104 Better Than the Real Thing: VR Learning Surpassing Real-world Training
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Tuesday, June 25
California
Imagine if your GPS took you to the wrong location once out of every 10 uses. Now imagine paying tens of thousands of dollars for this mistake. What started as a learning solution for waiters seating guests and delivering meals to wrong tables in an ultra-luxury, fine dining venue became a quest for a learning experience superior to real-world training. Could we do it?
In this session, we'll explore the challenges of deciding when VR is the best learning solution, design considerations to ensure your immersive training drives desired behavior change, how to focus end content to meet learning objectives, and tips to make your VR learning program more than a gimmick or novelty. We'll frame the presentation around the Seabourn table numbers project, and how solving these issues helped us create a learning solution superior to real-world training.
In this session, you will learn:
- The importance of developer/designer partnership, and how to leverage the expertise of both
- The kinds of questions to ask at the beginning to set up a project for success
- How you can drive both innovation and efficiency using VR
- Tips for writing VR learning objectives, and how to develop a measurement strategy that blends both the designer and developer prospective
- How to avoid "shiny object syndrome" and innovate to drive real business results (versus as a novelty or gimmick) so your program has longevity and superiority to real-world training
Technologies/platforms/devices discussed:
- Pixvana Spin Studio
- Pixvana Spin Play
- Oculus Go
Audience:
Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders
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Rachel Lanham
COO
Pixvana
Rachel Lanham, COO at Pixvana, is an accomplished leader with decades of experience delivering transformation and growth in startup and Fortune 500 settings. In 1999, Rachel and her aQuantive colleagues were digital advertising pioneers driving the evolution from nascent technology, to direct marketing engine, to critical component of cross-channel growth strategies. As an agency executive, Rachel led marketing innovation and results in collaboration with marquee partners like Weight Watchers, Levi's, and MillerCoors. In 2012 she started her own digital health company, which sold in 2016. At Pixvana, she works closely with innovative companies to help them solve critical business challenges using immersive technologies. She dreams of a world where all companies leverage XR storytelling to engage employees, prospects, and fans.
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Nicole Bunselmeyer
L&D Practice Lead
Pixvana
Nicole Bunselmeyer is a senior executive at Pixvana. Her nearly 20- year career in corporate learning and business development includes leading a boutique online training development company and working as learning consultant for innovative online learning experiences in a wide span of industries. Nicole has taught eLearning design and development at the University of Washington and Bellevue College.
107 From Prototype to Prominence: Transforming Clinical Education at Alcon
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Tuesday, June 25
Garden
How do you go from a concept to a VR platform with global distribution and analytics that proves efficacy? Producing VR content is challenging without a long-term plan for software monitoring and iteration. Where do you start?
We will provide the roadmap, from concept to execution, of a multi-national VR training software suite and management program produced by Elara for Alcon. In this breakdown we'll guide you through both the vision of a long-term VR content network, and the individual steps we took to launch this successful interactive education platform. You’ll learn how to reveal value to key stakeholders, the best points to leverage partners during the process, and more about the various tools and techniques used. Finally, we’ll help you understand how to better define and measure success of a multi-stage rollout of VR.
In this session, you will learn:
- The importance of prototyping
- How to use content distribution to maintain compliance
- How to demonstrate value to senior leadership
- When to use strategic partners to help execute your vision
- How to take your vision for VR and turn it into actionable steps
- A breakdown of specific tools and techniques
- What constitutes a successful multi-stage rollout of VR content
Technologies/platforms/devices discussed:
- Tethered and untethered virtual reality technology
- A "VR Command Center" web-based content distribution
- Haptic devices for surgical simulation
- Integration with LMS platforms
- Playthrough video examples of deployed VR experiences
- VR analytics dashboards
Audience:
Managers, senior leaders, medical professionals
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Bob Dyce
Creative Director
Elara Systems
As the creative director of Elara Systems, a strategic creative agency, Bob produces transformative scientific and medical experiences. Bob works alongside 3-D artists, technical directors, VR/AR real-time experts, and motion graphic artists. Over the last 17 years, Bob has developed crucial relationships with technology vendors through beta testing and vetting emerging technology including 3-D software, enterprise VR tools, HoloLens, Magic Leap, and Haptics. Pushing the bounds of enterprise VR, AR and 3-D animation, Bob Dyce is a pioneer of digital content creation.
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Ian Berget
Lead Technical Artist
Elara Systems
Ian Berget of Elara Systems is a self-made, multidisciplinary technical artist, programmer, animator, and international karate champion. His portfolio and work ethic demonstrated at American River College lead him to an entry level position at Elara in 2015. He then shaped the company by advocating for the formation of an interactive, real time division focused primarily on extended reality. He now works as technical lead, and has proven instrumental in the conception and creation of over a dozen successfully-launched interactive projects.
203 Hardware Matters! How Different Levels of VR Gear Impact the Experience
12:45 PM - 1:45 PM Tuesday, June 25
Piedmont
Virtual reality hardware, and the computers that are needed to run higher quality headsets, are changing all the time. What difference does it make, and how will that impact learning?
In this session, you'll see firsthand examples of what different mobility, graphics, and computer power can do for the experience. We'll explore when using the highest-level available makes sense.
In this session, you will learn:
- Different quality levels in VR, and their impacts on experience
- Mobile vs. tethered, and when to use each
- How 6DoF impacts experience
- What to look for in computer/graphics hardware
- What's coming in VR hardware
Technologies/platforms/devices that will be discussed:
- Oculus Go
- Tethered VR
- Oculus Quest
- High level graphics cards
- 5K VR headset
- Intel chipsets
Audience:
Designers, developers, managers
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Hugh Seaton
GM
Adept Reality
Hugh Seaton is GM of Adept Reality, a software company focused on using VR/AR in adult learning. Prior to Adept, Hugh founded AquinasVR, a VR/AR software company which he sold to the Glimpse Group, parent of Adept. Hugh’s focus, whether in immersive technologies, IoT or artificial intelligence, is on the intersection of learning science, creativity, and the cutting edge technologies that can bring learning to new levels of effectiveness.
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Lyron Bentovim
President & CEO
The Glimpse Group
Lyron Bentovim is the president & CEO of The Glimpse Group, a virtual reality and augmented reality platform company. Lyron has over 25 years of experience in executive management, technology investing, and entrepreneurship. Prior to co-founding The Glimpse Group in 2016, he served as CFO and COO for several technology companies including Top Image Systems (a SAAS software company), NIT Health (a healthcare IT company), and Sunrise Telecom, Inc. (a test and measurement solutions for telecom, wireless, and cable networks). He also founded Darklight Partners, a strategic advisory to small and mid-cap companies. Between 2002 and 2008, he was a co-founder and managing director of Skiritai Capital LLC, a San Francisco-based hedge fund focused on small cap technology investing. He holds an MBA from Yale School of Management and a law degree from the Hebrew University.
204 How to Successfully Implement VR Training at Scale
12:45 PM - 1:45 PM Tuesday, June 25
California
We've all heard about the power of VR for learning and the benefits it's providing some early adopters. But many companies are still scratching the surface with how VR can be used to boost learning outcomes and transform business operations. Pilots and PoCs have been deployed and then the question arises: "OK, this was great. But now what?" How does an organization move from a successful VR pilot to a wider-scale deployment?
In this session, you will learn how to deploy VR for training at a wide scale across your organization. You will learn from successful broad deployments like those at Walmart, Verizon, and Fidelity, and learn how these companies approached implementation. You will develop a framework for how to think about VR for training, as well as how to think about deploying VR training at multiple locations, benefiting thousands of employees. Finally, you will learn about data and metrics that have driven large organizations to integrate VR as an everyday offering for employee training.
In this session, you will learn:
- About a few organizations’ wide-scale deployments of VR for training
- How to think about going big with VR across your organization
- Why it makes business sense to deploy VR at scale
- Results and data around large-scale deployments
- Mistakes made and what to avoid when deploying VR at scale
Technologies/platforms/devices that will be discussed:
- Oculus
- Unity
- HTC
- VR
Audience:
Developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)
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Derek Belch
Founder and CEO
STRIVR
As founder and CEO, Derek Belch leads the vision and strategy behind STRIVR’s mission to elevate performance through immersive experience. Derek incubated the company with co-founder Jeremy Bailenson in Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab while pursuing his master's in virtual reality and serving as a graduate assistant football coach. Using sports as his proving ground, Derek’s vision quickly expanded from the athlete to the enterprise. Derek is driven by a competitive passion for impacting performance, and with STRIVR is pushing everyone to train like an athlete.
205 Multiplayer VR Escape Room: Design and Development of Shared Experiences
12:45 PM - 1:45 PM Tuesday, June 25
Empire
While virtual reality has been rapidly growing as an innovative method to deliver immersive and engaging training, current implementations are commonly isolated and singular experiences. As VR evolves to be more cost-friendly and the release of tetherless headsets (e.g., Oculus Quest) makes it more mobile, there is real potential now for VR training to also be leveraged for multi-user, shared experiences while still keeping engagement levels high.
In this session, you'll learn about the benefits of shared experiences in virtual reality and the approaches you can use to create them. First, explore the "why" by looking at various scenarios on how shared VR experiences can be used and the benefits these solutions bring. Then, discover the "how" by learning about what it takes to create a multiplayer VR solution. You’ll find out how to bring one of the most popular teambuilding exercises into the virtual world—an escape room—and then examine the three major building blocks in the creation of a multiplayer VR escape room: design considerations, the development process, and planning of ROI tracking.
In this session, you will learn:
- The benefits of implementing shared virtual reality experiences in training
- How multiplayer VR experiences can be cost-effective and achieve global reach
- Why a multiplayer virtual reality escape room can be used as an effective team-building training tool
- How to design a multiplayer VR escape room
- What design considerations need to be made when designing a shared VR experience
- What 3-D production and programming tools and considerations need to be made when creating a VR escape room
- What the 3-D production and development process looks like when creating a VR escape room
- How to build a tracking plan for ROI of a shared VR experience
Audience:
Designers, developers, managers
Technology discussed:
Unity, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, Photon Unity Networking
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William Garner
President & Chief Creative Officer
Tipping Point Media
William Garner, the founder, president, and chief creative officer of Tipping Point Media, is an award-winning creative strategist, technical innovator, motivating tactician, and collaborator. He leads a team of digital artists, web engineers, medical writers, 3-D/VR simulation developers, gamification designers, and educators.
Brittany Gilbert
Senior Digital Project Manager
Tipping Point Media
Brittany Gilbert is a senior digital project manager at Tipping Point Media who specializes in virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and gamification. She has shipped a multitude of award- winning interactive applications, including mobile gaming, interactive video, and VR/AR/MR training and marketing. With a background in game art and production, Brittany's hands-on technical experience allow her a unique, in-depth perspective of what is involved in building digital products from start to finish.
206 BYOD: Creating Branching VR Training Scenarios Using Motive.io
12:45 PM - 1:45 PM Tuesday, June 25
Crystal
Virtual reality is the next frontier for scenario-based training, but producing branching scenarios for VR is time consuming, expensive, and requires extensive technical expertise. Each scenario must be programmed by developers using a tool like Unity 3D, leaving instructional designers with little or no direct control over the content. For VR training to meet its full potential, instructional designers must be able to construct complex branching training scenarios themselves. The training content must be easy to author, maintain, and share with your team.
In this session you'll create a multi-step branching scenario for VR using the Motive.io authoring system. You'll explore how to capture the decisions that your trainees make using xAPI. You'll learn best practices for creating complex branching scenarios that are easy to understand and maintain. You'll leave the session with a new tool in your toolbox for engaging your audience with personalized and effective interactive content.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to create branching VR scenarios using the Motive.io authoring system
- How to use xAPI to track learner decisions and actions in VR
- How to manage a VR project that can be shared with co-workers
- Best practices for constructing branching VR scenarios that can be supported over time
Technologies/platforms/devices that will be discussed:
- Motive.io
- VR headsets
- Google Cardboard
- Oculus Go
- Unity 3D
Audience:
Designers, developers
Technology required:
Attendees will require a laptop with an internet connection to use the web-based Motive authoring system. Attendees with Google Cardboard and a supported phone or Oculus Go will be able to test the experience they develop in VR. Otherwise, attendees can use the Motive simulator on their Windows or Mac laptop to test the experience without a headset.
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Ryan Chapman
CEO
Motive.io
Ryan Chapman, CEO of Motive.io, is an engineer and technology executive with a passion for creating software tools that empower people to make the most out of technology. Ryan has a degree in engineering physics and a master's degree in computer science from the University of British Columbia. He has over 20 years of experience in the software industry, working on a variety of different platforms and systems and in a diverse array of workplaces, from start-up companies to Microsoft.
207 The Science of Presence: Improving Emotional Intelligence Through VR
12:45 PM - 1:45 PM Tuesday, June 25
Garden
The soft skills gap is real, according to Bersin, LinkedIn, and McKinsey. Employers reported leadership, communication, and collaboration as the most crucial skills to learn from L&D programs. However, when it comes to developing these complex skills, many current offerings teach what to do but don’t provide opportunities to practice and apply them. Learners may try games, role-plays or pre-recorded simulations, but are you truly moving the needle on performance? In light of shrinking budgets, limited time, and lack of effectiveness, how can you demonstrate impactful gains at scale?
With immersive VR simulations, it's now possible to deliver intelligent soft skills training at scale. Powered by a blend of AI and live human interaction, mixed reality VR has become the ideal way to gain essential skills in the workplace. By using trained specialists who orchestrate the interactions between learners and avatar-based characters, such simulations can achieve the realism needed to deliver measurable, high-impact results.
In this session, you will learn:
- The science of "presence" at work in VR
- How organizations are leveraging VR in areas like leadership development, sales enablement, and customer service
- How cost savings are realized for soft skills training
Audience:
Managers, senior leaders
Technology discussed in this session:
VR platform, mixed reality platform
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Christina Yu
Chief Marketing Officer
NovoEd
Christina Yu is a marketing executive focused on transformational learning technologies that unlock workforce potential and productivity. She is the chief marketing officer at NovoEd, the ultimate social and collaborative learning platform. She previously built the brand identity and growth strategy at Mursion, a virtual reality company for human skills at work. Christina was on the founding team of a new PaaS business unit at McGraw-Hill at the forefront of the company's transformation from publisher to software and services provider. She began her technology career at Knewton, a pioneer in adaptive learning, and held multiple product and business roles there.
303 Making the Case for Virtual Reality in Learning and Development
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM Tuesday, June 25
Crystal
Virtual reality is gaining traction in learning settings, but implementing it is resource intensive. Convincing your leadership to invest in virtual reality can be challenging unless you can speak to its impact on organizational outcomes. How do you know you're getting your learning bang for the buck? And how do you know if you really need it?
In this session, we'll take a research-based approach to discussing when and where virtual reality is most effective for learning. We'll review case studies from the military, government, and educational sectors where virtual reality has not just worked, but proven to be worth the investment. You'll understand the resources required to implement virtual reality; the situations in which it's most appropriate; and just as importantly, when it's not. At the end of this session you should understand how to make the case for virtual reality in your organization's L&D strategy.
In this session, you will learn:
- What resources are needed to implement VR for learning
- What situations are most effectively addressed by VR
- What research says about VR for learning
- How to make a case for VR in your organization
Technologies that will be discussed:
- Virtual reality
Audience:
Designers, managers, senior leaders
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Jennifer Solberg
CEO
Quantum Improvements Consulting
Jennifer Solberg, PhD, is the founder and CEO of Quantum Improvements Consulting (QIC), an Orlando-based firm specializing in the application of emerging technology to training for complex skills. A cognitive psychologist by trade, her work focuses on how to design, develop, implement, and evaluate training technology for the Department of Defense and other clients. At QIC, she leads a growing team of learning science professionals. In addition to her many peer-reviewed publications, her work has been featured in The New York Times, the Pentagon Channel, and Signal Magazine.
305 Top 10 Tips to Create an Effective VR User Experience/Interface Design
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM Tuesday, June 25
Gold
A VR experience can be exciting and rewarding if designed well. It can also be nauseating and short-lived if it's designed poorly. VR introduces a new realm of possibilities and an equal barrage of obstacles. Traditional elearning is designed in a flat, 2-D space. The 3-D space of VR is entirely different. We'll walk through the top 10 techniques to design an effective VR environment (and the common mistakes designers make). You'll learn about uncanny valley, detective mode, toddler mode, the fourth plane, and other popular terms used around VR/UX design. We'll introduce some recent tools on the market, and techniques that can help produce early prototypes and UX testing. We'll also show some of our favorite VR experiences and share secrets to their UX success.
In this session, you will gain an understanding of the user experience design principles that work in a VR environment. You'll learn the layout and interactivity techniques that are effective in VR and how to blend VR modalities, including 3DOF and 6DOF. You'll learn how to create arenas and activities that leverage the full 3-D world within VR. You'll learn techniques for wire framing and storyboarding the learning experience. You'll learn how to mix 360-video with CGI in the virtual space to enable practice. You'll leave this session with an UX framework that was specifically crafted to leverage the potential of VR.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to design a visually effective VR program
- What interactive techniques are effective in VR
- About the limitations of VR user experiences
- How to identify best practices and worst practices
- How to produce a UX model, wireframes, and storyboards
Technologies/platforms/devices that will be discussed:
- VR headsets: Oculus, VIVE, others
- VR examples
- Scripting tools
- Branchtracker
- 3-D wireframe tools
- Authoring tools
Target audience:
Designers, developers
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Bill West
President & Founder
RegattaVR
Bill West is the founder of Regatta VR and vice president of Immersive Learning Solutions at NIIT Limited. His career spans Accenture, EY, GP Strategies, Xerox, LEO, Sea Salt Learning, and eLearning Brothers. He founded one of the world's first elearning companies in 2001 and has led the adoption of new technologies for the last 20 years. His expansive client list includes over 100 global companies and his teams have won more than 50 industry awards. He has presented many times at training industry events, on topics ranging from learning methods and game design to virtual reality and xAPI. He's also written two highly-acclaimed books on successful vendor partnerships. His teams have adapted the strongest ID methods into a cohesive methodology for VR design and development, including VR user experience design and xAPI data management.
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Julie Havill
Senior Instructional Designer
RegattaVR
Julie Havill, a senior instructional designer with RegattaVR, focuses on the immersive design of VR learning solutions. She has worked in L&D for over 15 years and holds a master of science degree in adult education. Her work in the field of VR/ID is deeply rooted in supportive research and constructivist methodologies. Her experience spans the spectrum from traditional solutions, to those that are cutting-edge. Her award-winning work has benefited learners across industries and around the globe.
307 How to Enhance Your Existing eLearning with Virtual Reality
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM Tuesday, June 25
Valley
More companies are realizing the effectiveness of virtual reality for training. Getting excited about virtual reality doesn't mean you have to reinvent your entire training program. Chances are, you've already developed great learning content, eLearning courses, and even ILT sessions. But how do you incorporate virtual reality into your existing learning program?
In this session, we'll cover how you can implement augmented or virtual reality into your existing learning program to see even better results. We'll walk you through a case study on how a beverage distribution company built upon existing videos and eLearning courses to incorporate virtual reality into a blended learning strategy. You will learn how to identify which components of your current curriculum can be applied to 6dof/3dof VR environments or 360 video. We will examine different categories of learning, delivered as either eLearning courses or ILT, pertaining to onboarding, safety and compliance, and soft and technical skills training. We will then show you how to choose the best VR modalities to fit those learning objectives and enhance your blended learning strategy.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to examine your current learning program and recognize which portions are best suited for virtual reality
- Strategies for implementing VR in an instructor-led environment with large class sizes
- Best practices for developing an immersive learning program that combines eLearning/ILT courses with VR
- How a beverage distributor incorporated VR into a blended learning strategy
Technologies discussed:
Virtual reality, Unity, HTC Vive
Audience:
Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)
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Scott Stachiw
Multimedia Director
Roundtable Learning
Scott Stachiw is the multimedia director for Roundtable Learning. He has over 15 years of experience in the multimedia and digital design field. He has produced training and promotional content for organizations of all sizes, including Nike, Gatorade, and Adidas. Scott currently leads the immersive technology team at Roundtable Learning, and enjoys incorporating his passion for digital storytelling with the technology of AR and VR.
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Nick Day
Senior Learning Advisor
Roundtable Learning
Nick is a senior learning advisor at Roundtable Learning and has experience working in various roles for large financial institutions. Nick is passionate about helping others and being part of a growing company. In his role, Nick helps customers solve challenges by identifying their learning needs and building the best possible solutions.
403 Soft Skills in Virtual Reality: Creating an Inclusive Workplace
4:15 PM - 5:15 PM Tuesday, June 25
California
HP has been successful in teaching the concepts of an inclusive workplace to its employees. However, after sessions were over much of the feedback centered around how best to put those concepts in action. HP needed a learning solution that reinforced key concepts covered during traditional classroom sessions, and also illustrated practical application of those skills. Because this topic relies heavily on soft skills, HP wanted to prepare employees with practical conversational skills that promote inclusion. HP required a self-contained solution that learners could engage with on their own time. They turned to virtual reality as way to model and simulate office discussions in a way that integrated the classroom lessons into scalable, interactive, and highly-engaging modules.
In this session, you will learn how HP successfully extended its traditional classes on workplace inclusion with interactive learning modules in virtual reality. You'll explore the creative design process behind this training, and see how VR enhances traditional soft skill training. You'll look at how the key interactive elements of this VR training translate to application in the workplace. This presentation will also cover the science behind the feedback approach included in the module, and how you can structure your VR modules to maximize learner retention.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to use VR as a tool for both passive and active learning
- How soft skills can be taught, practiced, and developed in VR
- How to identify and quantify results of VR training
- Why virtual reality is an effective medium for soft skill development
Technologies that will be discussed:
- Virtual reality
- Natural language processing
Audience:
Managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)
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Jeff Meador
Principal
JMXR.pro
Jeff Meador is the founder of JMXR and also serves as the co-chair the VR/AR Association's training committee. He began his career working with Stanford's Multimedia Laboratory in the 1990s, developing some of the first online interactive experiences for classrooms. He has maintained his passion for leveraging and extending technology to create effective and engaging methods of learning. In recent years, his focus has turned to immersive media such as virtual and augmented realities. He works directly with both enterprise and start up clients, providing a clear, straightforward path to successful implementation and adoption of immersive reality technology.
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Dan Schneider
VR Evangelist
HP Americas
Dan Schneider is the virtual reality evangelist for HP Americas. He is a 10-year veteran of HP, with a long-time focus on virtual experiences. Dan regularly speaks about commercial VR emphasizing key verticals, training and simulation, product visualization, location-based entertainment, and healthcare. Dan has a passion for helping companies find great VR solutions for every industry. Prior to HP, Dan was an IT consultant for six years. He is a graduate of Western Illinois University.
404 Moving Forward Faster with VR
4:15 PM - 5:15 PM Tuesday, June 25
Empire
The frequency with which virtual reality is being deployed continues to grow in both enterprise and academic environments. However, there are still barriers that need to be overcome in implementing and expanding the use of these technologies in the context of learning and development.
In this panel discussion you will learn from individuals and organizations that have encountered and overcome these challenges. You will learn how we can accelerate the usage of VR by having productive introductory conversations about using the technology, and by taking our initial efforts and scaling them for greater organizational impact.
Audience:
Designers, developers, managers, directors
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Bianca Woods
Customer Advocacy Manager
Articulate
Bianca Woods is a customer advocacy manager at Articulate. Her past experience includes working on the community and event programming for the Learning Guild, learning and communications roles at BMO Financial Group, and teaching art. Bianca is passionate about how visual design and multimedia can help people learn, loves test-driving new technology, and collects photos of bizarre warning signs.
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Cindy Plunkett
Director, Learning Design & Development
PointClickCare
With over 20 years' experience in instructional design, development, and project management Cindy Plunkett is the Canadian eLearning Conference Executive Director, part-time professor in the faculty of education at Ontario Tech University, and co-creator of the Educational Technology for Health Practitioner Education course at the University of Toronto's department of Family and Community Medicine. Cindy has worked with three of the largest academic teaching hospitals in Canada on high profile projects like the SEME program, and has experience speaking and facilitating both nationally and internationally.
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Maikel Right
Associate Director of Instructional Learning Technologies
FIU Online
Maikel Right is the associate director of instructional learning technology with FIU Online. With degrees from the UF and FIU in the fields of cultural anthropology, healthcare, and business; his main research interests and publications are in cardiovascular molecular biology, aging, social media, anthropology, and online pedagogy. Maikel is also a faculty fellow at FIU's Honors College where he teaches online and in-person upper division courses, the CDO for a digital consulting company based in Miami, and serves on the board of VirtueCo, which provides art programs and resources for underserved youth in South Florida, the Caribbean, and throughout Latin America.
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Susan Spark
Learning Technology Manager
Schlumberger
Susan Spark is the learning technology manager at Schlumberger. Along with her exceptional team, she is focused on bringing L&D into the fold of the corporate strategy toward digital platforms, big data, and innovative technologies. Susan is responsible for the development of emerging learning technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, as well as implementation of a modern, adaptable, learning ecosystem. She effectively integrates 14 years of Schlumberger experience across diverse roles in data management, recruiting, HR compliance, and training center management.
406 BYOD: Creating Virtual Reality Projects Using Adobe Captivate 2019
4:15 PM - 5:15 PM Tuesday, June 25
Gold
Organizations are currently experimenting with virtual reality that creates presence and provides an immersive, firsthand experience for multi-generational employees to improve their hands-on skills at work. Instructional designers can now use Adobe Captivate 2019 to create virtual reality projects.
In this session, you will create a virtual reality project using Adobe Captivate 2019. You will explore the significance of Adobe Captivate 2019 as an effective tool to create a VR project, how to add 360-degree images and videos to a virtual reality project, and how to add hotspots, labels, and questions to create interactivity in a virtual reality project.
In this session, you will learn:
- Why Adobe Captivate 2019 is an effective tool to create a virtual reality project
- How to add 360-degree images and videos to a virtual reality project
- How to add hotspots, labels, and questions to create interactivity in a virtual reality project
- How to choose the best option among the guided and exploratory options available to create a VR project
- How to choose the best option among those available to preview and publish a VR project
Technologies/platforms/devices that will be discussed:
- Virtual reality
- Adobe Captivate 2019
Audience:
Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)
Technology required:
Laptops with Adobe Captivate 2019 installed on it to create a VR project
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Sujatha Jagdeep
Virtual Human Performance Improvement Consultant
Huformance Tech Consulting, LLC
Sujatha Jagdeep is a learning & development professional who has worked as an educator for nine years, both in India and the US. She has three years of experience as a virtual human performance improvement consultant, working with global client organizations to assist them obtain ROI. She obtained an MS degree in organizational performance and workplace learning, and a graduate certificate in workplace eLearning and performance support from Boise State University. She is a certified Adobe Captivate Specialist (2019). She has earned a professional certificate in AR and VR from Columbia College Chicago Online. She is pursuing VR Nanodegrees from Udacity.
504 Designing Instructionally-Effective Virtual Experiences
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Wednesday, June 26
Crystal
Creating an exciting experience in the VR headset is only part of the solution. How do you ensure it's instructionally effective? Even with new technology the basic principles of instructional design must still be applied: challenges, activity, reflection, and feedback, to name a few. In addition, you’ll want to consider the unique features you can leverage in VR experiences related to time, stress, and 3-D movement, as well as the user challenges of wearing a VR headseat. And because virtual reality is a large investment, you’ll need to be especially sure your solution is effective to ensure there's a strong ROI.
In this session, you will gain an understanding of the instructional design principles that work in a VR environment. You'll learn the techniques that are instructionally effective in VR, and how to blend VR learning experiences with other instructional modalities. You'll learn how to create scenarios and activities that leverage the full 3-D world within VR. You'll learn techniques for scripting and storyboarding the learning experience. You'll learn when to mix video with CGI in the virtual space to enable practice and rehearsal that reinforce learning. You'll leave this session with an instructional framework that was specifically crafted to leverage the potential of VR.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to design an instructionally-effective VR experience
- What interactive techniques are effective in VR
- What limitations of VR prevent learning
- How to identify best and worst practices in VR design
- How to produce an instructional model, scripts, and storyboards
- How to mix VR with other instructional modalities for a blended solution
Audience:
Designers, developers, managers
Technology discussed in this session:
VR headsets (Oculus, VIVE, others), VR examples, scripting tools
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Bill West
President & Founder
RegattaVR
Bill West is the founder of Regatta VR and vice president of Immersive Learning Solutions at NIIT Limited. His career spans Accenture, EY, GP Strategies, Xerox, LEO, Sea Salt Learning, and eLearning Brothers. He founded one of the world's first elearning companies in 2001 and has led the adoption of new technologies for the last 20 years. His expansive client list includes over 100 global companies and his teams have won more than 50 industry awards. He has presented many times at training industry events, on topics ranging from learning methods and game design to virtual reality and xAPI. He's also written two highly-acclaimed books on successful vendor partnerships. His teams have adapted the strongest ID methods into a cohesive methodology for VR design and development, including VR user experience design and xAPI data management.
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Julie Havill
Senior Instructional Designer
RegattaVR
Julie Havill, a senior instructional designer with RegattaVR, focuses on the immersive design of VR learning solutions. She has worked in L&D for over 15 years and holds a master of science degree in adult education. Her work in the field of VR/ID is deeply rooted in supportive research and constructivist methodologies. Her experience spans the spectrum from traditional solutions, to those that are cutting-edge. Her award-winning work has benefited learners across industries and around the globe.
505 Getting Started with Virtual Reality
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Wednesday, June 26
Empire
Virtual reality (VR) learning experiences are dramatically increasing in popularity. But how do you get started building VR? What if you have a low budget, or no budget at all? The cost of new technology and software, and the development time required, may thwart would-be VR developers. However, there are now several free software and media options that make it simpler and more affordable than ever to build VR.
In this session you'll be introduced to several free, open source, and low-cost tools to build effective VR learning experiences. We'll cover best practices and common pitfalls of developing VR. You'll build an interactive VR experience from scratch using an open source tool and 360 images, and we'll talk about what's necessary to create your own 360 photos and 3-D-modeled worlds. You will leave this session well-equipped to build your own immersive VR learning experiences on a budget.
In this session, you will learn:
- To identify the software and hardware necessary to build VR
- How to evaluate a variety of software to build VR learning experiences
- How to overcome common obstacles in VR development
- To develop a VR learning experience using open source software and 360 media
Audience:
Designers, developers, managers
Technology discussed in this session:
Vizor.io, H5P.org, Patches.vizor.io, 360 cameras (dual lens cameras)
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Lindsay O’Neill
Principal
Lindsay O’Neill Consulting
Lindsay O'Neill is faculty in the master of science in instructional design and technology program at California State University-Fullerton. An instructional designer and elearning developer, she regularly consults on effective pedagogy, educational technology, open licensing, and accessibility. Lindsay holds a master’s degree in education, specializing in educational technology/instructional design, as well as a master’s degree in library and information science.
506 BYOD: Using 360 Images and Captivate 2019 to Create an Interactive Virtual Tour
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Wednesday, June 26
California
How many times have you tried to explain to a new employee, visitor, or client how to find you in your complicated (or not so complicated building), only to have them get lost in an endless sea of corridors on their first visit? Maybe you have an environment you would like someone to see but they are not physically able to experience it for themselves, like a museum or art gallery? You can do all this and more with a series of 360 photos imported into an eLearning authoring tool to create a virtual interactive tour.
In this hands-on session you will learn how you can use a series of simple 360 photos to create an impactful virtual tour. We will explore the tools required to create 360 images with some quick tips and tricks for getting that perfect 360 picture. Together we will import 360 images into Captivate 2019 and create navigation between the series of 360 images. For added interactivity we will create hotspots in the images on our tour. You will leave this session empowered with the ability to create your own virtual interactive tour using 360 images in Captivate 2019.
In this session, you will learn:
- What tools are required to create a 360 image
- Tips and tricks for capturing a good 360 image
- How to link a series of 360 photos to create navigation for a tour
- How to create interactive information hotspots within your 360 photos
- How to publish the series of 360 photos to create a virtual interactive 360 tour
Audience:
Designers, developers, managers
Technology discussed in this session:
Virtual reality, Captivate 2019, 360 video
Technology required:
A laptop with a full or demo copy of Captivate 2019
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Cindy Plunkett
Director, Learning Design & Development
PointClickCare
With over 20 years' experience in instructional design, development, and project management Cindy Plunkett is the Canadian eLearning Conference Executive Director, part-time professor in the faculty of education at Ontario Tech University, and co-creator of the Educational Technology for Health Practitioner Education course at the University of Toronto's department of Family and Community Medicine. Cindy has worked with three of the largest academic teaching hospitals in Canada on high profile projects like the SEME program, and has experience speaking and facilitating both nationally and internationally.
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Mackenzie Moyer
eLearning Instructional Designer and Developer
Baycrest Health Sciences
Mackenzie Moyer is an eLearning instructional designer and developer at Baycrest Health Sciences. Before working as an instructional designer, he taught English as a second language for five years. Mackenzie has been instrumental in the launch of the Baycrest core curriculum. In addition to his full-time position at Baycrest, he is currently working on a master’s degree in educational technology from the University of British Columbia.
507 Bridging the Gap: How to Work With Developers to Realize Your VR Vision
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Wednesday, June 26
Piedmont
You have a vision for how to use virtual reality in your training program, but the idea of working with a team of developers can feel daunting. Unfamiliar terminology and misunderstood objectives can potentially derail your project before it ever gets off the ground. In addition, many VR development teams have limited experience working with the training industry and bring years of assumptions and processes to the table that might seem alien to you at first. You need a process that you can rely on that will streamline your collaboration with your development team, reduce the chances of failure, and lead to a VR project that achieves your vision.
In this session, you'll learn about the processes that can make this partnership run smoothly via a case study story about how Motive.io successfully worked with a correctional facility to develop procedural VR training. You'll explore how the teams evolved their ideas from the whiteboard to the headset, and find out more about the process that was used to capture and refine the scenarios, how they branched, and how the user's interactions were brought to life. You'll hear about pitfalls, missteps, and ultimately the resolutions that resulted in a final product that exceeded everyone's expectations. You'll also learn common terminology that's used for VR development to give you a head start as you launch into the exciting world of VR training yourself.
In this session, you will learn:
- What processes can take a VR simulation idea from concept to launch (and the tools you can use to get there)
- Common terminology that's used by VR developers that will help streamline your communication with development teams
- How to capture and express branching scenarios in a way that everyone can understand
- Common pitfalls that you will undoubtedly encounter during your project and how to work through them
Audience:
Designers, managers, senior leaders
Technology discussed in this session:
- VR
- Oculus Go
- Windows MR
- Motive.io
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Ryan Chapman
CEO
Motive.io
Ryan Chapman, CEO of Motive.io, is an engineer and technology executive with a passion for creating software tools that empower people to make the most out of technology. Ryan has a degree in engineering physics and a master's degree in computer science from the University of British Columbia. He has over 20 years of experience in the software industry, working on a variety of different platforms and systems and in a diverse array of workplaces, from start-up companies to Microsoft.
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Sara Johnston
COO
Motive.io
Sara Johnston is COO of Motive.io, the company behind the Motive XR training platform. Following a career teaching mathematics and computer science, Sara moved to design and development. Before joining Motive, Sara ran a boutique design firm. She oversees the product management, marketing, and business strategy, as well as day-to-day operations at the company.
603 Lessons from a Year of Cost-Effective Immersive Strategies in Higher Ed
12:45 PM - 1:45 PM Wednesday, June 26
Gold
Virtual reality offers instructors a high-impact tool for teaching and learning by engaging learners in a realistic 360-degree environment. While the instructional benefits are extraordinary, there have been two major challenges facing most collegiate classrooms; technology cost and instructional relevance. During this session, attendees will explore innovative VR assignments, utilized over the course of a year, and their evolution in online and in-person courses. Moreover, attendees will discover how to create effective and engaging VR assignments on a public institution budget.
This session will explore a faculty member and instructional designer's process to continuously and successfully incorporate VR in online courses and face-to-face labs at a public institution. You will learn how to get started collecting resources; utilizing free and open source technologies, and low-cost VR tools. You will be presented with common missteps and solutions when re-imagining budget-friendly and interactive immersive assignments for various subject matters. At the end of the session, you will have effectual guidelines for 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 VR experiences are most likely to create sticky learning
- 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, developers, managers
Technology discussed in this session:
Ricoh Theta, Samsung Gear, SeekBeak, OculusGo, Google Cardboard, Smartphone, Cenario VR
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Maikel Right
Associate Director of Instructional Learning Technologies
FIU Online
Maikel Right is the associate director of instructional learning technology with FIU Online. With degrees from the UF and FIU in the fields of cultural anthropology, healthcare, and business; his main research interests and publications are in cardiovascular molecular biology, aging, social media, anthropology, and online pedagogy. Maikel is also a faculty fellow at FIU's Honors College where he teaches online and in-person upper division courses, the CDO for a digital consulting company based in Miami, and serves on the board of VirtueCo, which provides art programs and resources for underserved youth in South Florida, the Caribbean, and throughout Latin America.
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Rodolfo Rego
Senior Instructor
Florida International University
Rodolfo Rego is a senior instructor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Florida International University, with an emphasis on STEM online course development and teaching. He is a geologist and an environmental scientist who specializes in the geology of South Florida and groundwater issues associated with petroleum contamination. He received his BS in geology in 1997 from FIU and his MS in geology in 2002 from FIU. He is also a member of the eLearning Guild and the faculty advisor to the Geology Club.
705 Building VR Learning Experiences in Three Popular Tools
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM Wednesday, June 26
Gold
Confused about VR authoring tools? There are many available; some are low-cost or free while others are expensive. How do you compare the features to know which one is going to work for you and your VR projects?
Trivantis Cenario VR, Modest3D, and Adobe Captivate 2019 are three tools that provide you with exciting ways to develop immersive learning solutions. Each of these tools differ greatly in the capabilities they offer and in how to use them to create immersive VR experiences. In this session you will be presented with a quick summary of the advantages and disadvantages of each tool, and see a demonstration of how to build a VR experience in each tool.
In this session, you will learn:
- To determine the level of VR and 3-D capabilities you need for your project
- How to create VR and 3-D learning using a variety of tools
- To choose the right tool or tools to accomplish your project goals
Technologies/platforms/devices discussed:
- Trivantis Cenario VR
- Modest3D
- Adobe Captivate 2019
Audience:
Designers, developers
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Joe Ganci
President
eLearning Joe
Joe Ganci is the owner and president of eLearning Joe, a custom learning company. Since 1983, he has been involved in every aspect of multimedia and learning development. Joe holds a computer science degree, writes books and articles about eLearning, and is widely considered an eLearning development guru. He consults worldwide and also teaches at conferences and client sites. Joe writes tool reviews and has received several awards for his work in eLearning, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999 and an eLearning Guild Master Award in 2013. His mission is to improve the quality of eLearning with practical approaches that work.
804 Getting Inside the Machine: Using VIAR360 to Create a 360 Experience
8:30 AM - 9:30 AM Thursday, June 27
Empire
New technology can take time to learn, and can be especially challenging without hands-on experience. At our organization, new slot machine cabinets and components were continuously being introduced, and it was a priority to make sure technicians felt confident in their knowledge when installing them at a casino property. But it was quite pricey to fly field service technicians out to Las Vegas for training each time something new came out.
In this session we’ll share how we helped our techs to get a deeper look inside our new technology with 360 training experiences, and how you can begin designing your own. You’ll explore the various tools and opportunities available for training with 360 panoramic images and video, and learn from our experiences. You’ll leave the session knowing how to provide your learners with a holistic training experience they can access on their desktops or from their mobile devices.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to create a quick 360 training
- How to reach remote employees with more immersive training
- Ways to incorporate 360 learning on a mobile device
- How to make an interactive 360 experience
Audience:
Designers, developers, managers
Technology discussed in this session:
VIAR360, iPhone, Axonify, 360 camera
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Cherie Cornelius
Senior Curriculum Developer
Aristocrat Technologies
Cherie Cornelius is a senior curriculum developer with Aristocrat Technologies. Several years ago, she shifted from technical support to the realm of training. A year into her training role, Cherie’s artistic flair in a PowerPoint presentation caught the eye of management, who suggested she join the curriculum development team. Cherie had no formal training in this field, but she was eager to learn and has since gone back to school for a master’s degree in instructional design.
903 Optimizing the Virtual Reality Experience
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Thursday, June 27
California
There is often a divide in many virtual reality products. There are the products that have detailed graphics that are not very interactive, and there are those that have a lot of interactivity with low quality graphics. However, what if there was a way to have both, without having to worry about the frame rate of the VR device dropping?
In this session, you will learn how simple changes in your virtual reality project in Unity can prevent you from having to choose between interactivity and the graphic quality. Find out what type of lighting is the best to use for the fastest rendering. You'll explore common coding processes to avoid, and the simple ways around them. You'll look at different techniques to allow high quality graphics to be shown in an environment filled with interactivity. But, most importantly, you'll leave this session with the knowledge to not only enhance your virtual reality experience, but also prevent the mistakes that I have made.
In this session, you will learn:
- Why there is a big gap between graphics and interactivity in virtual reality
- What the main causes are for frame-rate losses
- Coding techniques to avoid in Unity C# (can be applied to any engine used)
- What the best lighting techniques are for virtual reality in Unity
- How to set up the camera to best support the graphics in virtual reality
- Which render settings to use
- How to create the best virtual reality experience for your users
Audience:
Designers, developers
Technology discussed in this session:
HTC Vive/Vive Pro, Oculus Rift, Unity, C#, Mixamo
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Nick Pinero
Software Engineer
Zebra Technologies
In the spring of 2018, I graduated magna cum laude from Quinnipiac University with dual majors in computer science and game design & development. During my last two years, I developed a VR simulation to teach health science students how to transfer a patient using the Xbox Kinect and Oculus Rift. Now I work for Zebra Technologies as the main virtual reality programmer and one of the in-house Unity experts. One of my main tasks is to ensure that the experience is optimized for the user.
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Milan Marecek
Senior Multimedia Specialist
Zebra Technologies
Milan Marecek is a senior media specialist at Zebra Technologies. He is an expert in photography and bitmap graphics. Milan is a designer, developer, and project manager of interactive training solutions in Unity, focusing on both VR and non-VR solutions. He is knowledgeable about 3-D modelling and texturing, and has experience coding using PHP, MySQL, C# - unity. He has more than five years of experience in multimedia doing video postproduction, mainly focused on 3-D graphics, and has more than six years of experience as a trainer.
904 Using VR to Train in High-Risk Spaces
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Thursday, June 27
Crystal
Virtual reality is becoming more mainstream every day. However, use cases can sometimes be theoretical or hyperbole so that when you peel back the layers, it isn't practical, cost-effective, or the right way to best deliver the learning. This, combined with the fact that most instructional designers are very new to how to design an effective VR experience, poses a costly risk for L&D organizations.
In this session, we'll explore how Facebook, owner of the Oculus VR platform, examined a variety of use cases to determine its place and use in their learning ecosystem at their data centers across the globe. We will talk you through key considerations and pull apart the various assets and deliverables required, as well as talk about the various technical skills you will need on the team to pull it off well. We'll also share the lessons we learned in our higher-stakes pilot with Facebook.
In this session, you will learn:
- The different scenarios that are best suited for a virtual reality solution
- Best practices to approach a VR learning project
- What changes you’ll want to make to your instructional design approach, including new types of deliverables that instructional designers need to create
- How to integrate assessments into VR experiences
- How the different tools and technologies were used to deploy a live VR experience for Facebook
Audience:
Designers, developers, managers
Technology discussed in this session:
Unity, Instamax360 Pro, Oculus Go
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Tom Pizer
Director, Learning Technologies
GP Strategies
Tom Pizer is a director of learning technologies for GP’s Learning Solutions Group and has over 20 years of experience in the technical digital-media field. He leads an exceptional team of developers who create unique learning solutions in response to atypical client challenges. During his career, Tom has created, specified, directed, and/or managed hundreds of hours of educational, instructional, and entertainment-based media for a variety of clients in both the public and private sectors. A key aspect of Tom’s responsibilities is staying abreast of emerging technologies and in tune with the latest development methodologies, standards, and practices.
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Janelle Rosso
Senior Instructional Designer
GP Strategies
Janelle Rosso is a senior instructional designer for GP Strategies. For her entire professional career she has been involved with creating and presenting engaging training; working closely with clients to identify learning opportunities through needs assessments and learner profiles. Janelle has partnered with Facebook for a number of years, from its humble beginnings and into virtual reality. She has been on several Brandon Hall winning project teams. Janelle has a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of Florida (2002) and a masters certificate in online teaching and learning from California State University East Bay (2011).
905 BYOD: How to Build a Simple Machine Learning Model from Virtual Reality xAPI Data
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Thursday, June 27
Gold
VR and AR can generate a great deal of data, and that includes data in the xAPI format. One promise of this data is that it can be used to create predictive models that can classify learners; helping L&D departments to better serve them with appropriate content.
In this session, you will get your feet wet combining xAPI data from VR experiences and a machine learning model to gain new insights about learners. You’ll start with a guided tutorial for how to build a simple machine learning model using Google's Tensorflow. You’ll then use this example, with pre-supplied data, to understand how xAPI can be used to create predictive models. You’ll also investigate how best to generate xAPI so that it works well for model creation.
In this session, you will learn:
- How machine learning really works
- How machine learning can add value to learning in VR
- How to build a simple machine learning model in Tensorflow
- How to design and prep xAPI data for machine learning
- An introduction to different kinds of AI models (e.g., supervised learning, CNN's, RNN's, etc.)
- An intuitive understanding of how to use AI in the future
Audience:
Designers, developers, managers
Technology discussed in this session:
xAPI, Tensorflow, AWS Sagemaker, IBM Watson, Unity, artificial intelligence, machine learning
Technology Required (BYOD only):
Laptop
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Hugh Seaton
GM
Adept Reality
Hugh Seaton is GM of Adept Reality, a software company focused on using VR/AR in adult learning. Prior to Adept, Hugh founded AquinasVR, a VR/AR software company which he sold to the Glimpse Group, parent of Adept. Hugh’s focus, whether in immersive technologies, IoT or artificial intelligence, is on the intersection of learning science, creativity, and the cutting edge technologies that can bring learning to new levels of effectiveness.