Welcome! This is the first of a blog and video series which will be published over the next two weeks, by myself and fellow L&D consultant, Rachel Burnham (@BurnhamLandD). Our purpose is to share our learning journey (our 'Odyssey', as Rachel has called it), as independent L&D Consultants, into the world of Virtual - and Augmented - Reality, to better understand the technology and its potential application in learning. We do not present ourselves as experts here, but as curious professionals, keen to understand the subject but also willing to share our experiences and insights with others who may have a similar interest.
This first blog is a combination of mine and Rachel's initial blogs on the subject, which Rachel is also posting on her blog page at
http://rachelburnham.blogspot.co.uk/. We will also post some
videos on YouTube and blog individually later in the series.
Why Did We Do This Research? (Niall)
Stimulated by a Learning & Performance Institute (@yourLPI) Webinar on 13 Dec 2016 “Go Virtual!”
with Ron Edwards from Serious Games International, both Rachel and
I realised independently that Virtual Reality (and Augmented Reality – more on
that later) was a subject area and practice about which we knew very little but
wanted to understand more. For myself, my reasoning was that, as an independent
L&D & Learning Technologies Consultant, VR was an area which was
gaining more and more attention and interest both within the L&D world, but
more importantly, outwith L&D, in the real world! And I needed to be able
to experience it, play with it, understand its capabilities and limitations, so
that I could, as a minimum, discuss intelligently and with confidence both
within my L&D/HR and OD network, but much more importantly, in conversation
with potential and existing clients who may have expressed interest in its potential
to support their learning programmes.
We had a brief discussion after the webinar and decided that
we would collaborate on some research on VR for Learning, to increase our own
knowledge & understanding, but with the added benefit of being able, perhaps,
to share that learning for others’ benefit later.
As has become the norm with so much these days, the
consumer/domestic uptake of easily accessible and easily grasped technologies has
the potential to leave L&D out in the cold without the necessary knowledge
and skills to be able to understand, discuss and/or apply them appropriately.
Often, what people do and use in their private lives becomes their norm and their
expectation elsewhere, especially in the workplace.
Now, it’s not just down to L&D to be responsible for the
adoption and integration of relevant technologies into the workplace. Often,
corporate policy and/or cultural practice mitigates against rapid inquiry,
experimentation, refinement and adoption of such tools. But Rachel and I feel that L&D has an
opportunity to show some leadership here, to be seen as a bridge-builder and a
trusted partner to business and its people by offering advice about and
practical experience of using such tools in the support of performance
improvement.
What follows in this series is our individual and joint journey in
Virtual Reality discovery to date, some personal insights, a curation of
further analysis, thinking and resources, and an invitation/call to action to
others to engage and share their virtual journeys with us.
What is VR? (Rachel)
VR or Virtual Reality
is a technology that is widely used in gaming to create a 360 degree/3 dimensional experience
that immerses participants. The degree
of immersion can vary from simply being able to look around you 360 degrees,
at either an image or video of the real world or some kind of simulation,
through to being able to interact with this ‘world’ by picking up and working
with objects. Increasingly, people in
L&D are working out how to use this technology to enable effective learning
for individuals and organisations.
A closely related,
though different technology is AR or Augmented Reality. This is where technology, utilizing a
smartphone or tablet, is used to project additional information or images into
the real world, as an overlay. One of
the big hits of the summer of 2016 was the game ‘Pokemon GO’ which used AR
technology, through mainly mobile phones, to enable people to see and collect
‘cartoon-like’ creatures whilst out and about.
AR technology for use in L&D is not as advanced, at the time of
writing (February 2017) as for VR, but some authors believe that there is even
more potential to use AR in the workplace eg as part of performance support.
VR is often thought
synonymous with the use of expensive headsets, but there are different ways of
accessing VR to suit a range of budgets.
At the cheap and cheerful end, you can purchase a ‘Google Cardboard’
headset for under a tenner and use this to view VR apps through a mobile
phone. The quality is not as good as with
the more expensive sets, particularly if you already wear glasses and they can
only be used for VR apps which involve no interaction. With this equipment some
sound is possible, either broadcast through the mobile phone or via the
earphones for your mobile phone, though the quality may not be great. It is
worth searching online for access to free apps to use with this type of
equipment and this is an easy way to get a flavour of what is possible with
VR.
At the next level of
expense are a range of headsets which not only include glasses, but also more
substantial earphones. These also use
mobile phones to play the software, but the addition of the earphones means
that they can incorporate sound much more effectively alongside the visual
images. They also can incorporate some
options for interaction within the VR programme, so that the participant can
make limited choices between options for action eg to see some tips or to jump
straight in or to choose between answers.
This makes the whole experience much more engaging for the learner. Some programmes will also build in feedback
for the learner on their performance in the activity and this also enhances the
experience.
With this middle range
equipment, you can continue to use the free apps, but there are also a good
range of developers offering off-the-shelf VR experiences that could be
used. However, for many learning and
performance needs you may find that you need to commission a bespoke VR
solution. Whilst it is possible to
create VR solutions in-house, it is much harder to produce interactive
solutions without external specialist support at this stage in the development
of the technology.
At the top end of the
market a much fuller immersive and participatory experience can be gained using
a combination of headsets, with earphones plus handheld devices which allow you
to interact with the environment. This
means that you can pick up objects, turn handles or levers, open doors and
manipulate objects in other ways – leading to a much fuller experience and
vital for VR software that is about becoming familiar with servicing equipment
for example. It also means that it is
possible to have a much more interactive experience in VR, which of course can
contribute to more effective learning. These sets are much more likely to be
used with bespoke designs for the VR environment, created to meet the specific
needs of an organisation and a specialist provider will be needed to support
this.
For details of
equipment please take a look at the accompanying curated resources list, which
will appear at the end of this series.
We hope you enjoy this journey, and will follow and join in the discussion here in blog comments, on Twitter (hashtag #VRinLearning),
LinkedIn, YouTube and facebook. We hope to set up an online 'further
resources' Google Document, with links to curated blogs, articles,
infographics etc, and hope that - in this most dynamic and
quickly-changing environment - you will add your own thoughts and links
as the subject develops.
