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 hands-on 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:
Novice to intermediate designers, developers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Layar, Playme, Zap, Aurasma, EasyAR, WakingApp, and ARToolKit SDK.

Technology required:
A smartphone or tablet (Android or iOS) and a laptop.

Navigating larger-scale virtual spaces presents difficulties for learners. The difficulties and the solutions parallel those in eLearning but take unique forms in VR. How do learners know where they are? How do learners know where to go or look next? How can multiple paths be presented and organized?

In this session, you will look to architecture, web, and eLearning design for wayfinding solutions in virtual reality. You will learn a variety of spatial, visual, and storytelling strategies to help direct the learner and minimize extraneous load. You will explore alternate solutions to wayfinding issues and leave with a toolkit of strategies to use in various situations.

In this session, you will learn:

• About the unique wayfinding issues that VR presents
• How to examine wayfinding strategies used in eLearning and web design
• How to contrast wayfinding strategies in architecture
• About spatial and visual strategies for situating VR users

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
A variety of wayfinding solutions in a pair of Unity-developed examples for HTC Vive and mobile VR.

Technology is being used in many settings to augment work, but mainly in task completion. VR and immersive 360-degree video, however, can aid people in more emotionally challenging situations. The Hospital for Sick Children sought to help children who face severe hospital-based anxiety in the preoperative area. The team also faced the challenge of making 360-degree videos acceptable to parents and healthcare professionals.

In this session, you will explore the theoretical framework of managing anxiety and learn how 360-degree immersive videos provided a solution for managing anxiety in children. You will learn how to use a framework, aligned with pragmatic research, to create and develop 360-degree videos. You will learn about the strategies that were effective in encouraging adoption of 360-degree videos by key stakeholders, and key steps for developing scalable 360-degree videos.

In this session, you will learn:

• About the role of 360-degree videos in providing exposure therapy to reduce anxiety
• The steps to rapidly develop and assess 360-degree videos for side effects in children
• Strategies useful for encouraging institution-wide adoption of virtual reality
• How to assess the user acceptance of new technologies

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
360-degree video.

For years, training departments and instructional designers have struggled to develop quality mobile learning. Users don’t want to access eLearning courses designed for a computer or watch 30-minute training videos from their phone while using up all their data. And technologies like VR and AR sound expensive and difficult to make scalable for a company.

In this session, you will learn how to build a new and improved mobile strategy that may include augmented, virtual, or mixed realities. You’ll find out how to turn those boring training videos and eLearning courses into completely unique and engaging interactive learning experiences with the power of the mobile phone. And you’ll even learn how you can fit AR and VR into your existing budget.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to create a learning strategy that includes AR and VR
• How to budget for the development of these technologies
• How to elevate mobile learning to greater heights
• How to make AR and VR scalable

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
Anatomy 4D, Elements 4D, String app, Layar, Blippar, Vuforia, YouTube 360, Unity, Articulate Storyline, Samsung Gear VR, Google Cardboard, and 360fly cameras.

As virtual and augmented reality technologies continue to advance, it becomes more important than ever to determine how best to utilize these tools in eLearning and training programs.

In this session, you will explore various use cases for virtual reality and augmented reality. More importantly, you will explore situations in which you should NEVER use VR or AR. During this highly collaborative session, participants will outline cost-effective best practices for training industry professionals to apply over the next six to 12 months. No single organization has all the answers, but L&D pros can work together to create some usable guidelines.

In this session, you will learn:

• Best practices for getting started with augmented or virtual reality
• From early use cases of AR and VR in practice
• When NOT to use AR or VR

Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
Virtual and augmented reality.

Two of the more important elements in quality eLearning are interactivity and storytelling. Virtual reality enables you to take those two elements to new heights, but it also presents new and unique challenges.

In this session, you will learn the story behind The Price of Freedom, a mind-bending spy drama that takes place entirely in VR. You will learn about the challenges that came up in building the game and how the storytelling evolved. You will learn about what makes VR storytelling unique, and how to harness VR platforms to create new and immersive experiences.

Many global companies today are aiming to develop deep understanding of the human side of organizations, markets, and societies. The challenge many organizations face, as they seek to develop their leaders, is how to bring about this level of insight and understanding without sending all of their managers and leaders around the world. Enter 360-degree immersive video.

This session will focus on the use of 360-degree immersive video for manager and leader development. You will look at how Duke Corporate Education has applied this technology, immersing leaders in new environments and tasking them to use observational skills to uncover patterns. You will learn how 360-degree immersive video is helping managers and leaders discover what biases they have. Finally, this session will provide real-life examples, walking you through design and implementation considerations along the way.

In this session, you will learn:

• About applications of 360-degree video to leadership development
• Through example footage and materials related to Duke Corporate Education’s work
• About design and implementation considerations
• How to engage in discussion about using this technology for leadership development

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, managers, and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
Kodak Pixpro SP360, monopods and tripods, sound equipment, and Samsung Gear VR (with Galaxy S7).

When you’re about to launch new software, hardware, or programs, you may be focusing on the technical aspects of the launch. But there’s another angle you need to consider: user buy-in. That was the concern for USPI, a company that owns more than 300 surgical centers and hospitals across the US, when it was preparing for its new staffing software rollout. This software was mandatory for all employees to use, and with so much on the line, the team knew engagement was key to success. But how could they build that staff buy-in when they lacked both an established communication platform and, more importantly, an existing culture of change to lean on?

In this case study session, you’ll find out how USPI leveraged augmented reality as a key component in its launch communication campaign and how this boosted overall buy-in. You’ll see how the team used posters, video, and the Aurasma app to deliver AR content to their audience in a way that was budget- and device-friendly. But AR alone doesn’t make for a successful campaign, which is why you’ll also explore how an interactive, feedback-driven campaign like this can maximize audience participation and engagement, contributing to more audience buy-in.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to create a branded, multifaceted communication campaign using AR technology
• How to create an AR campaign that can reach a varied demographic with equally varied technology
• How to structure a virtual campaign around a narrative
• How to produce iterative content based on audience feedback
• What an AR-based campaign can look like with a live demo of the project

Audience:
Novice designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
Aurasma (augmented reality app for Android and iPhone); video and posters.

Today’s learners are faced with an ever-growing surplus of content to learn, process, and employ in their careers. Companies have terabytes of knowledge, skills, behaviors, and standard work required for successful day-to-day operations. They need to empower their employees with a system for efficiently building on or augmenting the capabilities each person brings to the organization. Augmented intelligence is one possible solution.

In this session, you’ll examine several major AI voice technologies and how they’re being used today, including API.AI, Google Home, Alexa, and several others. You’ll then take a look at how voice-user interfacing can be used for learning and information, including demonstrations of hands-free, multi-level instruction complemented by audio and visual feedback. This session will give you the opportunity to engage in a conversation about what new user experiences this technology can give your audience—not years in the future, but today!

In this session, you will learn:

• About voice-user interfaces
• About the API.AI open-source technology
• How to create a basic Alexa skill or Google action
• About potential uses for AI in your employee development programs

Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers, developers, project managers, and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
API.AI, Google Home (Google Actions), Alexa (Amazon Echo, Dot, and the Alexa Skill Kit), and other integrations (Google Calendar, Internet of Things, Amazon DynamoDB).

Virtual reality has great potential for learning and development. Like any new technology, VR also comes with risks, such as investments of time, money, and other resources. To minimize these risks, it’s important to do everything you can to get things right the first time.

In this session, you will explore case studies of global organizations that have embarked on their first VR training programs. You will examine specific briefs, proposals, and results from real clients that have already walked this path. If you are considering implementing VR training in your organization, you won’t want to miss this session.

In this session you will learn:

• About the criteria for technology and methodology to evaluate your training approach and where VR fits in
• Questions to ask yourself about VR
• How to vet a technology partner
• How to get executive buy-in and secure funding

Audience:
Novice to advanced project managers, managers, and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
Virtual reality.

AR, VR, and enhanced reality technologies are truly disruptive. The potential of these technologies isn’t just to enhance the work of L&D professionals; the real potential lies in doing something different and viewing your work through a different lens. If you want to harness the potential of these technologies, you need to see the work you do differently. In this closing panel, you will hear from early adopters of these technologies. You’ll learn from their successes, their failures, and the surprises they discovered along the way. They will discuss the path that the industry is forging, and debate whether the L&D field is headed in the right direction or whether it needs to shift course. This panel will put what you’ve learned at Realities360 into context, preparing you to blaze your own trail of discovery as you return to work.