Confused about 360-degree video? Not sure where to start, what hardware to use, what software to edit with, where to publish it, or how to use it in your next eLearning course? This session will address all these questions using a hands-on approach.

You’re building VR simulators, and you need to either scale up your company’s production capabilities or get more productivity out of the staff you have. Join this session to discuss a real-world case study that demonstrates the steps followed to accomplish both goals.

3-D content is phenomenally cool—from basic polygonal models to full human-like characters, buildings, vehicles, and even complete environments. Because 3-D content has historically taken vast resources (i.e., time and money) to create, 3-D resources are often relegated to video games, simulations, and/or VR only. However, creating, editing, or obtaining 3-D models for everyday use in eLearning doesn’t have to be cost-prohibitive or take a lot of time.

Some job requirements can be hard to practice. Simulating tasks may be too dangerous, too expensive to set up, or too hard to distribute to employees across geographies. Vistual reality is a viable solution to address such challenges. In VR, risks are free, design and development can be cheaper than setting up real-world training scenarios, and, as VR headsets can easily be shipped to different places, the need to fly people into locations for training is reduced.

We’ve all heard that VR training experiences have a proven higher retention rate, with retention gains reaching 75 percent in comparison to standard video, eLearning, or textbook training. What we need to know is how to create and deploy VR training quickly and cost effectively, with the systems we have today. This session will cover the creation, editing, publishing, and tracking of VR training using 360 video.

You’ve heard the buzz: Virtual reality for learning and development is coming! Are you intrigued? Do you really want to hear about a successful VR learning program and how it was developed, start to finish? Join this informative session with a case study to help you make the leap from theory to practice.

VR and AR are here. Apple ARKit and Google ARCore are turning two billion phones into a magic lens that can arm your workforce with superpowers. Full-body VR offers a digital rehearsal space of such convincing verisimilitude that learners feel they are actually there. How are Fortune 500 companies driving business results by leaving the glowing rectangular screens behind to step into the virtual and augmented reality of the future?

Virtual reality is a developing medium that requires a fresh approach and planning for case-based learning projects. Unlike traditional framed video, there are no close-ups, no pans, no reveal; everything is in frame all the time. Every aspect, from storyboarding to the design process to filming, must be approached from a new perspective and refined as you learn from previous projects.

Choosing between AR and VR for better learning experiences and efficacy is very important for digital learning. Once the concept or content is finalized, deciding the correct approach for developing AR or VR is vital. Selecting the best developmental tool and workflow can be tricky considering the diverse options available in tools, devices, platforms, and standards in the digital space.

Virtual reality (VR) is predicted to be the next big thing in learning, but can this trend really impact the way people learn? When should you consider adopting VR as a strategy? Which tools and technologies should you invest in? What design approach should you follow? This session will answer all your questions and more, positioning you for success as you kick off your VR project.

Virtual reality will lead to a revolution in business, professional development, education, and entertainment. But VR raises a new set of challenges due to the deeply compelling nature of immersive environments. Unlike media on a screen, VR hijacks your senses, turning the virtual into reality. What are some of the ethical issues VR creates? How do you address the emotional impact of deeply realistic, immersive environments?

As technology delivers content directly into the hectic world of target audiences, user experience designers are faced with the challenge of presenting information that is disruptive and helpful all at once. With AR and VR, the UX is unique in that the designer builds the context on a screenless platform with nonlinear content. Attendees of this session will see proven methods and innovative examples of smart UX design for AR/VR.

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 virtual reality into your training and development programs.

You don’t have to look very long to find reports and studies that say there is widespread dissatisfaction with the learning function inside organizations around the world. A 2017 study found that 91 percent of learning and development professionals believe new approaches to learning and new technologies are needed. And as the workplace continues its rapid changes, the need to upskill and develop employees has never been greater.

Virtual reality-based training offers a potent opportunity to place workers in a close approximation of the point of work, where learning has the greatest impact. However, since this still is an emerging technology, there is a lack of long-term data and case studies, and there are many misconceptions surrounding cost and best operating practices.

You can have the best trainers possible, but the fact remains that most effective learning happens on the job. The ideal situation would be to immerse new employees into the job right away while minimizing the risk of mistakes. Virtual reality training has the potential to make this a reality. VR training immerses participants into a fun and engaging environment that closely simulates actual work situations.

In today’s workplace, one-size-fits-all onboarding methods won’t fit. There is a need to optimize the time-to-contribution metric: the time it takes employees to be productive. Role-specific and realistic onboarding becomes imperative. Ericsson’s multi-path learning platform, Jumpstart, is undergoing an extreme makeover. The original platform allows for role-specific onboarding experiences using multimedia content. Version 2.0 amplifies the learning by recreating real-life scenarios using 360 VR experiences, anchored in a multi-path environment.

There’s fast-growing interest in the usage of AR and VR for education and training. According to SuperData Research, investments in AR and VR technologies will grow from $1.6 billion in 2017 to over $3.1 billion in 2020. Much of that investment is being funneled towards projects built with education and training in mind. AR and VR are emerging quickly, but what does it mean for today’s learning organizations?

In preparation for the launch of a brand-new regional haul truck in their key markets, Volvo Trucks had both a dealer training and customer engagement challenge ahead of them. A geographically dispersed dealer base made in-person sales training within the launch timeframe challenging. Similarly, the complexity and availability of the new trucks made it unwieldy to engage customers in live product demonstrations.

Both augmented reality and virtual reality technologies address a world that is 3-D, while most traditional digital learning technology addressed a flat landscape. The movement to 3-D landscapes is going to require new skill sets, including new coding skills. With many possible solutions out there for producing 3-D graphics, digital learning needs a way of producing 3-D that is congruent with tools and presentation methods in current use.

Training firefighters in the field is an expensive endeavor. Traditional field training exercises involve large teams of firefighters, their equipment, a dedicated training ground, and set-up and tear-down time for each field exercise. When training exercises are not performed frequently and with precision to shift tactical knowledge to long-term memory, lives are at stake on the fireground. Additionally, firefighters simply do not experience fires every day.

Social VR has the opportunity to bring learners from all over the world into a shared environment for collaboration, simulations, and serious games. While the potential is immense, broad-scale adoption of VR hardware will take some time. This session will describe how companies are accommodating this adoption life cycle by offering social learning experiences that people can log in to on mobile (2-D), desktop, and fully immersive VR.

For millennia learning has been a social experience, and this critical factor has not been supported well in first-generation eLearning solutions. Until now, it was difficult to replicate the power of the live experience online in a scalable, replicable, and affordable way. However, multi-user VR opens the door to truly immersive collaboration and social learning.

Training professionals in many organizations face similar challenges: how to ensure training is engaging, meaningful, and applied on the job. VR and AR can help ensure learner engagement, but how can they be leveraged to create meaningful experiences that are transferred to the job? We will consider these challenges in this session and view examples of VR and AR that create meaningful engagements that have immediate application to the job.

While YouTube and others make viewing online 360 video easy, creating these videos requires special cameras, equipment, setup, and forethought. But did you know that you can simulate this same look and feel using Blender, the open-source 3-D editing software, to create 360 video?

Virtual reality (VR) has been a hot topic in the L&D space. Its use in the field is growing, and now you can move past theory and explore real examples of VR as a learning solution. You can see the real-world experience that incorporates VR, and find out what exactly you need to create a meaningful learning experience.

Cybersickness is a term for motion sickness that you feel in a virtual environment. The potential for experiencing cybersickness often prevents learners from engaging in VR experiences, and experiencing it can decrease learners’ motivation and possibly leave them with negative after-effects that hinder learning. Understanding how cybersickness can impact learners, and how to prevent it, is critical as VR gains broader use.

Strong interpersonal skills are essential now more than ever as impending disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning change the workplace. However, interpersonal skills can be hard to find and a challenge to develop quickly at scale. Most learning programs may do a good job teaching what to do, but rarely give opportunities for learners to practice doing it, especially in “true-to-life” situations.

Immersive learning platforms use virtual reality headsets to enable new kinds of teaching and learning. Unlike traditional web conferencing tools, these new platforms transport users into a shared virtual space that allows them to use their hands to build and manipulate 3-D objects, become immersed together inside a 360 video, and investigate 3-D models.

Simulated scenarios are a key part of learning, but too often you may walk away with only a “gist” of what went right or wrong. There hasn’t been a good way to apply quantitative analysis to performance, lessons, and improvement.

The VR market is broken. The initial hype bubble has burst. Public interest is still vague and inconsistent. Those killer applications haven’t hit yet. Hardware is still in its infancy. Funding across the industry is still fairly limited. Where are the anchor features and applications and experiences that will herald the emergence of VR? More importantly, what steps must those in the industry take to get there?

It can be expensive and time consuming to jump on the VR bandwagon. So how do you determine if, when, and how to utilize AR, VR, and MR in your training strategy? If the time is right, how do you get started?

Why is VR effective for training, and how can you identify the best ways to leverage VR to improve training within your organization?

Virtual reality offers a promising new strategy for teaching, engaging learners in a realistic and 360-degree environment. However, while the instructional possibilities are extraordinary, there have been two major challenges facing most classrooms: technology cost and instructional relevance.

Virtual reality simulations can be hard to get right, and many VR authoring solutions require slow re-configuring processes to make changes. This can make prototyping slow. At the same time, really knowing that you’ve got the right elements, the right words, the right sequence is hard for a new medium like virtual reality without actually experiencing it. A means of quickly testing and tweaking is needed.

What if we could infuse the power of social learning into virtual reality or augmented reality? While they offer deeply immersive experiences for individuals, both can be primarily a solo experience. Learn how Visa is using connected mobile devices in concert with VR hardware and AR triggers to create collaborative experiences for teams of learners both inside and outside the classroom.

Virtual reality is rapidly gaining acceptance as an exciting technology for learning. But once we get beyond the hype, we need to ask: Can learning in a virtual world really transfer to the real world?

In many companies, all of the most important data and technologies sit inside high-security locations that most employees can’t ever access. But this data and equipment represents a direct link to the customer experience, and it’s important for employees to understand what is inside these centers and what it means for their services. How can you give employees a realistic and immersive view inside what is typically unseen?

Virtual reality provides an opportunity for engaging and immersive learning experiences for students in higher education. Much of its development for educational purposes has been in settings with direct contact with students, like classrooms and labs. However, given all the considerations for designing online courses for students across the world, does VR add pedagogical value (and enough return on investment) in an online learning context?

If you got the chance to walk around experiencing the world as a retired person, would that change your financial planning in the present? If you got to have firsthand experience of being a patient, could that change how you treat patients? If you were able to experience the results of a major safety catastrophe, would that make you safer in your daily work life?

VR and 360 video can be daunting. You may think you need to become a developer and learn complex code to create a real VR experience. Or maybe you are not even sure where to start.