A study into the issues involved when applying virtual reality technology to training applications.

Abstract

Over the past few years, the number of reports on virtual reality applications in use by companies has been steadily increasing. In particular, training applications including maintenance operations, complex procedures and managing emergency or hazardous situations, are proving to benefit from the use of virtual environments (VEs). This is largely due to the fact that virtual reality (VR) can now offer affordable training solutions, only previously possible using highly expensive systems, such as simulators. However VR is still an uncertain and under-utilised technology. This is partly due to the perceived limitations of the systems and the usability issues associated with them, but also, to the lack of well-documented case-studies providing evidence of any added value or cost benefits from use. There are still too many unanswered questions associated with the technology and therefore few guidelines that enable industry to make informed decisions about implementation.

To address this, researchers at VIRART, the Virtual Reality Applications Research Team, based at the University of Nottingham, England, have already been looking at providing such guidelines, with a view to offering a structured methodology to enable industry to specify, develop and evaluate their own virtual environment applications. As part of this research work, collaboration with companies is in progress but as this work is still on-going, it is beyond the scope of this paper. However as much research work with companies can be confidential and very specific, the results presented do not necessarily provide comprehensive data or information that can be easily transferred to other situations. In order to obtain more extensive and detailed information to explore the issues involved in the process of applying VR, VIRART developed a training application, which could be studied under regulated conditions.

The application chosen was that of training unskilled personnel to remove a network card in a computer and install a new one. This was chosen for a number of reasons but primarily because this task involves simple procedures which are not easily apparent without some form of training and costly, if mistakes are made. Throughout the evolutionary process each stage was mapped in detail. Specification began with determining the needs and abilities of all those involved, i.e. the application proposers or the 'organisation', the VE developer, and the target user population. Also the availability of the major resources (time, money, people, equipment) were considered against the aims and objectives. These factors influenced the process of defining goals for the application, ready for the development stage. The development stage was an iterative process, under the direction of the VE developer but based on continuous feedback from the organisation. Finally and most importantly evaluation was initially carried out by technical experts to ensure that the procedure correctly and sufficiently imparted the necessary information. Then trials were run involving three groups; a control group that received no training; a group trained using the 'real world' method of an instructional video; and a final group trained using the VE training (VET) application. The results from these groups were analysed to assess the relative effectiveness of each training method, their suitability for the application and any other added value.

The outcome of this study was a greater understanding of where possibly the application of VEs to the training process would be the most appropriate and where they would be the least. The most important fact highlighted was that VEs will not be a panacea for all types of training needs but rather will become a useful addition to the vast array of training methods already available to industry.

This paper describes the procedure in detail. Firstly suggestions are given for why in the near future, virtual reality could be used to provide effective training applications but why, at present, there is a need for careful consideration of all the issues involved before applying the technology. Then the study into each stage of specifying, developing and evaluating the VE training application is presented followed by discussion of the important points that were highlighted throughout this process. These are the points that should be considered when applying the VEs to training, as they have a strong influence on successful implementation.

Keywords: virtual reality, virtual environments, training applications, training methods, specification, development, evaluation.