What VR Solutions can offer
Do you remember that one teacher whose lessons were much more fun than usual? Lessons that really hooked you? Suddenly everything was truly tangible: You went into the woods in biology class, and finally understood, really got to grips with an experiment in chemistry class – in short: you experienced it immersively.
When we learn something multisensory, i.e. link several senses, a much stronger network is built up in our brain. Immersive learning offers the chance to experience and understand topics up close.
But what exactly does the buzzword immersion mean? If you look at Wikipedia’s definition of immersion, which is derived from Latin, it means “submerge or embed”. I particularly like the word “submerge” when it comes to learning: You really dive into a topic.
Status Quo
In our countless zoom calls in this “Corona Year 2020”, we have all noticed that mere chatter is not always the way to go, but that we understand things better when colleagues show us concrete examples by enabling screen sharing and encourage us to participate.
The same applies to tele-learning, which our children had to… or were allowed to try out very often this year because of Covid. There, too, the learning experience is enhanced when teachers focus on immersion by organising quizzes, including chat, and innovative games to join in.
It’s the same with me personally: I remember when I think back to my school days, especially an environmental club where three friends and I collected rubbish and grew vegetables on our own, or a trip during my MBA studies when we visited media companies in Seoul and Tokyo.
Even our own school musical at high school, where we got to know all aspects of musical production, is what has remained in my mind after more than ten years after finishing school. Here, a theoretical topic became a practical experience. That was immersive learning. But complete immersion does not come about if we only use tools like Zoom, Asana and Slack.
Those who educate themselves further, win
Further training is a permanent topic in modern, knowledge-based companies. But how can the most important capital, the brains of the employees, be adequately promoted if the constant learning eats up so many resources (travel time, accommodation costs)?
One thing is certain: attending conferences and further training classes is important, but often makes no economic sense. Travel time tears employees away from their everyday work.
Furthermore, in view of the COVID-19 restrictions, it is currently less advisable to be constantly on tour.
Diving into Virtual Reality
In 2020, even companies that used to work in a very analogue way have learned how digital collaboration works. A first step has been taken: we have discussed the next milestones in regular Zoom meetings and organised our projects via Slack and Asana.
But all this does not come close to the quality of real experiences. Where is the immersive experience? Virtual Reality, which has long since ceased to be attractive only to gamers, can offer a way out. Online courses or webinars in their present form are instructive, but not really catchy. I get far too much distracted by my everyday life, for example by other browser windows that crave attention.
NeXR Technologies provides remedy with NeXR Seminar. Here,users dive into an immersive gamified VR Learning Environment and are cut off from distractions. This is immersion par excellence!
Those who know me know that I love real-life seminars and listen to Nobel Prize winners at conferences such as the DLD Conference Series. However, we are still in this XXL-COVID-19 phase and real events with physical presence are rare.
Inside NeXR Seminar, a simulation of real live conferences can be displayed very well in VR. When I put on a VR Headset, after a short period of getting used to it, I quickly and intuitively know which finger I am using to select objects and can participate interactively in voting.
This playful approach and the fact that I can observe 3D objects from all sides really catches my attention. In the example setting, the seminar takes place in old Hamburg in the days of the Hanseatic times. I can look around on site, the experience is very impressive.
I love this immersive and playful moment which I call the “podcast effect”. Whenever I listen to a podcast while I’m on the move, I assemble what I hear with what I see. When I am back at the same place, I have to think of certain information from the podcast. This multisensory experience links information. Insanely effective!
Full concentration
What I can observe in myself is a compulsion to fully concentrate. “Compulsion” is meant positively in this case for once: I cannot jump back and forth between twelve tabs and YouTube films while trying to concentrate on what is being said. Instead, I am directed towards what is really important: learning the material to be conveyed.
Virtual seminars – How NeXR Seminar can help concretely
NeXR Technologies has started with the product NeXR Seminar to be a real all-round package for webinars, virtual conferences and presentations. Through an immersive VR world, the learning experience becomes particularly experiential.
Why the NeXR seminar is very similar to the real world: The system makes use of the most modern Motion Capturing Technology. The presenter is recorded and streamed live in the motion capturing studio. NeXR supplies users with a VR headset and they can enter the virtual seminar room at home or in the office.
The trick (and that makes it immersive): The virtual avatar, your digital teacher can create real emotions with his body language, gestures and facial expressions and thus teaching content that sticks. In the example seminar it is the well-known Berlin “Networking God” Sascha Alexander Wolf. He is the first VR presenter within the NeXR Seminar world and at the same time Scientific Advisor of the project. In Berlin he runs the established network club “Außergewöhnlich Berlin”.
VR Learning Solutions – The NeXR seminar environment
If you choose NeXR’s VR Solutions, you will receive pre-installed and ready-to-use devices. The IT team does not have to come specially for this.
When I enter the virtual world, I see a living world instead of PowerPoint slides – from an ancient city, Hamburg in Hanseatic times or a fictional world of my own. These virtual learning environments make the content more immersive and strengthen the memory. It is much more impressive than just firing slides.
Nevertheless, I can also fall back on tools I have fallen in love with before the VR period:
- White board and laser pointer
- Microsoft Office documents
…but I have a few more advantages like gesture and voice control or that I can trigger different events through voting and survey tools.
The visual impression is strengthened by the possibility of presenting 3D/CAD objects. I can have things explained to me directly on the object.
VR Corporate Training – Advantages with NeXR seminar
VR Learning Solutions like NeXR Seminar help companies to become greener. By avoiding long (and strenuous) journeys to the seminar venue, the company reduces its carbon footprint.
A VR Conference is more scalable, even for a larger number of employees. If more employees participate in a NeXR seminar, in contrast to traditional conferences, travel and hotel costs do not explode simultaneously. The economic advantage is also evident in the fact that no working days are lost.
Above all, VR based learning solutions are effective and immersive. Due to the deep penetration into the audiovisual learning world, participants remember the audiovisual learning content more strongly than they would otherwise in computer-supported learning. Through the gamification aspects, the participants are deeper into the action and stay on the ball. Immersive learningmeans that the brain perceives the VR environment as a whole-body experience and remains in undisturbed focus at all times due to the enclosed environment.
VR Learning: Why it is getting exciting right now
My first VR experiences in 2013 were still sluggish, the image resolution very rough. But now we are at a point where the graphics output is really useful, i.e. no longer tiresome. The wireless VR glasses bring us another step closer to independence. The direct experience of knowledge in an isolated world is ideal when the highest level of concentration is required.
Many consider travel to be just one of the evils, but the unproductive days of the employees cost companies a lot of money. The VR learning method can be a pleasant alternative to physical presence at seminars. Covid gave us a little insight into virtual events, NeXR can take this to a whole new level. Today we are on the threshold of more immersion in learning. We only have to go through the door.n.
So, if you are planning your next VR conference or VR seminar, then have a look at NeXR. It is worth it. Definitely.
