Your First VR Training Opportunity
Updated: Feb 28
Looking to have your first VR Training Opportunity created - awesome! Now what do you do?
Getting started with VR training can have numerous obstacles, but they're nothing worth turning away from. This article will cover the basics that we work towards with clients to make the VR training process (from idea to deployment) go as smoothly as possible.
“A house can't be made overnight, and neither does a VR module! First there's the foundation, then framing, sheetrock, painting, and so on!”
From an idea to a proposal
When you're looking to have VR content made, we think a project is going to be successful or not based on the proposal of what that content is suppose to do. Without a solid proposal and plan, it can be difficult for the development team to determine budget, scene design, and how code should be created to make the most impact for your budget. Here are a few questions you should have answered before you request a clear proposal.
How many people do you plan to use this over a time period?
Are you training for realism of the environment or focused more on the steps to learn?
What are the critical outcomes you want out of this content?
How long would this content take to complete place in real life?
Are you looking for guided learning or more field testing (quiz-like) content?
What are the critical interactions / actions the user needs to do?
When do you need this content by?
Who is planning to run this program and location where it will occur?
If you can answer these questions, you'll not only get a very accurate proposal, but you'll also ensure through planning and deployment there's a clear understanding of your desired outcomes. Here are some of the reasons we look for each questions (1:1 for the questions)
More people means more headsets, support and easier to use content design to meet a wider range of users.
If environment is key, then maybe a computer is needed to handle the visual needs that a standard, mobile VR headset can't do. If steps are the focus then the environment can be simplified and lower hardware costs.
Without the critical outcomes, developers and designers don't know what's the ideal solution to generate that outcome, hence it could be more costly to account for loose ends. Equally, with outcomes, you'll have clear standards to evaluate the VR around.
VR is a great medium to learn it but it does not guarantee a faster learning. Ideally a module should be around 10-15 mins and if your process takes 40 mins, there needs to be simplification or module break downs.
Overall, the more "free-to-roam" opportunities where a user can make mistakes, the more development time it takes to account for those. The more guided training won't produce as much "failure" learnings but it will allow for more direct learning and process understanding.
Not every nuance needs to be in VR - sometimes they can't be replicated too! By identifying the interactions with steps, environment, and tools developers can make faster choices in development.
Like a new born, it still takes some base time to make content no matter how many people work on it. On average it can take about 2-3 months to make a 15 minute module from scratch.
If there isn't a specific person as a point contact, or let alone run the VR when it's made, these are critical design and development points that need to be known for the best possible outcome.
In summary, the more clarity you can provide, the better your overall experience will be! Take some time to design it, walk around in an open space walking through the steps and time yourself - you'll find out very quickly was necessary or not in your content and what you're looking to have created.
Development
If you followed the design steps, development will occur over a few months with critical steps along the way. Something to always be aware of is the longer you wait to ask about changes or updates - the harder it will become to make that change. Typically our development stages are:
Scene sketching and mock up
Modeling and creating the scene
Testing and making critical interactions
Combining the scene with interactions
Adding audio, instructions, and required steps or actions
Final testing and deployment
In the earlier stages, feedback is extremely encouraged and changes can get made but for every stage later you want a change, you potentially have to backup to the stages before it again. Testing should also be occurring throughout the whole process and don't be afraid to be apart of that process to make sure there's no surprises.
Lastly, in each of these stages, some progress might visually happen fast while others, like coding, might not look like much is happening. Keep an open communication channel with your development team and trust their timeline - a house can't be made overnight, and neither does a VR module! First there's the foundation, then framing, sheetrock, painting, and so on!
Deployment
Congrats! You're about to deploy your VR training! Final considerations to make sure happen are:
Training Session:
Plan for at least a few hours to go over how the content works, how to setup the VR headsets, practicing different user situations and what to do when things don't go as planned.
Post Follow up:
We strongly encourage a survey or post follow up to make sure that the VR content was successful or what needs to be updated in the future! The more notes and learnings you can gather the more you'll identify if it's worth while to continue making more content in the future.
Final Thoughts
There's a lot that goes into launching a VR opportunity - therefore there's a lot that can go wrong too. The more you can plan and visualize what you want as outcomes, the smoother your development and deployment are going to go!
At ENHANCE-VR we're always excited to engage with new clients to make their virtual opportunities become reality! Reach out if you want to learn more on how we can work with your team to enhance your opportunities with VR!
www.enhancevr.com