Finding ways to make learning “stick” with technology is always a challenge. Augmented reality is one of those “make it stick” technology options available for education and training. However, AR can seem overwhelming, expensive, time-consuming, and difficult to use in everyday learning development. These assumptions cause developers to overlook the potential this technology holds for their learners.

VR isn’t new to the training world. For decades, high-end simulators and fully immersive VR experiences have been deployed and applied successfully to various fields. But these experiences have—until recently—been limiting, as few had access to the high-end equipment needed and, even worse, there can be an inherent disconnect between the virtual and real world, which can sometimes make applying knowledge challenging.

As products and services become more complex, providing the right training or performance support has the biggest impact on improving proficiency. Augmented and virtual reality can be the link that enables you to deliver your valuable content directly to your audience when they need it most. 

Augmented reality is a trend that’s now becoming more tangible—along with the hardware that allows people to experience it. These shifts mean it’s increasingly important in L&D not only to understand how AR can work, but also to explore how to move forward and actually create content for this new medium. But for many departments facing limited budgets, it’s a challenge to create meaningful learning and performance support experiences in AR without having to spend a fortune on software, hardware, or developers.

Moving your organization forward with new approaches to learning and development can be challenging—especially when the new approaches involve nontraditional ideas or technologies. Our Overcoming Barriers sessions bring together people who have already walked this path to share what they have learned. Join our panel of experts as they discuss how you can overcome the most common barriers to incorporating augmented reality into your training and development programs.

There is excitement in the air about augmented reality; but, just like with any new technology, different companies are approaching it from different directions. And while looking at the potential of AR from a number of angles will help push the technology further, this lack of a single development approach also means that, at this stage, some solutions will play nicely with others and some will not. To assist this technology in moving forward and becoming mainstream, the augmented reality space needs some established structure and standards.

On the manufacturing plant floor, production is crucial. No matter how well trained the employees are, there is a loss of retention between training delivery and application. The longer it takes to close that gap, the longer production is halted.

There are a wide range of solutions for implementing augmented reality in training and enterprise applications. Even with these myriad solutions, it’s not always clear how to use them to provide the best possible experience for users. How do you ensure that these solutions are being used to build something useful and meaningful? What is the difference between a good and a bad augmented reality experience?

Are you interested in what it takes to create great augmented reality experiences? Do you need useful, practical tips on what makes (or breaks) an interface and user experience for AR? If so, then this session is for you.

As you begin to develop VR and AR experiences for L&D, it’s important to consider how people interact with the content in your digital world. And as these mediums continue to grow and evolve, so too will your options for interfacing with them. If you’re developing VR or AR content and looking to take your learning experiences to another level, it’s worth investigating an unexpected way to interact with your content: gesture control devices.

Over the past two years, augmented reality and virtual reality have started to bloom in the consumer marketplace. These technologies enable all types of learning and education experiences across all of the outcomes in Bloom’s Taxonomy. In other words, AR and VR are poised to break into the mainstream of education and learning.

Are you looking to infuse some excitement into exploring and discovering your organization, but concerned that the only budget you have is simply the time and skills of the people in your department? Don’t let that stop you from considering augmented reality experiences. There are ways to leverage AR to encourage your staff to self-discover your organization and have a more engaging multimedia experience—all without breaking the bank!

Technology with the potential to transform learning is here: Virtual realities, augmented realities, and mixed realities are not just bleeding-edge tools anymore. Much of the pioneering work that came from early adopters and the military is now having mainstream impact. When L&D professionals contemplate using these new realities for learning, they often focus on the technical side of how to create these experiences. But what about the psychological considerations you should take into account when designing content for these new mediums?

When any technology is used for training or performance support, you want to make sure it’s actually effective. That’s why the impact needs to be examined through a performance lens to determine whether the technology really enables people to do their work better. This analysis of the context is increasingly important to the development and deployment of AR and VR.

There is enormous potential for what L&D professionals can achieve by harnessing the levels of engagement available with virtual reality and augmented reality. Hardware and infrastructure suppliers continue to push the capabilities of these technologies forward. However, there is an enormous gap between those advancing technologies and the realities of today’s learning landscape.

Augmented reality allows you to create an immersive experience for learners. AR can combine images, sound, movies, games, search engines, databases, social media, and the web and explode them across the physical world, revealing invisible stories around products, processes, and operations. But what makes a compelling AR experience that makes learning stick, and how can you get started creating AR content?

For years, training departments and instructional designers have struggled to develop quality mobile learning. Users don’t want to access eLearning courses designed for a computer or watch 30-minute training videos from their phone while using up all their data. And technologies like VR and AR sound expensive and difficult to make scalable for a company.

As virtual and augmented reality technologies continue to advance, it becomes more important than ever to determine how best to utilize these tools in eLearning and training programs.

When you’re about to launch new software, hardware, or programs, you may be focusing on the technical aspects of the launch. But there’s another angle you need to consider: user buy-in. That was the concern for USPI, a company that owns more than 300 surgical centers and hospitals across the US, when it was preparing for its new staffing software rollout. This software was mandatory for all employees to use, and with so much on the line, the team knew engagement was key to success. But how could they build that staff buy-in when they lacked both an established communication platform and, more importantly, an existing culture of change to lean on?