Training Industry Magazine - Spring 2023 - 40

changes to production facilities, factory
layouts, cities and ecosystems.
Digital twins offer a safe, authentic
environment to practice hands-on, highstakes
skills without harming people,
property or relationships. Whether
learners need to de-escalate an
aggressive patient in a hospital setting
or eliminate hazards in an industrial
garage, they receive immediate, visceral
feedback on their performance. And
because a 3D environment and a sense
of presence are more natural and
intuitive than 2D screens, learners leave
the experience with transferable skills -
and retain them for the long term.
Learning in the
Metaverse
Full-body interactions in a 3D
environment are incredibly effective
for learning performance-based tasks
- from fighting fires to de-escalating
a challenging customer. And thanks to
spatial audio, movement tracking and
voice analysis features in virtual reality
(VR) headsets, metaverse learning
experiences are incredibly adaptive and
responsive to nuance. Situations unfold
differently every time, demonstrating to
learners how minute variations in their
actions or tone of voice affect outcomes.
What's most exciting about learning in the
metaverse is that it allows you to increase
access to learning, your industry and
your organization. Inviting more people
to meet you in your digital twin can help
overcome the limitations of regions,
mobility, access and physical ability.
The Next
Evolution of
Remote Work
If the first wave of remote work
has opened a global talent pool for
organizations, the metaverse will
broaden the reach of recruitment and
skilling by orders of magnitude. For
example, L&D and human resources
(HR) might team up to meet candidates
in our organization's digital twin.
There, candidates can not only tour
our organization and learn about our
industry, but also collect role-relevant
skills - perhaps even complete a
digital internship - and showcase their
abilities during the recruitment process.
Thanks to continuity and interoperability,
HR can review candidates' progress,
achievements and - once hired -
professional development.
That's just one example of how
organizations might put their digital
twins - and other metaverse assets
- to work. Our people are already
imagining many more use cases. Recent
data show that 52% of employees
are interested in performing some of
their work in the metaverse over the
next year.
It's the classic catch-22: Your learners need to practice, make mistakes and learn from their mistakes ... yet your organization
can't afford any mistakes.
The metaverse can help! Within a digital twin of their worksites, learners respond to authentic on-the-job challenges,
refine relevant skills and hone their response times.
The results? Speedy skill acquisition and increased retention.
Bailenson's four criteria for immersive experiences worth creating can help you determine whether you've got a use case
for learning in the metaverse. Here are a few examples:
Expensive: A digital twin of their worksite helps learners practice safe use of prohibitively expensive and hard-toreplace
equipment - and (virtually) experience the high cost of errors.
Dangerous: In the metaverse, learners dodge a punch or put out a fire that feels real - then refine their moves and
reaction times live. Thanks to in-world performance data, they can review their growth over time.
Impossible: Need learners to take on a different perspective - or move in a way that defies space and anatomy? In
the metaverse, they can shrink to the size of a single cell to explore a blocked artery or manage multiple assembly lines
through an octopus avatar.
Rare: Prepare learners for the unlikely by creating once-in-a-lifetime conditions (e.g., a global pandemic) that challenge
them to model and test contingency plans.
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https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/it/virtual-reality-for-medical-training-how-it-benefits-hospitals https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/great-expectations-making-hybrid-work-work https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/great-expectations-making-hybrid-work-work

Training Industry Magazine - Spring 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Magazine - Spring 2023