The Importance of the metaverse for training

The metaverse stands poised to revolutionize the training and education space. The metaverse allows for practical and effective immersive training encounters by providing a digital space for connectivity, socialization, and learning. Training in the metaverse helps with driving engagement, global accessibility, personalized learning, interactive simulations, collaborative opportunities, and cost efficiency.

Employers embrace the metaverse for workforce development, with entities like Walmart, Pfizer, Guy's, and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust leveraging its potential. Initiatives such as ActiVaR, supported by organizations like the World Bank, also aim to facilitate the adoption and evaluation of XR technology-based training programs for skills and workforce development globally. 

This blog dives into the evolution of training in the metaverse, highlighting how it enhances learning, builds collaboration, and promotes inclusivity across industries.

The evolution of training in the metaverse

The metaverse allows individuals to get training in both hard and soft skills through tech like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). According to the PwC 2022 US Metaverse Survey, 51% of companies are incorporating VR into their strategies, with 34% recognizing it as a highly effective employee development and training method. VR training allows quicker learning - up to four times faster than traditional methods. 

Additionally, it enhances confidence, emotional connection to the content, and focus, making it a powerful tool for engagement and cost-effective training at scale. This great blend of efficiency and immersive learning is reshaping professional training across all industries.

Here are some critical use cases of how the metaverse has evolved as a training tool across particular sectors:

Fitness

In the fitness industry, VR enhances workout experiences by immersing users in engaging, interactive environments. These experiences can make exercise routines more enjoyable while motivating individuals to maintain their fitness regimes. VR can simulate outdoor activities, provide guided workouts, or create competitive user environments. For instance, the VR fitness app FitXR offers a variety of workout classes, including boxing, dance, and HIIT, within a virtual environment. Users can join group classes, compete with others, and track their progress over time within a visually stimulating VR space that distracts from the fatigue of physical exercise.

Corporate Training

VR is revolutionizing corporate training by providing immersive experiences replicating real-world scenarios for employees without the associated risks and costs. These simulations include situations that help employees develop everything from soft skills, such as public speaking and leadership training, to more complex scenario-based training, like emergency response and conflict resolution. A great example of utilizing the 3D internet for corporate training is Walmart’s implementation of VR across its training centers to prepare employees for Black Friday sales. Using Oculus VR headsets, employees experience the rush of a busy store, helping them develop customer service skills and learn how to manage stress in a controlled, virtual environment.

Healthcare

In healthcare, VR is used for professional skills development, including surgical training, patient care simulations, and diagnostic skills enhancement. VR allows healthcare professionals to practice procedures risk-free, improving their skills and confidence before performing on actual patients. Osso VR is a surgical training platform that allows orthopedic surgeons to practice complex surgeries in VR. The platform provides highly detailed, realistic simulations of surgical procedures, allowing doctors to refine their techniques and learn new procedures without the need for cadavers or actual surgery time. VR surgical simulation can reduce the number of errors that could be fatal to patients, saving lives. Surgeons can also use medical VR Surgery simulation to test new devices and technology in a risk-free environment. Several medical institutions like Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust have been training their surgeons to use VR technology.

Enhanced learning experience

The metaverse significantly enhances the learning experience by leveraging immersive environments, global connectivity, and gamification. Here is how each aspect of this virtual ecosystem plays a crucial role in transforming how knowledge and skills are acquired:

• Real-world simulations: Immersive learning environments in the 3D internet use realistic simulations to replicate complex concepts and scenarios with high fidelity. This strategy allows learners to practice and hone their skills in a safe and controlled setting, where mistakes become valuable learning opportunities without real-world consequences. For instance, complete immersion can forgo challenges like learning a new language. Mondly VR offers immersive and interactive language learning experiences, allowing users to engage in realistic conversations and virtual scenarios that help them practice pronunciation, expand their vocabulary, and improve proficiency. 

  
  

• Global connectivity: The metaverse connects learners from around the globe, enabling collaborative and inclusive educational experiences. This global connectivity helps in cultural exchange, peer learning, and access to a broader range of instructors and learning materials from all around the world. A 3D internet platform, Virbela, builds virtual campuses where students and professionals from across the globe can interact, attend lectures, and participate in group projects as if they were physically together. This environment fosters a sense of community and collaboration that transcends geographical boundaries.

  
  

• Interactive and gamified learning environments: Gamification in learning involves using game-design elements in educational settings to increase engagement and motivation. The metaverse excels in this area by integrating challenges, rewards, and interactive elements that make learning more engaging and enjoyable. For example, Walmart created a ‘Spark City’ game to train employees on the floor. In the game, if customers appear within 10 feet or closer to an employee, they must ask if they can help, but this might not take priority over other situations like safety hazards in the store.

Real-time collaboration and feedback

The immersive and interactive nature of the 3D internet, coupled with its advanced communication tools, makes the platform ideal for teams to work on projects collaboratively. Feedback is also enhanced in the metaverse, making it immediate by allowing instructors to observe and react to learners' actions as they occur, which is crucial for effective learning. Enhanced by rich visual and audio cues, instructors can provide specific, detailed guidance. Data analytics further enrich feedback by offering insights based on performance metrics such as decision-making times and accuracy. 

Here are some examples of how the metaverse can be used for real-time collaboration and feedback:

• Virtual team challenges: The 3D internet is ideal for creating challenges that require collaboration and problem-solving, encouraging teamwork and communication among team members from different locations. For instance, teams can participate in scavenger hunts or complex group projects in the metaverse that require coordination across different virtual rooms and buildings. 

  
  

• Real-time conversations: Unlike traditional remote setups, metaverse platforms allow team members to interact in real time as avatars. They can easily approach and converse with each other, fostering spontaneous and informal communication crucial for teamwork. PixelMax’s immersive 3D technology and environments create spaces where colleagues see each other's avatars in the virtual workplace, facilitating natural interactions. 

  
  

• Data tracking to provide feedback: The metaverse can provide massive data to help understand learner behavior, identify shortfalls, and measure progress. For instance, in Pfizer’s pharma simulations, if a user crosses their hand or angles it wrong under the biosafety cabinet, the simulator immediately picks up on the error and provides feedback to the user.

  
  

• Virtual breaks: Virtual coffee breaks and other casual chit-chat in the metaverse help foster team bonding through informal gatherings. For instance, on NextMeet’s immersive platform, employees use digital avatars to interact in virtual spaces like offices and lounges. They can walk in and out of spaces to change the environment and take a break, mimicking the social dynamics of physical offices.

Accessibility and inclusivity

The metaverse significantly eliminates geographical barriers and accommodates diverse learning styles and abilities. Here are the primary ways the metaverse promotes accessibility and inclusivity in training: 

• No geographical limitations: It allows individuals from anywhere to access high-quality training without physical travel, making education more accessible to those in remote or underserved areas.  

  
  

• Assistive and adaptive training in the metaverse: The immersive nature of the metaverse caters to various learning preferences, with visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners all finding engaging content tailored to their needs. Moreover, adaptive learning environments within the metaverse can customize scenarios to individual learner needs, adjusting content pace and difficulty while providing personalized feedback. Accessibility features such as subtitles and voice commands ensure that individuals with disabilities are fully included. 

  
  

• Safe learning environment: The 3D internet offers individuals with disabilities like autism or special needs the opportunity to improve their professional and social skills. Through VR, people can visit locations like grocery stores and learn how to shelve products and load goods into a truck, eliminating the feelings of anxiousness that some could feel in real-world scenarios.

  
  

• Flexibility in learning: Virtual learning can make education accessible to trainees by offering them more choices in how and when they receive it. This adaptability benefits learners with disabilities, parents, those with full-time jobs, and people in remote or underserved areas.