Imagine that a robot avatar of you has been sent to Mars. In this computer-simulated virtual reality (VR) environment, there are other people nearby who are also moving about as robots.
To escape the planet in a space pod, you must cooperate to overcome a lot of obstacles. Only if all of the robots are able to escape, not if one or two of them take off on their own, is the mission considered a success.
But this isn’t a video game. Instead, you and your coworkers are participating in a training session while donning VR headsets.
As far as days go, it certainly seem more enjoyable than spending hours upon hours listening to your executives discuss the amazing ideas their organization has for the upcoming
The Apollo team-building activity, which simulates a voyage to Mars, was developed by the UK company Jenson8, which specializes in VR-based training platforms.
In the simulation, each working team has three or four tries to figure out how to break away. Apollo can be experienced by participants in a variety of ways, such as a leader, a typical robot, or an observer.
The group is then asked to discuss the various factors that contributed to their success or failure after the Virtual reality goggles have been removed.
Millions of workers were introduced to remote work and video meetings during pandemic lockdowns, and now training is altering as well.
We’ve all learned that we don’t actually need to be in the same place for meetings thanks to the regular Zoom sessions we’ve been having since March 2020. And training courses increasingly follow the same trend.
When you factor in VR technology’s continued development, more and more companies are requiring their employees to don VR goggles whenever they need to take an awayday or have their skills and expertise updated.
At Bank of America, Mike Wynn is in charge of VR-based training. He claims that younger workers are especially drawn to it since they are accustomed to the technology from years of playing immersive video games with virtual reality.
But is there any proof that virtual reality training is more successful?
According to a research conducted last year by accounting behemoth PricewaterhouseCoopers, employees who learn in virtual reality do so four times more quickly than if they are in a classroom. The study also discovered that workers were 1.5 times more attentive in VR classes.
The head of VR technologies at fellow multinational accounting firm Ernst & Young is Edwina Fitzmaurice. According to her, another advantage of VR-based training is that users can continue practicing more conveniently.
Others have noted that virtual reality training is frequently more affordable and secure than traditional training, especially if you are instructing someone to perform a hazardous task. Someone can experience a VR simulation before to entering a high-risk environment as an oil rig, chemical plant, or hospital emergency room.
In addition, rather than using a human instructor, many VR training systems provide feedback to the user. VirtualSpeech, a company based in London that provides VR-based training for leadership and public speaking, is one such supplier.
Negative input from a computer is reportedly received more kindly by some people. And according to Sophie Thompson, the founder and CEO of VirtualSpeech, computers are frequently more effective at providing it.
VR training does not, however, come without its detractors. For instance, some users are believed to experience discomfort while using virtual reality goggles, or it causes them to feel dizzy or queasy; other users report headaches or eyestrain.
Read Also: Why Netflix’s expansion into gaming is expected
Ms. Fitzmaurice of Ernst & Young concurs that the industry requires additional oversight. “Getting the balance between governance and innovation right is the key,” she asserts.
