Benefits of virtual reality training with gamification
Did you know that 90% of all information consumption comes from visuals?
Humans remember 80% of what we see and only 20% of what we read. It’s no wonder that the concept of visual learning and gamification provides the maximum benefits to all learners, no matter which field you are in.
I am Jarmo Tanskanen, CEO and Founder of Visuon. With over 25 years of experience in pedagogical training in media and visual tools for universities, I saw that there was a need to innovate methods that add the fun factor in learning, in order to retain information better, particularly using the concept of gamification.
What is gamification?
My definition of gamification is the process of designing gaming qualities into learning tools in which will increase the overall motivation level. Players are willing to do more because when the learning process is gamified, there is a sense of being hooked on the game in so that all time sense is lost, due to pure interest and solid fun. Because if you think about it, don’t you learn better when you are more engaged in what you are doing?
In the context of industrial companies and businesses, from my experience, employers have found that when provided with textual guidebooks, the employees don’t use them efficiently for their work. I believe that gamified material is better than traditional methods of training because it is engaging, interactive and more interesting to the player.
In a professional setting, for example, colleagues are able to share scores and discuss about the learning game that they just played. This creates a social effect among the employees which provides a more enjoyable environment in the workspace after playing the virtual game.
Visual training can be advantageous to industrial, educational and healthcare sectors, just to name a few
Benefits of VR Training Platforms
With virtual reality training platforms, adding texts, photos, videos or even questionnaires onto a 360° virtual reality background image allows both the content creator and the user to easily absorb the information in an authentic atmosphere. As Robert Horn of Stanford University states regarding visual learning, "the process increases the capacity of human bandwidth to take in, comprehend and more efficiently synthesize large amounts of new information".
There are many benefits to using VR training. The sustainable travel factor is that you can train employees and customers without physically being present on location. There can be decreases of safety injuries and avoidance of the risks of breaking expensive materials, so this will save unnecessary costs in the end.
You can even use VR training as a guide to navigate through spaces and cities to visually aid users from afar. Visual training can be advantageous to industrial, educational and healthcare sectors, just to name a few.
Future of Learning
I believe that the future of learning is through visuals and gamification. Humans are natural visual learners and we must continue to provide methods that allow that wonder to thrive.
Sure, there may be more methodologies available such as glasses or holograms, but in the realm of innovative education, visual learning will remain the consistent eye in the unpredictable storm of fast technology. It is the ultimate revolution in education.
*Jarmo Tanskanen is the CEO and Founder of Visuon.