Benefits of Immersive Learning for your Business

This informal CPD article on Benefits of Immersive Learning for your Business was provided by VirtualSpeech, an award-winning soft skills training platform, specialising in interactive practice exercises, VR and AI to improve communication skills.

Benefits of Immersive Learning for your Business

Hands-on skills development and ‘on the job’ training are common throughout industry and commerce. Sometimes the only way to ensure that new knowledge and abilities are acquired effectively is to provide opportunities to put them into practice immediately.

This, in effect, is what immersive learning is all about. However, it uses technology to enable people to build their skills. Trainees can experience realistic workplace situations. Including role-playing, replicating complex scenarios or simulating highly technical tasks.

Why immersive training is effective

The Pandemic accelerated an already widening interest in providing meaningful training and education online. This included combining modern technology with behavioural and cognitive science.

The most innovative providers of immersive training quickly appreciated its value in not just providing a virtual work coach, or connecting a group of individuals to learn at the same time. You could give students and trainees realistic online ‘experiences’ that are actually superior to opportunities available in the physical realm.

It also became apparent that by doing this, you can increase knowledge retention¹ by as much as 75%, compared to traditional training methods.

That's due to something known as the ‘curve of forgetting’. Basically, humans shed superfluous information to cope with the vast amount of sensory input they receive on a daily basis. Unfortunately, this limits their learning potential.

For instance, if you talked staff through a new process at the start of this training session, they have zero understanding. With good instruction, by the end, they have 100% knowledge. However, what if they don’t have opportunities to ‘rehearse’ and bed down that new knowledge?

Within 24 hours, around 50-80% of what they were told fades. After seven days they could be holding on to as little as 2-3% of the knowledge² they were given in that training session. Contrast that with providing the same staff with an immersive training module. It enables everyone to learn at their own pace, free of distractions. They can rehearse their new learning as often as they need to. It is also online training that can be personalized to their needs and challenges.

High risk situations

The potential applications of immersive learning are vast and the advantages are not just geared towards embedding practical abilities effectively and relatively quickly. In fact, one of the most important benefits is improved health and safety and lowering the risk of damage to structures, vehicles and equipment.

Imagine a machine or vehicle operator practising a tricky manoeuvre virtually, using immersive technology. Or, technicians developing their knowledge of hard-to-reach or complex structures such as oil platforms, using virtual reality. They can learn and practice safely, from anywhere on the planet.

Saves time and money

What are the more everyday benefits of immersive learning for businesses though? You can deliver skill enhancement at any time, to anyone in any location. This avoids the need for your staff to travel to physical training venues. Or for you to disrupt your operations while they work in situ with a mentor or skills coach.

An excellent example of this is if you decide to improve the presentation skills of your sales team. Instead of putting them all in a room somewhere with a communications training provider, each individual can schedule their own immersive experience. They can then fine-tune public speaking in a ‘virtual’ conference centre, or role-play negotiations in a simulated meeting online.

Enables transparency and analysis

One of the biggest problems with passive training and education methods is that evaluating success is difficult – or often entirely overlooked. Delivering skills via immersive learning generates that vital commodity that all organisations need – data. The best immersive training programmes and providers provide reports showing how well someone learnt a new skill or knowledge. Including how long it took them, and what stumbling blocks slowed them down. Some advanced immersive training measures levels of engagement and confidence right down to mapping keystrokes hesitancy. It's a tremendous way of fine-tuning the way learning is delivered in your business.

Applies to empowerment skills too

Immersive learning is versatile and can be applied to technical abilities, and so-called soft skills. It can develop the personal attributes of good leaders and project personnel, for example.

For example, you can use it to role-play and practice core competencies needed to be effective in business communications and team building. As well as being a platform for developing problem-solving, critical thinking and creativity.

The future of immersive learning

A lot of immersive learning currently available is based on 3D visualization and simulations. However, as the sophistication of AI, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality technology increases, so does the potential of immersive learning. For instance, you could have a firefighter physically present in a building, tackling a virtual fire that is extremely realistic and constantly moving, generated by the trainee's headset.

As the worlds of gaming and professional development continue to merge, it can be safely argued that immersive training can increasingly achieve a level of effectiveness that surpasses traditional learning methods. Not least as technology triggers curiosity, competitiveness and confidence.

Providing a safe ‘space’ for employees to try and fail when learning new skills can become a central feature of inclusive, empathetic corporate cultures too.

We hope this article was helpful. For more information from VirtualSpeech, please visit their CPD Member Directory page. Alternatively, please visit the CPD Industry Hubs for more CPD articles, courses and events relevant to your Continuing Professional Development requirements.

References

¹https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2022/04/27/immersive-learning-for-employees-leads-to-immersive-data-for-decision-makers

²https://virtualspeech.com/blog/overcoming-ebbinghaus-forgetting-curve-virtual-reality