Advantages of Virtual Reality Training Part I
A few months back the Pathways Training and eLearning team partnered with our friends at Saint John Ambulance to create one of Canada’s first 360 video eLearning modules. The program is intended for students participating in a first aid program, with this particular module dealing with best practices when responding to a mass casualty event. The virtual reality simulation allowed the students to “walk though” a mass casualty scene (using a virtual reality viewer such as Google Cardboard) as they assessed several casualties, ranging from a broken bone to, severe blood loss and other life-threatening injuries. Using “hot spots” we emended in the 360 video, the student could review possible treatment for each injured person they came upon, and also determine the priority level of the patient. Overall the project was a tremendous success as we could provide, for the first time, the opportunity for Saint John Ambulance to offer training to their perspective students that up to that point would have been impossible to replicate without significant cost, planning and resources.
Given the positive outcome of the 360 video project mentioned above I had thought we would start to see a significant rise in other vendors willing to utilize the advantages of 360 video and virtual reality for their eLearning training, however as of yet that is not the case. As such, I thought that, over the next few weeks, I would discuss not just the advantages mentioned above of using 360 video and virtual reality as part of your training, but also some of the “hidden” advantages that many have yet to realize, but are none the less very real and available.
Stay tuned for my next blog about virtual reality and how it can be used for training and if you would like a demo of our VR eLearning module, contact us at info@pathwaysinc.ca or at 1-888-961-6011 ext 121.
