Classroom training, Zoom sessions, and eLearning segregates learning from work, delivering information out of context. The best that can be said about them is that they give you the sensation of coma without the worry and inconvenience. This presentation will take participants inside a new generation of hyper-realistic, multi-player, virtual reality (VR) simulations that are upending learning as we know it. In my demo of the Finishing Trades Institute's virtual sim, painters feel like they're on a construction site. The presentation will also showcase how HVAC company Daikin goes beyond recreating reality, to extending reality. Offering the ultimate customer experience of "X-ray vision" of their giant chillers, their VR program visualizes the flow of liquid and vapor inside their equipment.

I will ask session participants to download and play our Spark City game from the app stores straight on their phones during the session. These absorbing environments are modeled on flight simulators, which have to date been the gold standard for skills-based learning. They help students learn by doing, honing skills, and building mastery with step-by-step tutorials, guided practice, feedback loops, and unlimited re-dos. The research is conclusive: repeated actions in virtual reality alter neural wiring, in turn improving real-world performance. The session will demonstrate how to unlock "10x" learning effectiveness from idea to (virtual) reality: from building the VR business case to building the pilot; from pilot purgatory to enterprise-scale VR; from single-player to multi-player; from standalone reporting to advanced analytics integrated with LMS and other legacy systems  This is the future of training.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to identify a VR pilot, build the business case, and partner with professionals to develop VR sims in a real-time game engine
• How students can interact seamlessly in a multi-player VR performance environment to learn with and from each other
• How to deploy VR at scale with mobile VR, device and content management platforms, advanced analytics, and LMS reporting
• How to build photo-realistic simulations with immediate feedback and unlimited do-overs

Technology discussed:

VR, Oculus Quest and Oculus for Business, Unity3D