Boring outdated methods of learning must and are definitely on their way to stay where they belong - in the past. The vivid realization that people learn better through experience and much fuller immersion into what they’re being taught about has brought us the topic of out today’s article - immersive learning.Not that long ago, before the rapid popularization of virtual reality and artificial intelligence, teachers have already been introducing the first principles of immersion into their work through games and real-life scenarios.Now it’s gotten much more impressive and effective with the technological advances we have a privilege to call our everyday reality. Let’s dig deeper into the subject and find out more about the benefits of immersive learning.
What is Immersion Learning
Immersion learning is an innovative method of both learning and training with a solid cognitive and behavioral background that focuses on immersing students, trainees, and employees in real-life-like scenarios with the help of virtual reality tools and software.Numerous studies have shown that experiencing a scenario as close to the real-world situation as possible means that the brain treats it as a real thing, and, therefore, you can learn from it.With interactivity and curative feedback as the two pillars of the immersive learning method, here are the technologies that make it possible to achieve such efficient immersion in the first place:
- Virtual Reality. VR headset offers learners a full immersion into a three-dimensional simulation where they can move, hear, and see inside a completely false digital reality that feels real.
- Augmented Reality. Instead of presenting a whole new reality, AR builds its digital elements on top of our real world, giving it a new feel - think Snapchat filters or Pokemon catching.
- Mixed reality. MR is the combination of the previous two technologies which also allows real and digital aspects to interact with each other.
- 3D simulations - less immersive but also a great way to visualize most of the teaching material.
Let’s now learn what is immersion learning doing exactly that helps people learn better in both the corporate world and a standard classroom.
Benefits of Immersive Learning
This learning approach has taken into consideration that everyone learns differently - each of us has different tactics in studying, different ways we perceive information, which means a classic teaching style will not work the same for everyone.Immersive learning is also known to:
- Minimize distractions by shielding the person from the outside world during the study and eliminating constant interruptions in the form of chatting with classmates and coworkers or playing with smartphones.
- Help gain experience and not just theoretical knowledge. Practice makes perfect, which is hard to achieve with a previous purely academic and too abstract of an approach.
- Spark more interest during the learning process by adding interactivity into it - for example, going through real-life situations or taking virtual trips to museums or important geographical locations grabs attention better than pictures and stories.
- Provide more accurate analysis of students’ and employees’ progress through advanced analytics reports, engagement rates evaluation, and improved feedback process.
- Improve employee onboarding process by discarding vague theoretical training in favor of modeling real-life scenarios.
Immersive Training
A virtual learning environment is a great tool to add to your organization if you’re looking for improving the process of your employees adopting necessary skills. By performing the tasks rather than reading about them, your workers can gain priceless experience faster than through traditional professional development courses.Numerous industries and companies around the world are already successfully using immersive training. For example, the American automotive corporation, Ford, added the internal virtual reality training tool to help their technicians train and detect problems with their new electric car. Other industries include logistics, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, etc.Implementing virtual reality and mixed reality for virtual learning environments must come gradually with the inclusion of the following steps to ensure program adoption:
- Set a straightforward objective for introducing immersive training or learning into your environment;
- Incorporate your existing training materials into the new program to ensure a smoother acceptance.
- Plan for the time it’ll take for your employees to adapt to the new immersive training;
- Make sure you adequately plan your budget for new headsets and the technology development;
- Educate your employees on usage and hygiene rules.
Conclusion
Immersive learning solutions have been proven to be an excellent addition to classrooms and company training programs around the globe. Their advantages are generally indisputable, however, the true challenge comes from the virtual reality development and implementation process.It is crucial to find a professional web and software development company, such as Axisbits, that can turn your idea or vision into an easy-to-use and functional VR or AR solution. If you already have such an idea - contact us and tell our team all about it.
