2019 Annual Conference

Workforce Development, Continuing Education, and Professional Development

Concurrent Session (45 minutes)

This session will discuss the growing use of virtual reality (VR) in all types of training and educational environments. It will include a discussion of typical hardware and an actual example of the use of VR in a continuing professional development context.

This session is designed for those developing and delivering continuing professional education classes including both instructional designers and instructors.

At the completion of this session, the participant should be able to discuss: the importance of using virtual reality in some specific types of training contexts, what type of equipment is needed, and how this can significantly enhance student learning.

The use of virtual reality (VR) for training has been increasing rapidly as the costs of hardware and software decline. While VR has been used for years in gaming, it is still in its infancy in training. VR is particularly well-suited for training situations involving very large (e.g., constructing large buildings) or very small (e.g., nanotechnology) scales which may be very expensive and logistically challenging to replicate in a training environment. Another situation where VR is preferred is in dangerous environments. These may be difficult if not impossible to reproduce in live training because of the costs and potential danger.

This session will include the results of a survey given to students who went through a fired heater VR simulation. It will also include the estimated costs and equipment needed for this type of VR simulation.

This session will be a combination of lecture and discussion where the participants will be asked to describe their experiences with and opportunities to use virtual reality in their training contexts. There will also be a VR demonstration using a VR headset.