Immersive Learning Platforms: What You Must Know

How can we provide personalized learning to employees at scale? This is a burning question among the learning and development teams across the globe.

Modern workplaces are experiencing a rapid shift as organizational roles are transitioning between people and machines. The L&D leadership is realizing the need to cater to the changing skill requirements through continuous upskilling and reskilling initiatives. Moreover, the spectrum of employee training extends beyond upskilling to cultivate an environment of continuous learning that underlines dynamic assessments, concurrent feedback, and leadership training. One particular method that stands out for its efficacy in employee training is the use of immersive learning platforms.

 

An Immersive Platform for Learning and Development at Modern Workplaces

Immersive learning blends the natural and digital worlds, ensuring new pathways for connection and employee engagement.

By simulating real-world scenarios in a safe environment, immersive learning builds employee confidence and prepares them to handle real-life situations effectively. For example, Toyota Material Handling has developed a VR-based training simulation that enables employees to practice working on forklift part repair identification and maintenance in a controlled environment. With LMS integration, device setup, and change management consulting it has successfully created a low-cost and highly scalable training environment.

Immersive platforms are inherently tailored towards unique user responses. Further, the integration of AI enables instant feedback and accelerates the learning process. As more and more companies adopt hybrid working models, immersive learning is setting the pathway for collaboration. Consulting behemoth Accenture’s metaverse space, ‘The Nth Floor’ is a replica of its physical offices, facilitating various human resource activities. Employees can engage in virtual immersive training sessions and interact with their peers from any part of the world.

Furthermore, it is helping companies improve employee productivity. According to the IBM Institute of Business Value, companies using AR have reported an average productivity improvement of 32%, and the time taken to complete tasks has declined by 46%. From detailed instructions for complex tasks to virtual tours of machinery, immersive learning is empowering the L&D to train employees faster and more effectively. Additionally, by tapping into gamification strategies it can encourage active learning and improve employee retention. KPMG achieved a 16% increase in client onboarding by offering video game-style training programs to its employees.

Research by PWC demonstrated how VR-based training evoked 3.75 times more emotional connection with the content. Similarly, employee confidence in discussing issues on diversity and inclusion improved by 245%. This has opened opportunities for the L&D to inculcate immersive learning for empathy and DEI training to create more inclusive workplaces.

 

Roadblocks in Full-Scale Deployment of Immersive Learning Platforms

The development and maintenance of immersive hardware and software is cost as well as time-intensive for overworked and budget-constrained L&D departments. Moreover, the current technology infrastructure may need upgrading to support high-speed internet and hardware compatibility.  According to IBM, more than 40% of the workforce will require reskilling over the coming 3 years. As the L&D serves more learners, scaling up the technology will call for additional investment.

As companies embrace workplace inclusivity and onboard a diverse workforce, it becomes necessary to ensure content accessibility for employees with disabilities and different learning patterns. It requires additional investments in specialized design features. Simultaneously, the biggest barrier to immersive learning can be slow take-up among employees due to human laziness and resistance by stakeholders to change. Many professionals also prefer subject matter experts, whether in person or virtual, instead of AI. Lastly, the involvement of large chunks of data also poses concerns for privacy and safety.

 

How Immersive Learning Solution Providers Help L&D Departments Navigate These Challenges

Immersive learning solution providers serve as strategic partners to the L&D departments, helping them achieve their learning objectives. The first step is to discern, “What do we want to improve by immersive learning, and what are the KPIs?” While it may be difficult to measure direct ROI in relation to learning, quantifying KPIs can help better assess user engagement and skill retention. By integrating learning management systems (LMS) with immersive platforms, L&D can perceive qualitative value out of individual assessments and provide relevant and timely feedback. Where performance data is an asset, immersive platforms for learning and development supported with Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR) and Virtual Reality (VR) can make learning analytics more efficient for key L&D processes, including training and employee engagement.

The next step would be to align existing material with new immersive frameworks. By delivering authentic replication of existing content, developers can provide the L&D with a seamless transition. By creating accessible and high–quality instructional design modules, developers can promise a truly unique and engaging experience to employees.

Once the technology is ready to hit the floor, developers can extend support in effective delivery by providing the required training to the L&D itself. Furthermore, in collaboration, they can interact with the users to gather feedback and use it to reiterate the immersive platform for optimal performance. By re-using components and frameworks for rapid design and application across dynamic concepts, developers can truly work in partnership with the L&D to scale the method for a larger workforce. The Multimodal Immersive Learning Systems Design Methodology introduces a unified taxonomy to content, identifies key performance indicators for development, and facilitates an iterative development process that nurtures creativity, promotes reusability, and fosters organizational learning.

Immersive learning platforms are at the forefront of modern workplace training. In the race for maximizing returns through immersive training, subject matter expertise can work as a competitive edge. At MagicEdtech, we specialize in creating high-quality, scalable, immersive learning platforms for learning and development. If you would like to know more about it, get in touch with us.