset, where to find the best VR applications, and more.

On the manufacturing plant floor, production is crucial. No matter how well trained the employees are, there is a loss of retention between training delivery and application. The longer it takes to close that gap, the longer production is halted.

There are a wide range of solutions for implementing augmented reality in training and enterprise applications. Even with these myriad solutions, it’s not always clear how to use them to provide the best possible experience for users. How do you ensure that these solutions are being used to build something useful and meaningful? What is the difference between a good and a bad augmented reality experience?