Anyone working within the VR industry can tell you that its application is associated with significant improvements in memory and learning, offering game changing results in safety performance, employee retention and overall productivity. With the path forged by game-makers, studies have now been conducted to back up the evidence, with findings even stronger than expected. 

What the science says 

Gaming and surgery don’t usually go hand in hand – except in respect to recent findings on virtual reality. 

UCLA have concluded a randomised controlled trial examining the capabilities of virtual reality for surgical students. The trial used gamification techniques in virtual reality (VR) to test the difference between using Osso VR software with a headset and hand motion controllers, compared with traditional surgical training. Divided into two groups, the medical students took part in learning a surgical technique for tibial shaft fracture intramedullary nailing and the newly learned technique then evaluated. 

The study backed up what game makers have known for years – gamification delivers better results. Gamification is exactly what it sounds like – the application of game design principles to improve engagement, learning and consequent outcomes. The study found that the group learning through VR scored 130% higher than students who trained using conventional methods, also completing the surgical technique faster and more accurately. 

So it’s not a stretch to say that VR techniques such as these will produce better and more proficient surgeons. Though it’s a small scale study, companies outside the medical field, who regularly use VR techniques and gamification-style training also see these same results replicated every day.

Next World for Harness Energy

Similarly, this study is inline with results seen by training provider, Harness Energy in Australia. Managing Director and Behavioural Scientist, Michael O’Reilly, saw a need to improve common compliance level safety training so founded Next World Enterprises to better meet this need. Harness use Next World’s VR technology developed specifically for industrial training by the Brisbane start up. 

Harness has seen very positive results from using VR modules for worksite inductions, confined space entry, hazard spotting, working at heights and other critical safety training topics. These modules aim to teach workers in medium-to-high risk industries such as construction, resources, utilities or oil and gas workers how to safely operate within high risk settings and within a practical environment, albeit a virtual one. 

“Virtual Reality opens up a huge range of possibilities for training,” said Michael O’Reilly. “And the gamification aspects incorporated into the VR training is motivating for participants. And the method we apply is delivering better results. We find trainees can’t wait to try it out.” 

Next World Enterprises is developing Off the Shelf VR assets to cater for safety training critical in the blue collar workspace, with many other modules following in the pipeline. Each of these modules is immersive technology which enhances the understanding and retention of information amongst front line workers – the ones at the pointy end of the risk profile.

Neuroscience in a nutshell

The science of memory is a continually evolving frontier but one thing that has been found is that our brains can be motivated to better remember something and store certain pieces of information away. Motivation can come in many different forms such as improving skills or managing real-life situations to help our survival. Information is also better remembered when we are actively engaged – immersed if you will. That is, not just passively reading, watching or listening, but actively participating in a discussion, simulating or doing the real thing and engaging through our senses.

Information comes through our senses, which also include movement and balance sense, telling our brains where our head and body are (vestibular) and body perception (proprioception) which is our understanding of where our body parts are in relation to the other, as well as an understanding of how much force might be required by specific body parts to perform a certain activity. The more senses that are involved in the process of learning, the more motivated our brains are to store that information.

So when it comes to virtual or augmented reality, such as the modules created by Next World, it creates a much greater sensory impact than traditional teaching methods. VR combines sight, touch and hearing with the vestibular and proprioception senses to create an incredibly immersive experience. Memories are further solidified as participants are able to actively interact with this virtual world. It all combines to create not only efficient training tools offering superior results, but a learning tool which students want to interact with.

“VR is an absolute game changer for safety and the way we onboard people.” said Michael O’Reilly. “Between cost savings, better productivity and safety, we’ve found VR the most effective way to train, onboard and educate. All i can say is goodbye powerpoint!”

Neuroscience aside, the best way of understanding how well virtual reality influences learning and information retention, is to try it out. If you’d like to see what VR could do for your business, click here to book a demo with Next World. 

If there’s a surefire way to retain an employee, it’s a clear path to advancing their career in your company. Over 94% of employees said that they would stay with their organisation for longer if it provided them with career development opportunities, according to a global report on workplace learning by LinkedIn. Your current and future employees want you to train them. However, the traditional training programs you may have at hand may no longer be effective. 

Education, Time, and Money Gone to Waste

A paper called The Great Training Robbery found that only 10% of corporate training regimes are fruitful. The authors stated that workers often went back to their pre-training habits after some time. This is because their bosses, who likely didn’t go through the same training program, retained the same leadership style.  

As such, companies should start training leaders and managers first and work their way down the corporate ladder. This approach isn’t exactly cut and dry, however. Apart from costing a lot of money, comprehensive training programs can take up much time from the already busy days of both managers and workers. 

Classroom or field training programs that last hours, or even weeks, just won’t cut it. This is why a lot of large organizations like UPS, Walmart, and the United Kingdom’s Government Communications department use virtual reality and gamification to train their employees efficiently. But what are these methods and how are they useful?

Immersive Success

While virtual reality (VR) devices are often used for entertainment, they may have significant benefits for corporate training. For the uninitiated, VR is a simulation of an environment created from a computer. Users can enter and interact with this simulation using special helmets or goggles and gloves. 

Walmart, a prominent retail chain in the United States, uses this technology to train and educate more than 1.5 million employees across the country. It has over 17,000 VR units in over 4,600 stores. And they’re all ready to simulate crowd management during peak days like Black Friday sales and disaster preparedness programs. According to the company, using VR for training increased trainee test scores by 10%  to 15%. 

This method is effective because it gives trainees close to real-life experiences within the confines of a small training room, according to a report by Deloitte on using VR for education. It’s an immersive way to learn standard procedures. Kentucky Fried Chicken uses it to teach new employees how to prepare their signature dish. UPS uses VR for driver safety training. The company’s units even simulate real roads from cities and neighborhoods around the world. 

Grace Under Pressure 

Virtual reality’s most significant benefit, however, comes from training for crucial situations, according to Deloitte. In fact, the Australian military uses VR to train soldiers in simulated battlefields. Its goal is to make troops more resilient to pressure if they do find themselves stuck in a foxhole. Police departments in the U.S. also use VR to teach officers how to handle active shooter situations. 

With VR training, people can improvise and come up with creative solutions instead of relying solely on a handbook. And because these realistic situations happen in a safe and controlled environment, it saves the organization time and money on materials and possible hospitalization costs from injuries in the field.

Gaming the System

There are more than 2.5 billion people in the world who play video games regularly. Some of your employees probably know more about their favorite game’s plot than your company policies. Though it may not seem like a great idea at first, mixing work and play may prove to be effective in your training sessions. 

Gamification uses game elements like competition, points, and limited rules to engage employees to perform tasks. It’s used by top companies like Microsoft and Deloitte to make their workers more productive and proactive. 

Deloitte used badge rewards and leaderboards to motivate their senior executives to take up the company’s training curriculum. Whoever finished the courses faster and had better points ranked higher on the leaderboard and received exclusive badges for their achievements. This caused them to get their certificates much quicker than before.

Microsoft used gamification to turn its native-speaking employees into software language localizers. It used a simple application where viewers could scan different parts of a program for translation errors. More than 900 workers participated in this initiative. They found that about 70% of the content on their programs were linguistically correct, and made changes according to the users’ inputs.

Because these productivity games contain the hooks that traditional games have, workers strive to become more productive and accurate. It’s all fueled by the desire to go up the leaderboard and earn prestigious badges. They end up craving for excellence.

While these two methods are relatively new, they’ve made a significant impact on the performance of companies big and small. If you want to use these methods, partner with a reputable VR and game developer such as Next World Enterprises to discuss your training needs extensively.

Why not contact us here at Next World Enterprises to book a complimentary onsite or remote demonstration to find out about how VR and gamification can enhance your corporate training programs?