Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Augmented reality allows you to create an immersive experience for learners. AR can combine images, sound, movies, games, search engines, databases, social media, and the web and explode them across the physical world, revealing invisible stories around products, processes, and operations. But what makes a compelling AR experience that makes learning stick, and how can you get started creating AR content?

In this session, you’ll find out how to design and create low-cost AR learner experiences that pack a punch. You’ll explore a wide range of budget-friendly AR authoring tools, learn about their strengths and weaknesses, and identify how to design around them. You’ll also investigate which AR experiences work best across different learning solutions, allowing you to target the experience you create to the context and situation it will be used in.

In this session, you will learn:

• Which AR experiences are most likely to create sticky learning
• About the functions and limitations of several current AR authoring tools
• What current AR viewers are like through a live demo
• Best practices of mobile AR design
• How to prepare an AR experience design plan

Audience:

Designers and developers.

Technology discussed in this session:

Zappar, Layar, and A-Frame.

Virtual reality offers a promising new strategy for teaching, engaging learners in a realistic and 360-degree environment. However, while the instructional possibilities are extraordinary, there have been two major challenges facing most classrooms: technology cost and instructional relevance.

This session will explore a faculty member and instructional designer’s path to successfully incorporate VR in online courses and face-to-face labs at a public institution. You will learn what you need to get started with collecting resources, utilizing free and open-source technologies and low-cost VR alternatives. You will examine common missteps and solutions when incorporating VR for budget-friendly, interactive experiences for various subject matters. At the end of the session, you will have useful guidelines on designing interactive 360-degree videos, as well as a proven method to integrate these immersive experiences in learning activities.

In this session, you will learn:

• Which AR experiences are most likely to create sticky learning
• About the potential of interactive 360-degree videos and Google Cardboard for effective instruction
• How to locate and curate affordable VR tools and software
• Which tools and software you can use to design interactive 360-degree videos

Audience:

Designers and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:

Samsung 360 Gear, 3-D images, Google Cardboard, Sketchfab, YouTube, and GoPro.

Virtual reality simulations can be hard to get right, and many VR authoring solutions require slow re-configuring processes to make changes. This can make prototyping slow. At the same time, really knowing that you’ve got the right elements, the right words, the right sequence is hard for a new medium like virtual reality without actually experiencing it. A means of quickly testing and tweaking is needed.

In this session you’ll learn about WebVR as a technology to watch, then see how WebVR leverages the flexibility and maturity of the website ecosystem to enable fast, effective simulations prototyping. Using a purpose-built URL, you’ll be able to author your own short simulation and test it on your own phone, as WebVR works on every device.

In this session, you will learn:

• What WebVR is
• Why WebVR is perfect for eLearning
• How to rapidly prototype and test simulations
• The benefits of iterative prototyping in VR
• The power of short simulations for skills learning

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, and senior leaders (directors, VPs, CLOs, executives, etc.).

Technology discussed in this session:

WebVR, API Aframe, mobile VR, Samsung Odyssey, mobile notifications/text to distribute VR simulations.

Technology Required:

Laptop, Smartphone, Google cardboard (optional)

What if we could infuse the power of social learning into virtual reality or augmented reality? While they offer deeply immersive experiences for individuals, both can be primarily a solo experience. Learn how Visa is using connected mobile devices in concert with VR hardware and AR triggers to create collaborative experiences for teams of learners both inside and outside the classroom.

In this session, you’ll explore Visa’s successes and lessons learned and receive guidance for how you can leverage social VR/AR with your employees. You’ll see Visa’s team-based learning game(s) in action, take away a design “template” you can leverage to build a team-based learning experience at your organization, and ideate on how social VR/AR can be used with your employees.

In this session, you will learn:

• How Visa is using connected mobile devices in concert with extended realities to create collaborative experiences
• Ideas on how social AR/VR technologies can be used with your employees both inside and outside the classroom
• Best practices and tips for bringing new technology into your learning culture
• How you can leverage Visa’s “template” to build a team-based VR learning experience at your organization

Audience:

Designers and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:

Virtual reality (HTC Vive + custom build), augmented reality, iPads.

Behavioral video-based simulations are perfect for altering sales, coaching, customer service, assessment and selection, leadership, and other related behaviors. The only problem is that designing simulations is not easy. To further complicate the design process, adding in video can be daunting.

In this session, you will examine how combining video and eLearning can create effective simulations that change behaviors. You will experience award-winning video-based simulations. Additionally, you will learn tips and techniques that experts use when designing, producing, and developing video simulations. Finally, we will discuss practical tools you can use on your next project.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to differentiate between first-person, second-person, and third-person point-of-view video simulations
• Techniques for designing linear decision points that reflect behaviors
• How to create dialogue that is realistic for video
• How to identify tools to use when storyboarding and flowcharting simulations

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, and senior leaders (directors, VPs, CLOs, executives, etc.).

Technology discussed in this session:

Branchtrack, Storyline, video.

Virtual reality is rapidly gaining acceptance as an exciting technology for learning. But once we get beyond the hype, we need to ask: Can learning in a virtual world really transfer to the real world?

In this session you’ll examine an early virtual reality platform that enabled hospital staff to prepare for a move to a new hospital building. You’ll delve into the design of an experimental study that carefully controlled for confounding variables to determine the effectiveness of the hospital’s investment in building the virtual hospital. You’ll explore lessons learned from creating the virtual hospital and guidelines for measuring the actual effectiveness and outcomes, and you’ll learn how to get beyond the VR hype by gathering valid evidence.

In this session, you will learn:

• How VR can be used to simulate an environment that cannot be entered in the real world
• How to design a study that provides valid evidence of the transfer of learning from a virtual world to the real world
• How to avoid the common pitfalls of a media comparison study
• The (surprising) results of the study

Audience:

Designers, managers, and senior leaders (directors, VPs, CLOs, executives, etc.). 

Technology discussed in this session:

Second Life.

In many companies, all of the most important data and technologies sit inside high-security locations that most employees can’t ever access. But this data and equipment represents a direct link to the customer experience, and it’s important for employees to understand what is inside these centers and what it means for their services. How can you give employees a realistic and immersive view inside what is typically unseen?

In this session, you will learn how a team was approached with a standard request—“We want to convert this Flash course to Articulate Storyline”—that started a conversation on the “art of what’s possible.” The result is an immersive 360-degree and panoramic experience, in which learners can feel like they are actually in a data center and explore key components and equipment. You will see how the team solved both a learning dilemma (old learning technologies) and an access dilemma (employees couldn’t go inside) in one solution!

In this session, you will learn:

• About the design and development of an immersive 360 video experience for a large telecommunications data center
• How they partnered with the client to share the cost of the solution, given the ambiguity of the scope
• How to determine what hardware and software to invest in based on the client’s needs (e.g., equipment in the facility can change)
• How to storyboard the experience, plan the shoot, and film the footage
• How to deploy solutions within employee training programs that meet all learners’ needs

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, and senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.).

Technology discussed in this session:

Insta360 camera, camera gimbal mount, Boris FX, Mocha VR, and Kolor Panotour Pro.

Virtual reality provides an opportunity for engaging and immersive learning experiences for students in higher education. Much of its development for educational purposes has been in settings with direct contact with students, like classrooms and labs. However, given all the considerations for designing online courses for students across the world, does VR add pedagogical value (and enough return on investment) in an online learning context?

In this session, you will learn about the methods instructional designers at Penn State World Campus used to vet, create, and integrate immersive 360 videos, as well as the research findings regarding learner perception of their value toward the learning experience. Particular focus was on the method learners used to interact with the videos, such as a headset, and its impact on their understanding of concepts. Given the requirements of online course development, special consideration was given to the financial and timeline implications as well as creating learning objects that all students can access and experience.

In this session, you will learn:

• About the considerations for integrating immersive 360/VR content in online course design
• About the challenges for delivering 360/VR content to students at a distance
• About the preliminary perceptions of immersive 360/VR content from online students
• About a pedagogically sound approach for developing immersive 360 content, from ideation to integration in an online learning environment
• Recommendations for how to progress toward true virtual reality or delivery of immersive content based on the evaluation of 360 video pilots

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, and senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.).

Technology discussed in this session:

360-degree video, Nikon KeyMission 360, GoPro Omni, Google Cardboard, VR Headset Revolution, and Adobe Premiere.

If you got the chance to walk around experiencing the world as a retired person, would that change your financial planning in the present? If you got to have firsthand experience of being a patient, could that change how you treat patients? If you were able to experience the results of a major safety catastrophe, would that make you safer in your daily work life?

This session will look at different examples from the ongoing research into using immersive learning environments to address difficult behavior change problems. Several intriguing studies suggest that having a visceral experience may be a powerful tool for behavior change.

In this session, you will learn:

• About research efforts to use VR and AR for behavior change
• About the limitations of these efforts, and what to be cautious of
• About examples of ways to use VR for behavior change
• About models for behavior change that apply to visceral experience

Audience:

Designers and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:

Virtual reality and augmented reality platforms that specifically target behavior change.

VR and 360 video can be daunting. You may think you need to become a developer and learn complex code to create a real VR experience. Or maybe you are not even sure where to start.

Luckily, VIAR360 makes it easy for anyone to get started with creating interactive VR experiences without knowing complex code. Their simple drag-and-drop tools allows you add interactive elements that can be used on several devices while providing you with real-time analytics and LMS integration. In this session, you will get started building these interactive experiences and learn step by step how to create your own interactive VR story.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to shoot and edit 360 video
• How to make that content interactive with VIAR360
• How to publish your app to be viewed on various devices
• How to gain real time analytics with your app

Audience:

Designers, developers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:

VIAR 360, 360 video.

Technology Required:

VIAR 360.

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.

Audience:

Novice to advanced designers, developers, managers, and executives.

Technology discussed in this session:

Augmented reality platforms, including multiple types of hardware and software.

You don’t have to look very long to find reports and studies that say there is widespread dissatisfaction with the learning function inside organizations around the world. Ninety-one percent of learning and development professionals believe new learning technologies are needed. Enter virtual reality, which is the solution to corporate learning’s problems. Still in its infancy, VR has drastically improved the way individuals learn and retain information—and corporate learning has taken notice.

In this session, you will learn how employee training can be accelerated and improved upon using VR technology. You’ll learn why some of the world’s biggest companies are turning to VR to train and develop their workforce—and how they’re having success. This session will cover the science behind VR and why it’s such a great fit for learning, as well as the data that proves VR to be a highly effective learning tool.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why virtual reality is being used by L&D organizations everywhere
• The reason VR is such a great learning tool
• About Fortune 500 companies’ use of VR for learning
• About virtual and augmented reality
• The science behind VR, and why science has blessed it as a great learning tool

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, and senior leaders (directors, VPs, CLOs, executives, etc.).

Technology discussed in this session:

Oculus, HTC Vive, Samsung GearVR, Google Daydream, Microsoft HoloLens, PlaystationVR.

The increasing interest in VR, AR, and simulation projects for learning and education is being driven in large part by the new consumer devices that are making these technologies more accessible than ever before. While these new consumer devices are normalizing the use of these technologies in our daily lives, the use of AR, VR, and simulations for training has been in practice for decades within the government.

In this closing session, you will learn from a series of experts who have worked on AR, VR, and simulation government training projects. You’ll explore what they learned during a period of expensive, proprietary technologies, and how that knowledge is helping drive decisions related to the current explosion of consumer technologies. The best way to discover the opportunities present in an emerging technology is to learn from someone who has already walked that path, and this closing panel of experts will share their lessons learned to help guide you as you implement AR, VR, and simulations projects of your own.