What are the obstacles and disadvantages in virtual reality training?
Virtual reality is increasingly used for training and educating personnel. Through research, the benefits of vr training are now clear.
Of course, there are also some obstacles and disadvantages of vr training. In this article I will list some of the obstacles and try to negate them with my experience and insights.
The main disadvantages and arguments against developing a virtual reality training mostly relate to the costs and benefits. The investment is often high while the results are unclear and the technology unknown. This makes implementation, scaling and measuring success difficult.
The disadvantages of virtual reality for training
The main disadvantages and arguments against developing a virtual reality training mostly relate to the costs and benefits. The investment is often high while the results are unclear and the technology unknown. This makes implementation, scaling and measuring success difficult.
Virtual reality training development is too expensive
This argument can simply be debunked by looking at the results. Determine your objectives and KPIs (key performance indicators) in advance and compare the vr training with the current way of training. This way it is immediately clear whether the training has the desired results, making it easier to scale up and invest.
Virtual reality training hardware is too expensive
This depends on your KPIs, with which you determine the success factors. Do you want to train faster, work location-independently or simply give people more confidence? Success depends on your objectives. Research has already shown that VR training can be extremely effective. A recent study by PwC shows, for example, that VR is 4x faster when learning certain soft skills.
Virtual reality training is not effective
This depends on your KPIs, with which you determine the success factors. Do you want to train faster, work location-independently or simply give people more confidence? Success depends on your objectives
Research has already shown that VR training can be extremely effective. A recent study by PwC shows, for example, that VR is 4x faster when learning certain soft skills.
Virtual reality is not a scalable solution
This counter-argument is strongly related to the cost of virtual reality training and the vr hardware required. You only pay the development costs once, in contrast to practical training that requires continuous investment.
Virtual reality hardware is also a lot cheaper and easier to use. The scalability of vr training has already been demonstrated by companies such as Wal-Mart who are going to train 1 million people with it.
How do you make virtual reality training successful?
Do you want to develop a successful VR training? Then think carefully about your objectives and success factors and perform measurements at different times. This way you can easily demonstrate the success of your vr training and justify the investment.
Example of a successful vr training
A customer case that is very relevant to me is that of Safeway. They use virtual reality to train people to operate their hydraulic bridges, which are used at sea to transport personnel from, for example, a ship to an offshore platform. By using VR the trainee no longer needs to go out to sea to practice.
The company conducts dozens of training sessions each year. In these cases, they do not need to take the ship out to sea. Think of the cost savings in terms of logistics and personnel and depreciation of equipment. Tens of thousands of euros are saved and thus the company recovers the investment within one and a half years.
