I prefer to think in opportunities rather than problems (as the cliche goes)…

Experiential learning
In some cases, doing is a far more effective way of learning than reading or listening. What will teach you more: the fire drill where a fireman sets off a smoke bomb in the hallway and pulls the alarm, or a Powerpoint presentation on evacuation procedure? The drill, most likely. Of course, learning by doing is not always practical because of cost, safety or impact on day-to-day operations. Imagine pilots training for engine-out situations or water landings in real aircraft instead of simulators!

VR is a great enabler for experiential learning in the health and safety (HSE) arena. The benefit: reduced cost, reduced travel and opportunity for remote learning, and a hazard-free training environment means that drills are safer, cheaper, and can be conducted far more often, by individuals or in groups. The first simulators of this nature focused on skills and reflexes (flight simulators), but recent ones commissioned by the military, fire brigades, and emergency response units shifted focus to behaviour and decision making skills. As a bonus, the same tool used to train students can be used to assess them as well.

Question: are there other areas that would benefit from experiential learning in a VR environment? The obvious answer is to replace current real life exercises such as negotiation games and business simulations with VR versions, which would mostly be about cost savings. The real question is: are there courses currently being conducted in classrooms or via a VLE that would benefit from being done in VR? The objective would be to transorm those courses into an experience, in hopes that people actually do learn better from experience than from Powerpoints. On that last assumption, More Research is Needed ™.

Collaboration, meeting, brainstorming
I believe that VR has a niche to fill in virtual teamworking or virtual meetings.

If we want to meet remotely with others, we currently have a few options like chat (instant messenger), teleconferencing, or videoconferencing. For fairly straightforward discussions, teleconferencing is a good option. If you want to get to know someone or bring a team closer together, videoconferencing does a decent job of putting two remote groups in the same room, more or less. So where does VR sit? I believe that VR in the collaboration space sits close to videoconferencing, offering two important opportunities:

- Participate anywhere. Videoconferencing requires special equipment (though that is changing as I write this), and has a limited number of hookups (4 is the practical limit). In contrast, VR can run from any computer at any location, allowing participants to join from their workplace or even from home, instead of having to sit in a special conference room.

- Co-creation. VR allows participants to create or manipulate 3d objects together. This has already been used on a small scale by a large consumer goods company: instead of looking at a proposed new product packaging on slides or a videoconference screen, marketing people and designers can look at, touch and modify the actual packaging together in a VR setting.

Can meetings in a VR environment feel as “real” as a videoconference or even a face-to-face meeting? Note: here I am drawing from my (rather extensive) experience in meetings in immersive multiplayer games (*), so the following are my own observations rather than solid scientific conclusions:
- An advantage of VR is that it puts everyone on an even footing. There is no divide between people in your own meeting room and the ones in the other room. This may contribute to the next point.
- In VR meetings a larger part of the group contributed. Real meetings or videoconferences tend to be dominated by one or a few persons, VR meetings seemingly less so.
- In VR meetings I felt “closer” to the other participants than in teleconferencing or even videoconferencing, even though VR lacks the facial epxressions you get over video. Perhaps this has to do with physically sitting in a comfortable environment (my own workplace or home) and virtually being in a pleasant setting, as opposed to sitting in a videoconference room that feels decidedly artificial and awkward.

It is important to note that this feeling of “closeness” to the other participants came only when I myself was proficient at controlling my in-game avatar and comfortable with the notion of looking through my avatar’s eyes, in other words when I was used to immerse myself in the VR environment. This takes time! Today’s kids or the next generation will grow up with virtual worlds and most will probably be comfortable with them by the time they enter the work force, but the older generation lacks that advantage.

I see this last point, together with the current technical immaturity of VR, as the main blockers for VR to enter mainstream usage in the workplace, especially when used for meeting and collaborating (i,e, the “Immerweb”). Our own experiments however do show that for special training courses, VR is usually readily adopted, even by people who have no affinity with learning or IT.